Saving or losing life Mark8:31-38

Personal preparation

Main message

Whoever loses his / her life for Jesus and follows Him will save his / her life.

Structure

1. Divine or human (v. 31-33)

2. The call to follow (v. 34-38)

3. Saying yes to Jesus wholeheartedly (v. 34)

4. To what do I devote myself? (v. 35)

5. A great price (v. 36-37)

6. A great division (v. 38)

Observation, interpretation

Context: Jesus announces His death and resurrection for the first time. A new epoch begins. The journey to Jerusalem - and also to the cross - has thus begun.

31-34 The perspective widens from v. 31 to v. 34. First, there is Jesus

(v. 31), then Jesus and Peter (v. 32), then Jesus and the disciples

(v. 33), and later on Jesus and the people (v. 34). This is chararcteristic of Jesus. He begins with the individual, then teaches the disiciples and later wants to reach the entire people.

31 Jesus predicts His suffering. He deliberately / consciously goes to His death. He is not a mere victim of a miscarriage of justice but takes up the cross in obedience to God's will. His death is no coincidence; His death is necessary.

32 Jesus speaks openly about God's will and God's plans. Peter's advice is meant well but is wrong from God's point of view (it is human and not divine).

33 Jesus turns to His disciples and speaks to Peter. Thus, He makes it clear that all of them are tempted to argue like Peter.

Jesus reacts so harshly because the devil is tempting Him maliciously here. In the desert, the devil tempted Him using God's Word (Mark 4); now he uses the word of a friend to tempt Him.

With unwavering determination Jesus goes to Jerusalem. The roughness is more for His own benefit than directed at the disciples. Jesus knows that His entire mission is at stake here.

35 We always devote ourselves to something, we always lose our life for something. We have to ask, however, if something is important enough so that it is worth our attention.

38 God wants to lead us into glory. However, in the end there will be no wedding between heaven and hell but "a great divorce"

(C. S. Lewis). Which side of the division we will be on is forever decided during our lifetime.

Additional comments

31 He must suffer a lot. In the New Testament this Greek word dei hints at a divine necessity. God's salvation plan has to be fulfilled. Although we do not want to take our sins seriously, God takes them seriously and lays them upon Jesus.

rejected. Before Jesus was physically destroyed, he was morally destroyed. He will be despised. He will be thrown aside like a useless building stone (rejected) (Psalms 118:22).

elders. They are the leaders of the lay nobility who do not belong to the families of the priests.

chief priests. They rule the Sanhedrin = High Council.

Teachers of the Law. They are experts in law and theology. These three groups belong to the Sanhedrin. They represent the religious and intellectual ruling authority in Israel.

32 Peter failed - as his people - because of Isaiah 53, a mysterious chapter of the Old Testament dealing with something that had neither been told nor heard of before: The Messiah will be a servant, dispised and rejected by men, He will take up our infirmities, He will be pierced for our transgressions, the punishment for sin will be on Him. Even if human thinking is humane and devout, it does not automatically have to be divine.

34 deny means saying no, give something up, break off a relationship. The contrary would be to receive.

Saying no results in saying yes to my Creator and Saviour and does not stand for a battle against oneself or a kind of ascetic way of life; it means following Jesus whatever happens and saying no to everything that hinders Jesus' work in my life and negates His glory.

taking up the cross. This does not mean physical or emotional pain as such. It means acceptance of the pain that cannot really be understood by anyone - except Jesus. Jesus speaks of disciples who are seeking nothing but God's will. The cross stands for suffering for Jesus' sake, being despised for Jesus' sake. The expression take up his cross was a common expression describing the Zealots' (= more radical Jewish rebels) fight against the Ro­mans. The Zealots led a dangerous life because the Roman punishment for these rebels was crucifixion.

35 Whoever clings to his / her life and is not willing to give his / her life to the Creator and Redeemer will lose it.

36-37 These verses warn of the deceitfulness of wealth (4:19; cf. 10:34), and thus, they warn as well of striving for power, respect, success, etc.

Whoever concentrates on him / herself is, despite a seeming freedom, slave to his / her own desires. No one will be good enough on the Last Day of Judgement to be able to buy his / her freedom or enter into fellowship and family with God.

38 ashamed of Jesus, this means to deny Jesus (Matthew 10:33; Luke 12:9), to separate from Jesus. To be ashamed relates to our feelings that cause us to deny Him; we are not brave enough to openly profess our faith in Jesus.

Son of Man. This is Jesus Himself.

Group discussion

Introduction

Before announcing the Bible text, discuss the following questions: What are my goals in life? What are my dreams and desires? What am I willing to give in order to reach these goals, fulfil these dreams, satisfy these desires? After 5 to 10 minutes, go on to study the text. Today we read a text that questions the disciples and our own goals. We will discuss the question: What does it means to follow Jesus.

Questions

1. Jesus says that He must suffer (v. 31). What motives do you think He had for this? Why did He speak about this?

2. What was Peter's motivations in contradicting Jesus?

3. What does following Jesus mean to the disciples? What do followers of Jesus win and / or lose?

4. What does it mean to deny oneself? Does Jesus call us to lead a life of asceticism and self denial?

Application

1. Peter took Jesus aside (v.32). Which people or arguments and thoughts hinder us when we are asked to accept God's ways?
2. You do not have in mind the things of God (v.33). Why do we often find it hard to want and to do things what God wants us to do?
3. Gain or lose. The Bible says that we will either be winners or losers.

1.
1. Remember the initial question: What do I wish to accomplish in my life? What are my perspectives and goals?
2. What do I lose, what do I gain when I follow Jesus?

1. What does it mean to follow Jesus? What encourages me to follow Jesus, what do I

fear?

Important: If need be, you can mention the prayer on page 160 (Appendix).

Closing remarks

In today's study, we saw how Jesus challenged His disciples to deny themselves (let go of self-centredness) and to follow Jesus. As an example of this kind of attitude, in the next Bible study we will see a woman who gave "her best" to Jesus.