Self-giving: the only surefire way to save your life

One interesting thing about today’s passage is where it falls in the Scripture. Earlier in Mark chapter 8, Jesus asked Peter who people said he was, and then, famously, who Peter himself thought he was. Peter responded without hesitation, “You are the messiah.” That’s when Jesus reveals to his disciples that his lot was to suffer and die—a far cry from what Peter expected of a Messiah. Peter pulls Jesus aside to correct him, and Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Knowing the full story as we do now, it’s easy to see Peter as somewhat foolish, working to distract Jesus from his true mission. Peter was waiting for the conqueror Jesus, but Jesus was instead going to be the sacrificial lamb—the antithesis of the conqueror many expected. In Peter’s defense, giving up your life to join a conqueror is understandable; giving up your life to follow a martyr is a much more risky endeavor.

Though it’s easy to see Peter as foolish, I wonder how often we also expect the conqueror Jesus instead of the martyr Jesus. I play in several of the worship bands, and it’s amazing how many worship songs use battle terminology. I grew up singing, “I’m in the Lord’s Army”—which is actually a leftover World War II propaganda song—but many worship songs today speak of God winning the battle, with some even talking of his empire overtaking all others. To be fair, there are numerous Bible passages that say the same thing, including some Psalms of praise. But I wonder how that reflects on our image of Jesus, and our image of ourselves reflecting Jesus.

I grew up in the Evangelical church, where battle methodology was the norm. We were always pushed to fight for our faith and defeat “the enemy,” who ironically usually wasn’t the devil, but was instead other people. Since joining the Methodist church in 2005, I’m very relieved that I’m no longer doing metaphorical combat drills, but I still see this methodology creep up in many parts of our lives.

If I ask whether we expect Jesus to be a conqueror or a martyr, I think we all know the correct answer; but if I ask whether we expect ourselves to be soldiers or martyrs, that’s a tougher question. We can proclaim Jesus to be a martyred savior, but if we’re marching on like soldiers fighting a war, it’s clear we’re going on with our lives as if Jesus is the conqueror. Many of us want to fight a war, and we want this world to be our battleground. But that’s not what Jesus did.

We so often look at everything around us as a battle to be won, where we are the force of good and the forces of evil must be defeated. But following Jesus’ example means choosing not to fight, and instead changing the world by giving and sacrificing so much of ourselves, as a whole group of people, that it hurts. As much as we want our bravery and ferocity to be what changes the world, what’s more likely to be remembered is our sacrifice and charity. That’s the part of Jesus’ message that takes true courage to accept.