Mark 8: 27-38
September 24, 2000
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Before our kids got their own drivers’ licenses, driving a car was a great adventure. Real driving was unlike those amusement park rides where you act like you’re driving but your jalopy was on a track to only go one way. So when our kids were little, we would say to them, “Dad will drive, but you tell me to turn left or turn right or go straight ahead. We will obey all traffic signs and lights.” It was like going on a journey full of uncharted places, new discoveries, and surprises. That was before high gas prices too!
Have you noticed that the primary way of telling the story of Jesus is as a journey? You can see this in all of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but especially in Mark. Jesus is always on the way to somewhere else. Mark tells the story of Jesus with an out of breath pace. Mark says that Jesus did that and then immediately Jesus went on to somewhere else. The word, immediately, is one of Mark’s favorite words. In the gospels, this word appears 63 times, but in Mark it is found 35 of those times.
The image you get of Jesus’ disciples in the gospel of Mark is a group of people who are always breathlessly trying to catch up, always just one step behind Jesus as he moves on to somewhere else.
I love the way Mark begins his gospel with the calling of Jesus’ disciples. A couple of disciples were at work one day, bent over their nets, working on them. They saw this strange figure up on the road above them, calling to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” (Mk. 1:16)
It says, “immediately they left their nets and followed him.” And after going a little farther, Jesus called two more while they were mending their nets and again, immediately, they left their father in the boat holding the broken nets. Mark says they stopped everything they were doing.
One might think they might have asked, “Well, who are you?” Or one would at least think they would say, “Fine, But, where are you going?”
They asked none of that. They just stumbled after Jesus. Maybe that’s exactly the way it happened. In fact, in Mark’s gospel, that is the image you get of discipleship. Discipleship is following Jesus on a journey without ever knowing exactly who he is or precisely where he is going.
Passing Them By
I love another episode in Mark when the disciples were in a boat on the sea. In Mark 6: 45, Jesus immediately made his disciples get into a boat to go on ahead to the other side while he went up on the mountain to pray. A storm comes in, the sea gets ugly, and it appears that the boat is going to be swamped and everyone will drown.
Lo and behold, who should they see out on the sea at that point but Jesus. Mark says that Jesus was out walking past the disciples. He was out for a stroll. Walking past them! Jesus gave them a head start to get over to the other side and he was going to catch up by walking on the water.
Jesus is always on the move.
Then when you get to the very end of Mark, Mark says that the women came to the tomb to anoint him with spices on Easter morning (Mk. 16:1). But by the time they got there, they are greeted by a young man dressed in white who tells them, You’re looking for Jesus? Sorry. Just missed him. By this time in the morning, he is already all the way out in Galilee!
Isn’t this typical of Jesus? Just about the time we are about to get the point of what Jesus was saying, almost ready to catch up with him, he is on the way to somewhere else again!
Following Jesus is a journey of adventure. And one of the things that makes a journey an adventure is when we don’t know the destination. That’s the reason why it was fun to drive with our kids telling us where to go. We have no idea where each turn will take us.
And if you have been journeying with Jesus very long, you know that it is quite typical to keep making surprising discoveries with Jesus. Even when you are on the way to somewhere else, Jesus turns us going down another unexpected road. Like the women at the tomb, the women were shocked that he was not there. He is going before them to Galilee. Just when they get there, Jesus has already moved on to somewhere else.
Discipleship Journey
Today’s scripture tells of Jesus and his disciples on the way of a journey when he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” It’s a test that the disciples flunk. And even when Peter confesses that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the anointed one of Israel, Peter protests Jesus’ prediction of his suffering and death. Jesus rebukes Peter for worrying only about human matters rather than trusting God’s plan.
In Mark, we see that Jesus’ identity gradually unfolds for the disciples. The disciples must learn, in their everyday experience of Jesus, listening to his words, observing his actions, and discovering who Jesus is. And with some empathy with the disciples, we see that they were forever giving the wrong answers, as Peter does here.
We contemporary disciples might take heart from Mark’s rather unflattering depiction of the first disciples. After all, we too struggle to get the point of who Jesus is and sometimes we don’t. We too are on a lifetime journey with Jesus in which his meaning for us unfolds gradually as we journey.
I was baptized when I was in junior high school at my home church in Boston. I resisted getting baptized with “my class” because I didn’t feel that I knew enough about Jesus. So I waited. But the pastor was concerned for me and he felt that I was harder on myself than God was expecting from my commitment to him. Another year passed and I was baptized. But I still felt I didn’t get the point. I thought I should have all my convictions firmly and thoroughly in place. I expected my daily behavior would be like a saint. I thought that after my baptism, I would arrive to the destination of my faith journey. I wanted to catch up with Jesus before I would get baptized.
I thought that when I accepted Christ or was saved or decided to become a Christian that that was the end of my journey with Jesus. I reached the goal. No. That journey begins with our decision to walk with him—it’s the beginning of discipleship, not the end.
Faithfulness to Jesus requires a willingness to learn, an expectation that there will be twists and turns along the way, surprises. It was so for the first disciples. It shall be so for us too.
Following Jesus on a journey of faith is an adventure that we are still on today. Because of Easter, the journey is not over. In fact, it is never over until God says that it is over. We certainly thought that Good Friday and the cross led to the end of the story, that death had had the final word. But no, we get to the cemetery and find out that Jesus is not there. He has moved on. The journey continues.
So if you are thinking about faithful discipleship, don’t think about getting your heads straight on a list of fundamental beliefs. Don’t think about discipleship as memorizing a whole string of Bible verses. Think about discipleship as a journey, a journey with Jesus.
The journey that each of us is traveling on is with Jesus. Each of us is busy tagging along behind Jesus, being surprised by Jesus when he makes unexpected turns, trying to figure out what he said at the last stop. We are being amazed at the places that he leads us on this adventure.
Our Life Journey with Jesus
As we are on this journey with Jesus, what are some things we can say about it?
1. Journey with Jesus is a relationship.
Not only an adventure, it’s a relationship. When Joy and I went on our honeymoon to Virginia because the tourist flyers said, “Virginia is for lovers,” we had Triple A put together one of those triptiks. With everything on our minds about the wedding and Chinese banquets, we didn’t look though the triptik. We just got into our VW and off we went on out honeymoon. After driving for hours, we realized that that we were going away from our destination. Triple A knowing that we were on our honeymoon, led us on the scenic route. We were 5 hours away from where we should be. We were innocently following each little page of the triptik and forgot our overall destination.
When we are following a set of laws and rules like triptiks thinking that a set of beliefs is all we need to know to follow Christ, we will get lost. Christianity is not so much a set of intellectual propositions that you must affirm than it is a relationship with someone else.
The journey with Jesus is a relationship. You are walking with Jesus.
It’s like when I do premarital counseling. Some people think that the purpose of it is to sit down and to talk to the couple about “what they’re getting into.” But how do I know what they are getting into?
Those of you who are married, when you got married, did you know what you were getting into? Of course not. Who can’t know where life will lead us, how people will change? The main thing is, we commit ourselves to be on a journey with another human being, no matter where that journey leads, even through things like “sickness or heath, for better for worse” and so forth.
The church has you make these promises too because you do not know where the journey will lead. If you did know every step of the way, you wouldn’t need the promise to stay with the journey, even through sickness, worse times, poverty, and all the other problems of life that can come our way.
2. A Journey with Jesus is moving from here to there.
Discipleship is a long process. Get ready for growth. Get ready for surprises. Before we had the pews bolted down on the floor, we were still able to use them. My theory on why we bolt down the pews is that when you come in here on Sunday morning at 10:00, you never know where you might be located by noon! We bolt down these pews to give the illusion that things are fixed, stable and complete. We retrofitted with steel beams and angles braces so that our church building won’t fly off.
But when we are on the move for Jesus, he may accept us “just as I am,” but he will not leave us just as we are. We are on the move to be changed.
3. A Journey with Jesus sometimes comes with setbacks.
As with any journey, there are times when we wonder if the journey is working. We go down the wrong street and we get lost. We have long stretches of road that’s boring when the scenery is not that interesting.
If you have ever been on a long trip with a group of people, you know that during the course of the trip you will know those people at their best and at their worst. People get tired. They become difficult to deal with.
Because the church is a journey, this means that you will not always enjoy being on a journey with the other people. Don’t feel guilty. On this journey there will be peaks and there will be valleys. Just keep walking with Jesus.
4. A Journey with Jesus requires new habits.
The call to discipleship requires certain disciplines for keeping at it. As we have said, the journey, like any journey, is not always easy. Perhaps your journey with Jesus began with a flash of light and great enthusiasm. But eventually, over time, enthusiasm wanes. The exciting journey of faith becomes less exciting.
The church that we enjoyed going to during the first few months becomes dull and routine. However, it is important to keep at it; it is important to keep walking with Jesus.
When you go on a long trip, you usually have to have some disciplines. Learn to eat right, get enough sleep, and to structure your activities so that you have enough energy to keep going.
It is the same way with the journey of discipleship. The disciplines of the journey include:
Regular Bible study
Daily devotions
Sunday worship—just getting out of bed, getting dressed on Sunday and coming to church is an important discipline.
Last Sunday I said that modern people say that they feel God is far from them, absent from their lives. But they don’t consider how often they have been absent from God. In just coming to Sunday worship, you are putting yourself in the right place to keep on the journey.
Perhaps today, sitting in church, your journey is going well. But your journey will not always go well. There will be valleys, times when you wonder if you can make it. At those times, the resources that you gained here during Sunday morning worship and Sunday school classes can be invaluable, life-giving resources to keep you on your journey with Jesus.
Where the Journey is Leading Us
Next week will be our big weekend of fellowship, rededication, and celebration. We have been on a long, long journey for the past 11 years when the Loma Pieta earthquake first shook our city and our church. Some of us are looking forward to next weekend because it symbolizes for us the conclusion of the retrofit project and all the countless hours of meetings and work that have led us through the journey to today.
But next weekend also symbolizes for us only the beginning of the journey of faith that was started 120 years ago. It was started when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And only God can tell us when the journey is over.
As we rededicate ourselves to Christ next week, may we affirm that it is Jesus who is still leading the journey and sometimes he is ahead of us. We are just trying to catch up with
him. He is showing us that the journey isn’t predictable. It’s not as simple as memorizing a few verses or holding strongly to a few beliefs.
When Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Jesus is saying to us, “Get behind me, Satan!” Set aside where you want to go with your life. And give your life over to Christ.
He is calling us to put our faith in him to follow him faithfully as the suffering Messiah not knowing where he is going. When we trust Jesus with our lives, he will lead us on the journey of faith. In faith, I believe that Jesus is leading our church as a community of disciples on a journey full of adventure, new discoveries, and surprises.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, walk with us on this journey of faith. We do not always know where the journey will lead, but we know you are leading the way. We do not know everything about you when we begin the journey, but Lord, we know that you will reveal yourself to us along the way. Help us to trust in you. Amen.