The Second Sunday in Lent March
1, 2015
Mark 8:31-38 The
Stigma of the Cross
Dear fellow redeemed,
Some deaths are simply too awful to talk about.
* That’s how some
Christians feel who lose a loved one to suicide.
They don’t want
to talk about the death of their mother or son or sister because of the
stigma that’s associated with a suicide.
* It’s a stigma
that’s created largely out of fear. People hear that a given acquaintance has
taken his life and they conclude, “No way could this
happen in my family!”
* They determine
they’re safe if they can judge that something was very off about this
person. “He must
have been crazy!” “He came from a
dysfunctional family!”
“He was a bad
person!”
* Suicide’s stigma is
also created out of ignorance.
People lack an
understanding of depression and mental illness and object, “So, he was
suffering from a bad case of the blues! That’s no excuse for killing yourself!”
* Some even accuse
the suicide committing an unforgivable sin, suggesting, “he wasn’t
trusting
God to get him through his difficulties. He can only be in hell!”
* Suicide’s stigma
is so strong that people would rather not hear the truth.
The truth is,
suicide has nothing to do with “The blues”.
* This loved wasn’t
crazy. He was ill.
He wasn’t merely
weak. He was suffering from a chronic
case of hopelessness.
Yes, he was a
sinner. But he’s also forgiven!
When death seems awful, it develops a stigma that prevents people
from hearing the truth.
* That’s what
happened in the case of Peter. Imagine
what was going through his mind.
The
disciple’s best friend and master had just told them he was going to suffer
many things,
be rejected and finally die a shameful death.
* A few days later Jesus would spell it out for them. He’d die by crucifixion.
Well, there was no other death branded with a greater
stigma. According to Jewish civil
law, a hanged man was cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23)
He was going to hell!
* No
wonder Peter “took (the Lord) aside and
began to rebuke him.”
“You’re
the Christ! How could you even imagine
such shame coming upon you?!”
* But Peter should
have known better than to scold his Lord!
Right?
Then again we don’t like
being stigmatized any more than the twelve.
* “What is it about
the Christian faith” we complain, “that gets under people’s skin?”
“Christ paid for
my sins. He’s taken all my guilt
away! It’s a wonderful belief!”
“So why are
people judging me as though I’m the most despicable creature on earth?”
1 I’ve been informed if I confess my faith at work I could be
disciplined.
2 If I want an A in this course I must endorse what’s
politically correct.
3 If I don’t keep their company, laugh at their jokes, and
brag about the same depraved
pastimes I’ll be suspect.
4 I can’t even admit I love going to church every Sunday; I’m
not ashamed of the Gospel!
* “Jesus has told me
he’s my Savior. So why is it that the
only way I can avoid being
disgraced is if I
pretend he doesn’t exist?”
* And you see what
we’ve done? We’ve set up Christianity
as a religion that would spare
us of shame; of being stigmatized.
* We’re like Peter.
One moment our faith is out there for everyone to see. You’re the Christ!
And the next moment, we’re holding Christ accountable for
the fact that we’re nothing to
the world and neither is he.
So how does Christ respond to our objections?
Peter is definitely not standing alone when he receives the Lord’s
rebuke.
* “Get behind Me, Satan!” Jesus exclaims . . .
“You are not setting your
mind on the things of God, but the things of man.”
* Setting
our minds on the things of man is to expect Christ to make this life more
comfortable. To think as man is to have but one goal: leave this
world a better place,
leave this world having made a mark.
Setting our mind on the things of God, however, is to promote not
ourselves but Christ crucified.
* It’s
very easy to forget this.
As we like to take the shame out of life, we like to take
the shame out of death.
* I’m pretty sure
that’s what the disciples had in mind when Christ gave this dismal forecast
about his future. They
didn’t mind Jesus talking about the future, as long as they
had a say in it.
* When Christ spilled it to them that he’d suffer death by
crucifixion their reaction was one.
We speak of something so awful!
The one nailed to
a cross, as we said, was considered to be cursed, damned by God!”
* There was no greater humiliation! The Lord didn’t deserve
that!
The disciples remind us of some in the Church today who are
embarrassed by the doctrine of the
atonement; that Christ paid for our sin by shedding his blood on
the cross.
* You and I may be convinced this was necessary, because God
demands that a penalty be
given for every sin. But
some are very uncomfortable with this doctrine.
* In fact, according to some pastors and theologians,
emphasizing that Jesus must die for
us, is to bring shame and disgrace upon the Christian faith.
* You
see, we’re making God out to be a sort of cold-hearted executioner who receives
pleasure at the expense of someone else’s pain and suffering.
And he won’t be satisfied unless it’s the most inhumane
form of torment imaginable.
* So
they’re trying to take the shame out of Christ’s death.
They’re trying to remove the stigma from his cross.
* But what they’ve shown us is they’re ashamed of the central
teaching of the Bible.
Maybe they need to reexamine those words, “Get behind me, Satan!”
* Why would Jesus
say this? It’s because of what Peter was
suggesting: that Jesus didn’t
need to offer his life as a payment for man’s sins.
* Peter was sounding
like some of today’s theologians who want to rid their religion of its
stigma. And he needed to take to heart the words of
Christ.
“For whoever is ashamed of me and my words . . . of him will the Son
of Man also be
ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels.”
Certainly, there are times we want to spare people of unjust
stigma and shame.
1 Someone is mocked because he’s handicapped.
2 A parishioner is shunned because of his divorce, despite the
nature of the divorce.
3 A family member is avoided, because he’s suffering from
dementia.
4 An acquaintance is pitied because he’s depressed or has P.T.S.D.
* This last week we
learned of the guilty verdict in the Chris Kyle murder trial.
The prosecution
declared Eddie Routh to be a troubled drug dealer who knew right from
wrong, whereas
the defense said he should be found “not guilty” by reason of insanity.
* Without expressing
any personal view of the verdict, what occurs to me is this:
This trial isn’t
presenting any favors to those stigmatized by P.T.S.D.
* You see, just
because you know the difference between right and wrong doesn’t mean you
are rational and
incapable of doing something you’ll later regret.
No one appreciates being stigmatized when there’s no cause.
* So we’re surprised
that Christ accepts this stigma.
He’s certainly
not doing himself any favors.
* People are
offended at the idea he should die on the cross to deliver us from our sin.
“For the message of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Cor. 1:18).
* Then again, “to us who are being saved” St.
Paul continues, “it is the power of God.”
By the shameful
stigma Christ endured for us, we are saved.
* That’s why we
can accept the cross’s stigma when people hate us because of Christ.
You see the cross
still saves, as surely as its message is heard and seen in our lives.
Now, maybe you’re thinking the liberal views of a few far out
theologians is not going to effect
how we view the death of our Savior.
* That may be.
But we see a very
similar attitude in our culture today having to do with death in general.
* Of
growing popularity is the belief that people have the right to die when their
pain and
suffering reach a certain level.
They’ll call it death with dignity or a “beautiful death.”
* There are now five states in our country which allow
assisted suicide.
Brittany Maynard, if you recall that name, is just one of
more than 750 people in Oregon
who’s died by lethal dose since 1997.
* The claim is that they’re simply trying express some
compassion for the suffering.
The truth is, in a culture where people want to remain in
charge at all costs; where God has
no role in life and death matters, people can’t accept their own
cross any more than they
accept Christ’s.
And that has some very real implications for Christians.
* Jesus declares, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow
me.”
* To
deny ourselves is to let our Lord be in charge.
It’s to set our mind on the things of God rather than the
things of man.
* This we may easily predict therefore. If the right to death movement gains momentum,
as
I’m sure it will, this will surely be our cross to bear: watching
Christian loved ones suffer for
perhaps long periods of time, as others are given the easy way
out; being put to sleep
painlessly and with barely any effort.
* This will be our
cross: to let God and not man determine the when and how of our death.
So how do we answer those who claim that our view, the
Christian view, lacks compassion for
the suffering? Can we
Christians speak of a “beautiful death”?
* What about when
simply stepping into that hospital room causes us to cringe?
We barely recognize our loved one because of their weight
loss or the terrible pain
written all over their face. It’s so intense, they’re not
even aware of who’s holding their
hand. They have but
one focus; they’re just waiting to die.
* How can we speak of death, in such cases, as being
beautiful?
Well, let me answer that by asking a different question.
* Have we been
shamed by the death of twenty-one Egyptian Christians by Isis terrorists?
I don’t mean to
ask whether these murders were shameful.
Most certainly they were!
* But were the deaths
of these men shameful, having been martyred for their Christian
faith? No they were
not. In fact, a more apt description
would be to call them beautiful.
* Those who’d call
them shameful and then describe the assisted suicide as beautiful have it
backwards. Shameful
is every death of those without faith in Christ, those ashamed of
the Gospel. However, beautiful is the death of everyone
professing faith in Christ and his
cross.
Let me get a little more specific.
* What’s beautiful
is the Christian who senses his time in this world is drawing to a close,
and he’s ready. In
fact he’s eager, for he’s not simply waiting to die; he waiting to live.
1 This
is beautiful, that even in his pain and helplessness, he can focus on the
Gospel.
He can bring to mind his Savior who “for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame” (Hebrews
12:2).
2 This is beautiful to be thinking these thoughts as he’s
called home:
God was not
ashamed to become one of us.
He was not
ashamed to endure the sigma of the cross to deliver us from eternal
suffering.
3 This is beautiful that when people witness our discomfort,
the Lord can work through our
faith, directing
them to the saving Gospel of our Lord.
4 And this is beautiful; to consider the final result.
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes” John writes.
(And) there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain”(Revelation 21:4).
Do you know where the word “stigma” comes from?
* It’s derived from
the Greek word for “mark”, as when St. Paul writes the Galatians,
“from now on let no one cause me trouble,
for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.“
* St. Paul saw his stigma of the cross
differently than some.
He’d been through it all. He had
been beat, stoned, persecuted for Christ.
And he bore the marks, the stigma,
to prove it.
It’s something can all expect.
* Some of us have been stigmatized by divorce, a handicap of sorts, by our race or by
mental illness or
a family suicide. But virtually all of
us have been stigmatized because
of our love for Christ and his cross.
* We may also expect
we’ll never completely remove these stigmas from our life.
But we overcome them when we let Scripture remind us that
shame brings honor.
* And so it will be when we endure that final cross.
When death seems like a crying shame because it comes
this slow or that fast, or with
this or that much misery or pain, we simply remember the shame
Christ received for us.
* The Stigma of the Cross is our sin which sentenced
Jesus to the cross.
Christ was stigmatized by sin so that we might be delivered
of sin.
* Yes. “God
shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And that’s
definitely not too awful to talk about. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
and the life he promises us.
Amen.
