After earning my Associate’s Degree from a local community college while living at home, I finally moved away from home for my junior year of college. Despite the fact that my sister was a fifth year senior at the same school, the move away from home into an entirely new environment was kinda scary. My sister connected me with a friend of hers who she thought I’d get along with, and he and I got assigned to be roommates along with another of his friends and two other random guys assigned to a six person suite. Living with people you’ve never met in an unfamiliar place is an interesting experience. In a lot of ways, you have to abandon the person you were in order to discover who you are in this new setting. You lose yourself in order to find yourself.

In our society, leaving home is a right of passage. In fact, it has become somewhat anathema. Young adults who continue to live with their parents after they’ve finished college or gotten married or have a child are often viewed as irresponsible or lazy, often berated or made fun of. We are defined by our individual achievements and talents. In our chapter for this week from Meeting Jesus on the Road, Campbell and Fohr write, “In the modern, Western world (and especially in the United States), the goal of life is to achieve personal autonomy; to discover or create one’s own, true self; and to be as independent as possible.” But that is not the case in many other places in the world. In many nations, people aren’t defined by their own identity but by their relationships, their family. It is not uncommon in those cultures to have three or four or even five generations of family members living in the same house. Life in those communities revolves around the family structure and the family identity. Israel, in the time of Jesus, would have been that sort of community.

Knowing this about Jesus’ community makes a huge impact on how we interpret the words of Jesus in Mark chapter 8. In the story we read, Jesus begins to teach his disciples about how the Son of Man will suffer and be rejected by the powers-that-be: the chief priests and scribes and elders. But not only that, the Son of Man will be killed, and then three days later, the Son of Man will be raised up from the dead. This is upsetting to Peter, who begins to rebuke Jesus. Peter doesn’t like the way that Jesus is talking about the Son of Man, because in Peter’s mind, Jesus as the Son of Man is the hero, and the hero is not supposed to die. And while Jesus does say that the Son of Man would rise again, I’m not sure that Peter sees that as an actual possibility. People don’t just die and then come back to life, especially not three days later. Peter doesn’t think that should happen to the Messiah, but he also doesn’t want that to happen to his friend. So, he begins to tell Jesus off for even mentioning those unpleasant things.

Jesus was never one to shy away from the truth though, and he knows that what he is saying matters. He can’t let Peter’s fear and worrying get in the way of what he is communicating, so he turns around and rebukes Peter, saying to him, in front of the whole group, “Get behind me, Satan (or accuser)! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.” Peter is not thinking about it from God’s perspective (which is pretty typical Peter behavior – and true for most of us as well). The way I understand this is that Peter was thinking too much about how this impacts himself. He was being selfish, which is a human trait, instead of being selfless, which is a divine trait. Peter wants Jesus to fit into his neat little box of who the Messiah should be, but Jesus just simply isn’t an in the box sort of guy. Jesus tells Peter, “Don’t let your selfishness get in the way of what needs to happen. Stop accusing others and start listening. Think about things from God’s perspective rather than your own.

And this is where I think it gets the most interesting for us. Jesus decides to teach Peter and the others about what it truly takes to be his disciples. He sees that they are resistant to fully devote themselves to him and his cause, yet he knows their devotion to him is critical. So he begins to tell them what following him is all about. He says, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” In our context, this directive has been spiritualized. We hear people talk about denying yourself being about giving up the things we want in order to draw closer to God. When we give up chocolate or red meat or social media for Lent, we are denying ourselves those pleasures in order to try to show ourselves (and others) that God matters more to us than our earthly comforts. We’ve also seen this concept of denying oneself used in harmful ways, to oppress and control others. Campbell and Fohr write, “These words have also been used in ways that harm rather than help. This is particularly clear when they have been applied to women. Giving up yourself for your husband or children has been held up as an ideal. This interpretation has also encouraged obedience to father or husband while ignoring one’s own needs, skills, and abilities.”

That would not have been the way Jesus’ disciples would have heard these words. For them, denying yourself meant leaving your family, your community, behind in order to give oneself to this new community being formed around Jesus. This would have not only been a personal sacrifice, but it would have had consequences for the whole family. It was a choice that would have torn at the very fabric of society. We see Jesus address this in a different interaction with Peter as well. Peter says to Jesus, ““Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Then Jesus responds, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”

Jesus not only calls us to deny ourselves, but adds that we are to take up our cross and follow him. In our context, “take up your cross” has become a symbol of any sort of hardship that we must endure for the sake of our faith. We get made fun of for the What Would Jesus Do bracelet we wear. “That’s my cross to bear.” We stay in an abusive relationship because the Bible says divorce is wrong. “That’s just my cross to bear.” But that interpretation holds up suffering as God’s will for us. And therefore, taking up our cross means passively enduring whatever suffering comes our way and even justifying the sins committed to cause that suffering. This interpretation opens the door for abusers to take what they want from us without a fight.

For Jesus’ disciples though, taking up your cross was not just a metaphorical concept. Crucifixions were not a thing of the past for them. They were a common practice of the Roman Empire. Crucifixions were a punishment reserved for who the Romans believed were the worst of the worst: the dangerous criminals, those who opposed the Empire, and those who were not citizens of Rome. Taking up your cross was a bigger thing than just enduring a little bit of suffering. It meant opposing the empire that enacted this cruel punishment, thus putting themselves in danger of facing that very fate.

Jesus calls us to these same things today. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, to choose to define ourselves by our relationship to Christ. It means that we are Christ-followers FIRST and everything else is secondary. Our only concern is our relationship to Jesus and living a life worthy of that calling. That means that our central allegiance is to Christ, not to our nation or our political party or our church or any other group that tries to control us. Those groups will undoubtedly shape us, but we should not find our true identity anywhere but in Jesus Christ. We are not American Christians or Evangelical Christians or Presbyterian Christians. We are simply Christians, and everything else in our lives is defined by that relationship. And the reality of making our relationship to Christ the defining characteristic of our identity is that our lives will stand in stark contrast to powers of the world. True allegiance to Christ puts us in opposition to the powers of this world. If it doesn’t, then our allegiance probably isn’t to Christ first.

Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?” If we choose the path of safety, the path of least resistance, the path of catering to the powers that be, we are sacrificing true life in Christ. But if we choose to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Christ, we will be living lives that oppose the powers of this world, we will be putting ourselves in harm’s way, but we will gain a life that is far greater. We will gain a life that is eternal, a life that is true and right. And that is worth far more than anything we might gain from catering to the powers of the world.

May we have the courage to follow Christ, even though it can be dangerous. May we have the strength to stand firm in the truth despite whatever pressure the world puts on us. And may we have love in our hearts for those who are most oppressed by the powers of this world, for that was how Jesus lived his life and that is the example we are called to follow. Amen.