Welcome to the “But first, Bible” daily devotional podcast with Dave Miers.
Happy March! It’s a new month – a great opportunity to encourage others to develop a habit for reading the bible. If you’ve been enjoying this podcast, why don’t you share with one person today how it has helped you.
Our readings for today are Numbers 24-27 and Mark 8:12-38.
Mark 8 is the turning point in Mark’s Gospel – we go from asking the question ‘Who is this man?’ in chapters 1-8 and then in chapter 8 we find out who Jesus is: the Christ, and then from chapters 8-16 we understand what it will mean for Jesus to be the Christ and what it will mean to follow Him.
Back on January 23 I gave a whole bunch of my thoughts on this passage during the devotion on the parallel passage in Matthew 16. Go check it out if you’re interested.
I thought today I would turn to my favourite devotional – Through The Bible Through The Year – by John Stott to hear some of his reflections. He’s got a lot of reflections on Mark 8 – a whole week’s worth! But I’ll share one of them.
First, let me read from Mark 8:31–35,
[31] And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. [32] And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. [33] But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
[34] 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. [35] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (ESV)
What follows is from John’s Stott’s reflection entitled: TAKING UP THE CROSS.
“It seems to me very remarkable that Jesus moved on from referring to his cross to referring to ours. It appears that somehow he already knew that he was going to be crucified. Now he says that if anyone wants to follow him, he must take up his cross. We cannot fail to observe the same note of necessity.
What did Jesus mean? According to H. B. Swete in his commentary on Mark’s Gospel, to take up the cross is “to put oneself into the position of a condemned man on his way to execution.” If we had lived in Roman-occupied Palestine in those days, and if we had seen a man carrying a crossbar, or patibulum, we would not have needed to run up to him and ask, “Excuse me, but what on earth are you doing?” No, we would have recognized him at once as a condemned criminal, because the Romans compelled those they condemned to death to carry their own cross to the place of crucifixion.
This was the imagery that Jesus chose to illustrate the meaning of self-denial. We need to rescue this vocabulary from being debased. We should not suppose that self-denial is giving up luxuries during Lent or that “my cross” is some personal and painful trial. We are always in danger of trivializing Christian discipleship, as if it were no more than adding a thin veneer of piety to an otherwise secular life. Then prick the veneer, and there is the same old pagan underneath. No, becoming and being a Christian involves a change so radical that no imagery can do it justice except death and resurrection—dying to the old life of self-centeredness and rising to a new life of holiness and love. Paul was elaborating Jesus’s vocabulary when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) and, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).
One final thought: Luke added the adverb daily to the saying of Jesus: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).”
(Excerpt From: John Stott. “Through the Bible Through the Year.”
Until tomorrow, keep trusting Jesus.