Read 2 Samuel 4-5, Ezekiel 44, and Mark 8.
This devotional is about Mark 8.
This chapter of Mark’s gospel contains two miracles of Christ, one in vv. 1-10 and the other in verses 22-26. As with all miracles, these two miracles pointed to Jesus’s true identity as the Messiah, the Son of God, as Peter stated in verse 29.
After Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus clearly predicted his death and resurrection to the disciples (vv. 31-32a), but they did not accept his teaching (vv. 32b-33). Finally, in verses 34-38, Jesus explained the cost of discipleship, which is the focus of this devotional.
The audience for Jesus’s teaching on the cost of discipleship was “the crowd… along with his disciples” (v. 34). Jesus, then, is not disclosing some secret to a deeper life with him for only the spiritual elite. His teaching if for anyone who wants to know him and learn from him. That’s also indicated by the word “whoever” in verse 34.
The conditions for following Jesus as his disciple are stated in verse 34b. Jesus said that a would-be disciples “…must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” First on the list of conditions is deny yourself. To follow Jesus, you and I must deny ourselves. This means giving up the self-directed life we all want to live. Instead of choosing our own morals, our own values, and our own goals, following Jesus requires us to hand over control of our lives to him. When we do that, we recieve what his word tells us is moral and immoral, what is valuable and what is worthless, and what we should and should not live our lives to obtain. This is the first condition of discipleship–deny yourself.
The second condition a disciple must meet is to take up your cross, again from verse 34. I don’t think we can understand how offensive and scary this was to the people who originally heard these words. We see nice-looking crosses on church buildings and put gold crosses on chains around our necks. But the cross was an implement of torture and death. If you died on a cross, that meant you had crossed the Roman Empire, so they took your life publicly and painfully to deter others from doing what you did. This verse, though, says that one must “take up your cross….” In other words, you must carry it. The people who carried crosses were carrying them to their own crucifixion. They were already condemned to die, now they had to suffer the physical labor and social humiliation of carrying the thing that was going to be used to kill them. The image Jesus is drawing here is that, as his followers, we will be condemned by the world as well as ridiculed and avoided. Following Jesus is not a pathway to respectability and fame in this life; just the opposite is true.
Finally, the third condition for being a disciple of Jesus is “follow me.” We can’t literally follow him like Peter and the apostles did. But, as I suggested earlier, following Jesus means living according to his commands. It is trading in our agenda for God’s agenda–living a righteous life yourself while also calling others to come to Christ for salvation and live for him, too.
These are extreme conditions! But they are not arbitrary conditions; they are not extreme for the sake of being extreme. Verses 35-36 tell us why discipleship is so demanding when they say, “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?” Discipleship is demanding because it is a different path from this world. This world and, frankly, our own sinful impulses lead us toward selfishness; Jesus calls us to self-denial. This world tells us to seek to the approval and admiration of others; Jesus said, “take up your cross.” This world says, “follow your heart.” Jesus said, “Follow me.”
Salvation is a gift of God. It comes by his grace alone and is received by faith alone, not by trying to earn God’s favor with good works. But everyone that Jesus saves belongs to him and desires to follow him. That’s why Jesus said following him is the difference between saving your life or losing it in verse 35. It isn’t that you do these things to save yourself. Instead, these are the characteristics of those who come to Jesus for salvation.
What is the state of your discipleship? Are you following Jesus or following your heart?