Death Always Precedes Resurrection
Year B: Proper 19
Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross every day and follow me” is a call to do what he actually did. As the Way, Jesus invites us to follow his example step-by-step into the bosom of the Father. As the Truth, he shares with us, through participation in his death on the cross, the experience of the transpersonal aspect of the Father. As the Life, he leads us to unity with the Godhead beyond personal and impersonal relationships.
Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008.
Year B, Proper 19, September 15, 2024
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm: Psalm 116:1-8
Second Reading: James 3:1-12
Gospel: Mark 8:27-38
Sermon - Death Always Precedes Resurrection
After Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus began to teach very openly that he would be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. Those who were most respected, who embodied their religious traditions, and who preserved and reproduced Scripture would be the very ones to reject Jesus.
How can this be?
Anytime someone critiques a system that is corrupt, those who benefit from the system feel threatened. This is one way to view what happened in the ministry of Jesus.
The more Jesus challenged traditions, the more he went against cultural norms, and the more people he invited others to the table, the more the confusion and hatred towards him increased. He knew that his stand for the truth, for justice, and for Love would end in death.
This was all too much for Peter, so he took Jesus aside and rebuked him. Jesus’s response may seem harsh, but it was necessary to snuff out any hopes of violent revolution or self defense. Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mark 8:33).
Jesus wants know part in a kingdom, glory, or power (themes mentioned at the end of this passage) without self-sacrifice on the Cross.
Resurrection, the hope of the prophets, can’t come without death.
Mark explained,
He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Mark 8:34–37
If we don’t die we can’t come alive.
We must die to our ego.
We must die to our bad habits.
We must die to our old self.
We must die to “the sin that so easily besets us.”
Because these thing are standing in our way of being truly ourselves and living life to the fullest.
If we want to be more loving, more peaceful, more joyful, then we must die to the flesh and come alive in the Spirit.
We can see this in our spiritual lives, but we can also see this in our “secular lives,” but the division between the two fades away when you experience this kind of death and resurrection with Jesus.
There may be a breakup that needs to happen. You might have to have a difficult conversation with your boss. You may have to break a habit you’ve had for thirty years.
But these sorts of “deaths” can lead to new life, a life you know you could have if you would take that difficult first step.
We may also see this as a congregation.
What changes are not being made in the name of comfort? What outreach and service isn’t being done? What tough conversations are we avoiding?
Jesus invites us into a new life, a life that is greater than if one won the whole world, but this life starts with death, and the Cross is not pretty.
What do you need to die to in your life right now in order to really come alive?
Second Reading: Taming the Tongue
In James 3:1-12, James warns his audience of the importance of taking care of what they say. It is very easy to spew hatred out of the same mouth with which we praise God.
James wrote, “With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth comes a blessing and a curse. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so” (James 3:9–10).
I know this is a tough lesson, but we have to watch what we say. I’m not talking about curse words or euphemisms or anything like that; I’m talking about what we say about and to each other. Do we gossip? Do we complain about others to each other rather than talking to the person with whom we have a problem?
Notice that James focuses on more than just brothers and sisters in Christ; he says we shouldn’t curse anyone made in the likeness of God.
Does this include that annoying person at work or that micromanaging boss? Does this include celebrities or politicians? Does this include strangers, referees, or service workers?
Our conduct matters because our conduct is a reflection of Christ. This does not mean that we will always be perfect, but it does mean that we need to learn how to “bridle our tongue” as best we can. We are called to love God and love our neighbors; one cannot exist without the other. To love God is to love our neighbors, and to love “the least of these” is to love Christ himself. In the same way, though, to curse our neighbors is to curse the One who created our neighbors in his image.
“Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh” (James 3:11–12).
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