Why must I suffer?

 Take up your cross  Mark 8: 31-end.

I have news! Last night, I had a vision! The Lord God Almighty spoke to me from the heavens. He said to me..."Rector", he said, "Rector - I have good news for you! I want to shower you and your congregation with abundant blessings. (Praise the Lord!) I am going to make yours a church of millionaires!  You are going to become so wealthy, so full of miracles, so full of powerful acts of God that the whole of Hampshire will flock to your doors!”

But then God said “For this vision to come to pass, your congregation has show that they trust me.  All they have to do is sign over the deeds to their houses to the church.  Then I will know that they trust me. Then I will bless them with riches from heaven. Then they will become millionaires, and all their problems will disappear". (Praise the Lord!)

                 So, my brothers and sisters, our Treasurer, Sister Sheena, will be standing by, at the ready, with forms for you to sign. Just sign over the deeds of your house to the church, and the Lord God Almighty, in the glorious name of Jesus, will give you your heart's desire! You want a Rolls Royce?  It’s yours in the name of Jesus!  You want a yacht?  Then claim it in the name of Jesus.  A-men, brothers and sisters. A-men!

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                 It's a bit frightening to think that there really are churches like that in the world.  They feed on people's misery. They sell the idea that God’s desire is to lift you up out of poverty, and to shower you with blessings.  Which, weirdly, actually IS God’s desire – but its God’s desire for ALL humanity, not just those who put their trust in God.  Charlatan churches and charlatan preachers have subtly warped God’s declared mission for the world.  They have warped that message into a personal religious formula.  They mis-quote and mis-use the Biblical text to their own warped ends.  They take a phrase of Jesus, like “ask and it shall be given unto you” as an invitation to ask for material things from God, instead of spiritual gifts.  They promise their followers than every dollar given to the church will be repaid by God up to to 10 times over!  And they trick their followers into making their preachers wealthy instead.  Hmmm…perhaps I’m in the wrong branch of the church?!

According to today’s Gospel text, such preachers are not the first to have got the wrong end of the stick. This text comes at a pivotal point in Mark's gospel. Up until this chapter, which comes right in the middle of the gospel, Jesus has been doing all sorts of amazing things. He’s been driving out evil spirits, healing and feeding multitudes; he’s even walked on water, and been transfigured by shining light on the mountain-top, in the company of Elijah and Moses. But now, in this passage, the whole trajectory of Jesus' life and ministry turns...it pivots, towards Jerusalem, and to the incomprehensible scandal of the Cross.

Verse 31: "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected...and be killed".(Mk 8:31). You can just imagine Peter's reaction can't you? Jesus has obviously gone nuts.  So Peter rebukes him. Matthew's gospel gives us the words that Mark doesn't record: "Never, Lord" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" (Matt 16:22)

But Jesus is adamant. He tells Peter off with really startling words: "Get behind me, Satan!" Pretty stern stuff.  And then Jesus goes on, in verse 33: "You are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things". In other words, "You are thinking like a man, but by now you should be starting to think as God thinks...to see things from God's perspective".

Anyone confronted with the idea of suffering might well react as Peter reacts. And yet, somehow, for reasons we might only guess at, suffering is an essential part of God's plan for humanity.  It's there. It was there for Jesus, who suffered on the cross.  Suffering, somehow, is a necessary, even essential part of the plan.  It’s not a popular message.  I doubt I’ll ever get rich by preaching it!

But it is precisely what we are confronted with in this text. Jesus had to suffer...it was part of the divine plan.  But Jesus says that suffering is part of the package for us too..."anyone who wants to follow me must deny himself, and take up his cross". (Mark 8:34)

But what did Jesus mean?  I once had a parishioner who had become very frail – let’s call her Lucy.   Lucy had spent all her life serving others through the church.  She had truly denied herself for others.  And yet, Lucy now found herself frail, bed-bound, and unable to serve others anymore. She even had to rely on others to help her to the bathroom.

Lucy’s body was failing her.  But her mind was as sharp as a razor.  She said something very profound to me.  She said "perhaps God is teaching me that there was still a bit of pride in me.  I’m learning that I need to let others serve me for a change. Perhaps I'm learning that in the end, we all must rely on God, and on other people.  That none of us can exist in isolation."

After a life-time of Christian faith, God was still teaching her something deep, something profound, about our need for each other, and for God.  There was, for Lucy at least, a purpose in her suffering.  She learned to gladly take up her cross, for what it would teach her and others.

Jesus own suffering clearly had purpose too. St Paul - and other great thinkers of the Church – all spent time trying to work out what that purpose was.  All that Mark says on the subject is that Jesus taught "that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering" (Mark 8:31).  Mark gives us no hint about why.  We continue to grapple with why Jesus had to suffer...just as we grapple with the reasons for our own suffering, or the suffering of martyrs across the centuries, and even now in other lands. 

Perhaps (and this is just a theory, like all the others) it was because only real suffering would have the power to draw all people to the Christ.  For three years, Jesus taught, and healed and fed multitudes and walked on water – but few people took much notice.  The Roman and Religious authorities, and the majority of the people did not change their behaviour or beliefs by one iota.  It was, perhaps, only by his willingness to suffer for his message that the world finally took notice. 

We continue to grapple - but we also continue to trust...that denying self, and taking up our own cross - participating in our own suffering and the suffering of the world is an essential, central message that is right at the heart of the Gospel.

May you come to know the power of God that is often revealed in suffering. May you come to know the power of denying self, and taking up the cross that is offered to you.  May you come to know that God's power is so often revealed in and through weakness - our own weakness, as well as the weakness of those we encounter.   And it’s alright…you don’t have to sign over the deeds of your house to Sister Sheena!  Amen.