THE WAY DOWN IS THE WAY UP
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to rlfbe my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38
The disciples desperately needed a paradigm shift to give them the perspective and insight into the kingdom of God that would grasp the true nature of the enemy. Like the Pharisees, they were still too engrossed in their opposition to Roman occupation and their passion to be an independent nation once again to realise that a far more dangerous enemy lurked inside their own hearts, the yetzer harah (the evil eye…a figure of speech meaning the inborn selfishness that only cares for number one) that was traitor to the rule of God.
Why did what Jesus had to say about suffering and submission to His Lordship cut across their way of thinking? It would take something as gruesome and violent as His own submission to death at the hands of the powers of darkness to transform their understanding. His victory over Satan and the dominion of darkness through the resurrection, and the divine energy of the Holy Spirit soaking and saturating their beings would transform their minds and bring them into ECHAD – unity – with Himself and His way. At this point, His words were just seeds, falling into unproductive soil and lying dormant until the power of the Holy Spirit triggered growth and bore fruit in their lives.
Jesus was calling them back to the place where Adam and Eve were before they chose their way over submission to God’s way. Now Jesus was demanding that they set themselves aside completely and yield their loyalty, love and obedience exclusively to Him. Discipleship demands a complete handover of ownership from self to Jesus. He said that no-one can serve two masters. Any master other than Him automatically cancels out His ownership.
This loyalty and obedience to Him opens the disciple to the same kind of rejection and persecution He received but this is a part of the purifying process that leads to true sonship. Suffering purges the heart from self and fosters humility and trust in the God who is always here – Emmanuel. This is the ECHAD that shows the world that Jesus is who He said He is, the Christ, Son of the living God.