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shame_and_suffering.md

Shame and Suffering

Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
Will Fitzgerald
March 8, 2009
Mark 8:31-38

This passage is the great turning point in the gospel story; up until this point, things have been building up, and now we start towards the denouement of Jesus's death and resurrection. Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was, and their declaration--specifically, Peter's declaration--seems to be a pivot for Jesus, for "then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again." Mark in these words sums up the rest of his gospel's story Note, by the way, that Mark's less vigorous depiction of the resurrection events--which one could take to indicate that he didn't have a resurrection in mind--are put to rest as we read these words.

And I wish I could tell you that the turning point is that things will get better and better for Jesus and his disciples, for you, but of course I cannot. Jesus says rather that following him leads to similar ends to his. This "gospel," this "good news," this "life" he preaches leads to suffering and death.

And, one wants to ask, why is this? What is it about following Jesus that leads not to a life of ease, but death and suffering? And secondly, is Jesus telling all in this assessment, or is there more to the story?

First, why does accepting the good news lead to a bad life? In this passage, Jesus explicitly explains why, I think. Jesus says that he was living in a "adulterous and sinful generation." He is surely echoing Hosea here, who compared Israel to a lustful whore seeking after foreign gods. But I think Jesus is declaring that unfaithfulness was a fundamental feature of the generation in which he lived. Families, women, men, whole nations--they were unfaithful to God and unfaithful to one another. And unfaithfulness is just another word for betrayal. To try to live faithfully in a world of betrayers--how could this not lead to suffering and pain?

And if Jesus could say of his place and generation that they were adulterous and sinful, how much more could we say it of ours. The zeal for God among the people of the Israel of his time would put the most zealous Christian of today to shame--at least among the people of my acquaintance, and I don't think I'll exept the present company. The pious scribe would be expending amazing energy into better understanding how to follow God's ways in every detail, and the pious Pharisee would be trying to do so. The elders and priests poured out their lives for the sake of God. And yet--these people were as human as I, and even though they were bound by religious laws that most people today would deride as fanatical, they betrayed God and one another; they betrayed Jesus into the hands of the political powers, and they would likewise betray Jesus's followers. And if this were true then, how much more is it true today?

Jesus declares, I think, that this is the human condition: we will cause one another to suffer because we will betray one another. If you think otherwise, if you try to save your life by putting your trust and faith in others, you will lose.

But they, Jesus makes a bold move. OK, we live among people we cannot trust. What should be do about it? We should renounce that life. We should acknowledge that we are not going to make it on our own, or with the help of our friends and family. Instead, we should embrace a life lived among the unfaithful. If we think we are safe from betrayal, we are wrong. But we would rather live a life of faithfulness, even if this leads to our being further betrayed. This will at times lead even to a death like his.

Jesus moves out of the language of life and death to using the language of shame and glory. In return for the choice towards renouncing our own, we receive "glory of [the] Father with the holy angels." If we are ashamed of Jesus--if we prove faithless and betray him, he will be ashamed of us as others are meted out their glory.

And, I think, this gets at the answer to my second question, about whether Jesus calls us here only to a life of disappointment and sorrow, or to a life of, well, life. This passages stresses that the life we live should be a life of faithfulness. I think this will lead to its own rewards (it feels better to be a faithful person than a betrayer, at least most of the time), but I also think it leads to the long-term gain of being appreciated and approved by Jesus, and this will be, in Jesus's word, "glory."

Jesus is calling us, as [Joanna Dewey]1 reminds us, away from our old kith-and-kin to a new kith-and-kin, the sister- and brotherhood of Jesus and his followers. In this new family, we strive to live a life of faithful obedience. At times, we will be strongly attacked for doing so. We have one another, and a hope of glory, to remind us to stay faithful. Sometimes, of course, we will betray Jesus and one another, and we will bring shame on ourselves. But these brothers and these sisters are our best hope for this world, and Jesus is our only hope for the next. If any of you want to follow Jesus, you should renounce that which you wrongly think keeps you secure, and take up this way which well may lead to a cross; this is the way to follow him.

Footnotes

  1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526 "'Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross': a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world" ↩

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