Mark 14.32-52
Artists sometimes leave their a little picture within their paintings
as a comic hint as to their identity: an acorn or a little mouse as their trademark.
If you are watching an Alfred Hitchcock film this holiday
look out for the great man himself appearing in a little part in his own movie.
Mel Gibson did something similar in his recent film
with his being the hand that drives the nails into Jesus on the cross
It is most likely that this strange episode in the arrest of Jesus
as recorded by Mark of the young man running away naked
is the gospel writer's way of putting his trademark on the gospel.
'I was that young man. I was there and look at the way I messed up.'
Can you think of the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?
We'll not ask for personal examples.
Just think of Mr Bean at the swimming pool. He jumps off the high board
and loses his swimming shorts. Oh dear!
The reason we find that so funny is that we secretly fear it might happen to us.
In fact it did happen to Mark.
It's a fair reconstruction that he was a teenager of parents friendly to Jesus.
The Last Supper may have been held in their house.
Young Mark is supposed to be in bed but he listens to the murmur of voices
of Jesus and his friends in the upper room.
They leave for the garden of Gethsemane and he is drawn to follow,
at a distance, just wearing his bed sheet around him.
Perhaps he gets close enough to hear Jesus in his agonised prayer
while the disciples are asleep.
Then, calamity! The confusion of the arrest; Judas' betraying kiss,
the scuffle; the brave disciples run for it and in the round up
the guards spy this white sheet in the gloom and make a grab.
But he is young enough and small enough to wriggle out and run.
but it's his Mr Bean moment - and you wonder how long it took him to get home
and what he said to his mother about the white sheet.
I love this detail in the story because it's so real.
If the gospel writer had been writing this up a century later about someone else
he might have left that embarrassing detail out
because it wouldn't look well, people wouldn't be impressed.
You know the way we like missionary speakers
to bring us good news, success stories.
Trouble is, any missionary will tell you, there can be years without success
times of toil and struggle and embarrassing failure.
What Mark is saying to us is that he was there, he saw it happen
and neither he nor Peter nor any of the followers of Jesus
behaved with great glamour and spiritual glitz.
They messed up and Mark, is candid about his Mr Bean moment
and it matches with what we know from the book of Acts and the letters
about the rest of his life serving Jesus.
Mark knew what failure was.
I have a book here about Mark called 'The Failure File'.
Hugh Osgood builds on the scraps of information about Mark
to give a reasonable account of the ups and downs of his life
this episode in the garden, the desertion of Paul on a mission trip,
the row between Paul and Barnabas over Mark's future
the eventual reconciliation between Paul and Mark
(Ask me for the bible references or to borrow the book).
Somebody has said failure is the unmentionable F word among Christians.
We're supposed to be successful. We're supposed to have the answers
to have got the victory, to be effective in serving Christ and never to have rows.
But embarrassing moments like Mark's in the garden
or the sleep of the disciples while Jesus prayed
say to us that failure has always been part of a Christian's experience
or that we do not fully understand what it means to live in the grace of God
until we understand the complete failure of those first disciples
* they boasted that they wouldn't desert him
* they bickered about who should have first place
* they flailed about cutting off someone's ear
* they ran away and one ran away naked
In spite of all of that or because of it?
Jesus patiently and without complaint went to the cross
to die not for saintly, spiritual successes
who always prayed well and witnessed courageously
and did everything wonderfully well
but he went to the cross to die for sinners like them and like you and me.
Lord, we bring you our embarrassing moments, our failures
the things we wish we could do differently if we could do them again our failures in holiness, in love, in witness and service
and the root of our sinful within us of which these are sad examples
We thank you that none of the stupidity of your friends
stopped you from your course
and may it be like Mark however much we continue to fail
we will keep on looking to you and find restoration in you
that deep comfort of your love
wherein while we were still sinners Christ died for us
Mark 15.21-39
I just bet that when Mark's account was read for the very first time
people listening in the fellowship nudged each other
perhaps even Alexander and Rufus turned to each other
when their names were read out.
'He's talking about our Dad.' 'He's the one who carried the cross.'
Maybe they sat up that bit straighter,
pleased that Mark had made the personal connexion.
I'm sure people crowded around afterwards asking for details.
'Did your father ever talk about it much? It must have had a big impact on him.'
I want to make simply two points here and then talk about our cross carrying.
The first is that Simon was not a volunteer,
he was compelled to do this for Jesus
He was not even among the followers of Jesus at that point.
He happened to be passing by on his way in from the country
and they forced him to carry the cross.
Who knows what he thought as he trudged along?
Was he full of pity for this beaten man who was too weak to carry it for himself?
Maybe he was annoyed and frightened at being picked upon.
Let's not give Simon too much credit. You don't argue with Roman soldiers.
But the other point is that something happened that day which certainly affected
his sons Alexander and Rufus.
By the time Mark was writing down this story they were believers in Jesus,
probably members of the church for which Mark first wrote the gospel
or at least well known in that circle.
Somebody had come to Alexander and Rufus
and said, 'Your Dad was forced to carry the cross for Jesus'
but are you willing to carry your own cross now?
And they had said yes. We will carry a cross for Christ.
Let's look at what Mark wrote in c 8. 34
It's just after Jesus has told his disciples
that he must suffer and rise again in Jerusalem
and rebukes Peter who cannot accept that
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me.
35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his 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 him
when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
If the first meaning of the cross is that Jesus died to forgive us
in all our sin and failure and every kind of shameful and embarrassing moment
the second meaning of the cross is that we should be willing to suffer WITH him
who suffered FOR us.
We have to find a new identity in Jesus the crucified
and bear the stigma of being his followers.
And that is not so easy, We cannot really say we'll take up our cross
but then try to have a customised one a kind of new cross,
relevant to today maybe an unobtrusive cross, a folding type
so that you could stick it under your jacket in case people would be offended
of course no blood , that's much too upsetting
But right from that day when Peter strongly objected
to the idea of Jesus dying on a cross
the cross has been uncomfortable.
People have constantly tried to sanitise it, tone it down
make it a nice decoration, a comforting object.
But it is really nothing of the sort.
When you deny yourself and take up the cross and follow Jesus
you are basically saying that you have no rights
and you have no righteousness.
We may think we can claim some rights following Jesus but we have no right to!
When we commit ourselves to Jesus, we hand over all our rights
our right to a comfortable lifestyle, to people's good opinion
our right to an easy acceptance of other beliefs and practices
our right to remain silent, so to speak, when Jesus is being criticised
or when it may be costly to speak out on behalf of others being oppressed.
We have no rights of our own, following Jesus
and we have no righteousness of our own.
To carry the cross says that we live each moment
in the power of what Jesus has done for us, not what we do for him.
The Christians in Galatia were being deceived into a way of life
where their peace with God would depend on them doing certain things
living like good Jews, observing the Old Testament law
keeping the rules. Keeping in with others who kept the rules
and keeping their distance from those who didn't keep the rules.
Paul wrote passionately to them to say don't let Jesus have died in vain.
Let him be your only righteousness,
his death your only claim for peace with God, not any thing you do.
(Galatians 2.16,20-21)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God,
for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!'
In that verse in Galatians
Paul sums up the discomfort and the comfort of carrying the cross
'I have been crucified in Christ ... Christ lives in me'
Carrying the cross should not be seen as making us miserable
but it will make us suffer.
*
Suffer people's contempt because we identify with the meekness of Jesus
* Perhaps suffer their active hatred because we are identified with Jesus
* Suffer a struggle with our own sinful nature that doesn't want to give up
either our rights or our righteousness
* Suffer the pain of seeming failure in mission, as people go their own way
and refuse to accept the good news that Jesus died for them
* suffer the pain of failure to live as we know we should
giving in to weakness, to fear, to bitterness
Carrying the cross is uncomfortable
I wonder did Simon of Cyrene ever tell people
that the discomfort of that first Good Friday
carrying the cross a mile or so was really nothing to the discomfort
of having to carry your cross all the time?
Lord, show us the strong deep comfort of the cross.
It cuts across all shame and failure;
it can speak of forgiveness and full restoration
because the blood of Christ can cleanse from all unrighteousness
But Lord let us not flinch from the discomfort of going the way of Christ crucified
Forgive us if we have tried to customise a cross for our own needs
to sanitise it and make it a little less uncomfortable.
Thank you for the example of Mark and Alexander and Rufus
and all the ordinary Christians down through the ages
who have taken up their cross every day and followed you
identifying with you
And we look to that gathering one day
when with them we shall see the head that once was crowned with thorns
now crowned with glory
May that hope be part of our comfort in carrying the cross now.
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