WEEK THREE

March 1 - March 7
Theme: The Radical Christ

Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear the words “radical” and “radicalized” in the news. The radical extremists we know today convince and conquer through intimidation, fear and barbaric acts of terror. In stark contrast, the radical Christ introduced a revolutionary kingdom to the Roman world that reversed natural instincts by demanding that His followers love their enemies and “do good to them that hate you.” Those in control saw Christ as a dangerous rabble-rouser. He broke religious laws, upset the establishment, and continually sought out foreigners, sinners, and social outcasts. His words and actions contradicted the customs and practices of His day. In the midst of the 21st century, the radical Jesus continues to challenge and provoke, calling all to embrace the cross and follow Him.

Sunday, March 1

Scripture: Mark 8:34-38
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

RADICAL EXPECTATIONS: DEEP HOPE

The words of Christ in this passage have a curious ability to reach me. Even in dry times when I find myself bored with and distant from other passages of Scripture, there’s something about Christ’s severe invitation that holds my attention. Perhaps one reason is that it’s easy to take personally. Christ was addressing His disciples and the crowd 2000 years ago, but the figurative language and clear connotations allow me to imagine that He is inviting me today. Another part of it may simply be the surprise; this is not the way in which Peter, the disciples, or the crowd expected or wanted to follow their Messiah. Likewise, self-denial and self-crucifixion are certainly not what my culture communicates to me as the path to the good life.

But there’s something else deep within me (perhaps the deepest thing within me) that resonates with this alternative path of following Christ. His invitation pierces through the hardened shell of my corrupt sovereignty and reaches my very core with a fresh offer. Despite my instincts of self-preservation—of plotting out my future, defining and securing my needs and wants, avoiding things I don’t want to deal with—I desire to accept. There is hope in this radical offer of something new. Regardless of how crazy and painful the new way sounds, it is still hopeful at the very least because I know the hopelessness of the old.

Yet I still feel the risk. Stalled at this junction of fearing the loss of my self-autonomy and responding with hope to Christ’s offer of life, Christ’s question sounds strikingly pragmatic: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” Immediately after requesting of my will the most difficult thing I can imagine (to deliberately lose my life), He appeals to my frugality and common sense. Jim Elliot expressed the logic in his well-known remark, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” This is no mere platitude; it is an axiom of the Kingdom of God. Both the man who found the treasure in the field and the merchant who discovered the fine pearl sold all they had to inherit objects of much greater value. So we must give up our lives to inherit true life in Jesus; it’s a good trade.

It’s not a trade that happens instantly, though. Our categorical justification before God may work that way, but our experience of willingly letting go of our lives and finding them in Christ is a process. And it has been observed by many that “the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.” Fortunately we do not undertake the journey alone. Without the Spirit of God within us. and the community of saints beside us, we would get nowhere. But through God’s grace and power we are enabled to lose our lives and find them in Him. 

PRAYER

Come, Holy Spirit, come,
With energy divine,
And on this poor, benighted soul
With beams of mercy shine.

O melt this frozen heart;
This stubborn will subdue;
Each evil passion overcome,
And form me all anew!

The profit will be mine,
But Thine shall be the praise;
And unto Thee will I devote
The remnant of my days.

Benjamin Beddome