Mark 8:31-38

Unashamed of the Cross

2nd Sunday in Lent

March 1, 2015

How quickly something goes from good to bad.  Peter had just answered Jesus’ question about whom the disciples say that He is.  He answers correctly, in faith stating, “You are the Christ.”  And then he turns around at the first opportunity to correct Jesus on what this means and what this looks like.  Peter will not accept a suffering Christ until after the resurrection.  We too live after the resurrection, yet still the fears  and doubts plague us.

How easy it is for us to be like Peter.  How quickly we are to say, “I believe in Jesus,” then want to turn around and contradict Him in what He says.  We make bold statements, but do when push comes to shove, do we live up to it?  All too often, we don’t want a Jesus whose word means what He says.  We don’t want a Jesus who doesn’t give any wiggle room when it comes to sin. We don’t want a Jesus who doesn’t fit our idea of what He ought to be.  When it comes down to it, this is a temptation for all us, and one in which we all too often fall into sin because of.

Why? What causes us to want to pick and choose what to believe about Jesus?  What causes us to keep your mouths shut about Him when someone says something that is wrong or misrepresenting Him or His church? What causes us to avoid looking someone in the eye, of getting that uncomfortable feeling in our gut, of just wanting to run and hide from the situation?

Shame. Shame is often at the heart of this issue.  In a world where sin is excused and shame over that sin is downplayed in the name of tolerance and progress, shame is heaped upon those who would follow Christ.  And we fear it.  We fear the scorn, the weird looks, the gossip.  What if they don’t like me? What if they stop talking to me? What if they lose their friendship, the relationship with family? 

But there’s more.  We try to justify ourselves by thinking, “I’m not ashamed of Christ and of being a Christian, I’m just avoiding problems by not speaking up.  It’s not that I’m anticipating my own shame or that passed on to another generation, I’m just pretending I don’t really understand what is going on, and it’s really none of my business.  Fear of being ashamed leads us to put our mind on the things of man, not upon the things of God. Jesus’ words are pretty straight forward here, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” The shame of hell is far worse than that of man.

Repent.  For Jesus warns that He has come to suffer, die, and rise, and that all who believe in Him must carry the cross.  The temptation is always there to avoid the worldly shame of the cross.  Repent of your shame of Jesus, for even this He has taken upon Himself. He has suffered many things and rejection by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and was killed, but after three days He rose again, destroying the power of the cause of shame.  For the shame of our sins, for the shame that we feel and that we don’t, but shouldn’t, Jesus takes the cross.  Jesus suffered for our salvation and has overcome the temptations of the flesh, the sinful world, and the devil.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you have no need to be ashamed.  This adulterous and sinful generation is temporary and fleeting.  Adam and Eve were naked in the garden and they were not ashamed. Why? Because there was no sin. So too Abraham was called by God to walk before Him, and be blameless.  We too stand before God, bearing naked all our thoughts, words, and deeds. We too, like Adam and Eve, like Abraham, like all the saints of God who have gone before us, can stand unashamed, for our nakedness is clothed in the robe of Christ’s righteousness.  We need no shame because we have no blame, for it was all laid upon Him. 

Isaiah 53:3, 5, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not… But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.”

The shame of our sinfulness, of our wavering, of our own Peter like-rebuke toward Christ when His Word says something we don’t like, is forgiven. We stand unashamed of the Gospel.  Unashamed to follow a crucified Christ.  Unashamed to serve one another, to be in submission to one another.  Unashamed of denying ourselves, denying our sinful desires, denying a world which is hostile to Christ and therefore is hostile to us.  Unashamed of whatever suffering and death we face for our Savior, who suffered and died in our place.  Because of this, unashamed to take up the burden of the cross - proclaiming the Good News to a world who often doesn’t want to know about Jesus.  Facing the shame of the world not with pride, but with humbleness, not with wavering, but by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We can go through life, confident in St. Paul’s words to young Timothy in his first letter, 1:12.  “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”