Hi everyone, welcome back to our podcast, where we take a look at
the Gospel reading from today's mass and we're all about doing
exegesis year. So that's the level of Bible
analysis where we really get into the text itself, the
literal sense of the text. What was the Gospel author,
trying to communicate to his original audience?
That's the level. We want to focus on here, rather
than going into Systematic Theology, or how it applies.
Today. In this podcast, we want to
focus on the ground level stuff. What does it mean?
On the literal sense? Which is where we should always
start, according to the teaching of the Catholic church.
So today we're looking at, Mark 8:34, through 9:1.
Jesus called the people and his disciples to him and said if
anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone
who loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
will save it. What game then is it for a man
to win the whole world and ruin his life?
And indeed, what can a man offer in exchange for his life?
For if anyone in this adulterous and sinful generation is ashamed
of me. And of my words, the son of man
will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his
father with the Holy Angels. And he said to them, I tell you
solemnly there are some standing here who will not taste death
before they see the kingdom of God.
Come with power. So, once again, are quite
well-known passage here, Jesus has some quite strong words to
use. So let's think about the
context, what's just happened? So, Jesus has just announced to
the apostles that he's going to die.
And remember Peter said, no Lord, you won't die.
And he rebuked him for it. And then and then Jesus said,
you are speaking in the ways of men not in the ways of God.
So he's explained that he is going to suffer.
And he now goes on to explain to the crowds that they will also
share in his Suffering if they become his followers.
So verse 34, at the start here, Jesus called the people and his
disciples to him. Notice, this is not a private
message for the disciples. It's an invitation to the entire
crowd. He's actually about to speak
quite openly to the crowd up to. Now in the gospel of Mark, has
been fairly cryptic in his Parables when he's been talking
to the crowds, but now it's going to be quite open.
So he says to the crowds, if anyone wants to be a follower of
mine. So in that culture, it was quite
common for Jews to pick a rabbi to follow if they like the
preaching of someone they would follow them.
So Jesus says, if you want to be my follower, now notice the
language here, if you want to be a follower.
So this implies what he goes on to say, then you have to do
excetera. Etc.
So Jesus is saying that it's not automatic.
It's not, you're not born into it.
As a cultural thing. Jesus is Asking for a radical
decision. If you want to be a follower of
mine, then you must do these things.
And it's quite a radical decision as well.
See he says If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him
renounce himself. So renounce there is actually a
legal term, which signifies complete disarmament, so it's
not just like a ceremonial thing.
I renounce myself in that culture, it was a legal thing to
renounce was a complete disarmament.
So Jesus, here does not mean as we often hear in sermons just to
let go of selfishness and attachment.
It probably does imply that as part of it, but in the original
context, he's talking about it. Radical complete abandonment to
him, even to the point of being willing up to willing to give up
your life. He says, He must take up his
cross and follow me. So when Jesus says, take up his
cross, we need to remember. Jesus wasn't the first person
ever to be crucified in the Roman Empire?
They were quite familiar with crucifixion.
The Romans killed Jews, pretty much Everyday by crucifixion.
So, Jesus audience would have been quite familiar with this
idea of picking up your big heavy cross and carrying it
through the town. It was quite a gruesome quite
quite a gruesome image and no one wanted to go through that.
No. I wanted to take up their cross.
So what does Jesus mean? When he says to take up your
cross he probably means. You need to be willing to make
sacrifices and bear, heavy burdens just as I am.
He says, follow me, follow me and take up your cross.
So Jesus says his followers, must be willing, not only to
follow him in Miracles and things like that.
But also to experience suffering as he's about to experience
suffering, So, the main point Jesus is said so far, he's been
trying to communicate to his audience.
Is that discipleship? Being a disciple of Jesus has
radical Demands a Demands, a person's entire self.
He now introduces the language of life.
So he says, anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, this
could have a couple of different meanings because the Greek word
for life is psyche. Psyche, which can mean Soul.
So Jesus could be saying one of two different things.
Or maybe both depending on how he intended, the word psyche, to
be understood. So firstly he could be talking
about physical life as in his the warning against denying him
at the point of death. Anyone who wishes to save his
life, you can imagine someone at the point of the sword wanting
to save their life. So they deny Christ.
He says those people will lose their life.
One has to be willing up willing, to give up their
physical life to be a disciple of Jesus.
And we know that many in the early church had to do that.
They had to be willing to give up their life, many did die for
their faith. And Jesus might feel for seeing
that. He could also mean it in a more,
I guess, spiritual or Eternal sense.
Something like this his warning against worldliness and
self-protection. So he's saying that if you're
just attached to worldly things and attached to yourself then
that's It's going to lead to Eternal death, so it could mean
either physical life. If you try and preserve your
physical life, you're going to lose it on a life.
Or he could mean if you try and preserve worldliness and
selfishness in your own life, then you'll lose eternal life.
The consequence is the same. Either way if you don't follow
the right principle here, you will lose your eternal life.
Notice this is a teaching that you can lose your salvation.
Obviously, that's developed in more detail in other passages.
But Jesus, here is saying that, if you want eternal life, there
are certain things you have to do.
He then goes on anyone who loses his life, for my sake, and the
sake of the Gospel. So, Jesus here is probably
referring to people being martyred which we know did
happen or maybe even. He means people who are willing
to give up their entire life and their possessions The only way
to preserve oneself is to give oneself away to Jesus.
So anyone who loses his life, for my sake, and the sake of the
Gospel will save his life. So Jesus is the only way to
truly preserve your life. Truly in terms of eternal life
is to give oneself away to Jesus.
Whether that means giving up your life physically, or giving
up your possessions. All of those things might be
encompassed in what Jesus is saying.
So school is here, would say that Jesus demands here, a more
radical even than a military commander.
So a military commander would expect people to give up their
lives for a cause maybe for the cause of Rome.
Something like that, but not for a single person.
But Jesus, you are saying you need to be willing to give up
your life for me to follow me. So, Jesus, now goes on to use
language drawn from Commerce. In verse 46, he uses these
words, he uses the word profit, gain forfeit and exchange, you
probably didn't realize. But now that I've mentioned it,
you realize that those four things are all terms from
Commerce profit gain forfeit exchange.
So, Jesus starts by saying, what gain then is it for a man to win
the whole world and ruin or forfeit his life?
So this is a rhetorical question, one of those questions
Jesus asks to get people thinking King the answer to the
question. If there was an answer would be
none. There is no profit in gaining
worldly possessions but ultimately losing your life,
that's not a profitable thing. So Jesus is trying to get the
crowds to focus on Eternal things rather than Earthly
things. He wants them to recognize that
our life is more important than anything else.
And another way of looking that would be looking at, that would
be to say he wants them to understand that forfeiting their
life for a lesser good. Should not be done.
So things like, you know worldly Goods.
There's probably some good in there but he wants to remind
them that their life takes precedence and they shouldn't
forfeit that for a lesser good. He then says, what can a man
offer in exchange for his life? So again, it kind of using this
commercial transaction language, but this in particular is
probably an illusion to Psalm 49, verse 7 to 9, which says
this truly, no man can Ransom himself or give to God the price
of his life. For The Ransom of his life is
costly and yet can never suffice that he should live on forever
and never see the pit, So, that passage from the Old Testament
says. Man can't even offer his life to
God. In order to in order to avoid
death, he is going to die one day.
And, you know, as costly as life is, it's not enough to pay a
ransom to God and Jesus might be tapping into that verse when he
speaks when he speaks these words because certainly his
Jewish readers would have been familiar with that language.
Never 38, Jesus starts with an important word he says for.
So that tips us off that Jesus is about to explain why he's
just given this teaching, what's the overall point he wants to
make his about to tell us He says if anyone in this
adulterous and sinful generation, so pretty scathing
words, but he's talking about the generation.
Jesus is speaking to at the time.
This generation the one he's talking to similar,
denunciations are made against the Israelites in the Old
Testament. He says, if anyone in this
adulterous and sinful generation is ashamed of me and my words.
So, probably the basic idea is those in that generation who
hear Jesus and reject him, who don't accept him, the son of man
will be ashamed of him. So Jesus says, Those Who reject
Jesus in this generation on job on Judgement Day, the Messiah or
son of man will reject them. The fact that Jesus says, anyone
who is ashamed of me? And my words, the son of man
will be ashamed of him. Jesus is probably implying to
the crowds that he's the Messiah, that's the connection.
He wants them to make. He is the son of man who's
talking about. When he come and Jesus goes on
when he comes in the glory of his father with the Holy Angels.
So on the day that he comes with his father with the glory of the
Holy Angels on that day. If anyone had been ashamed of
Jesus in that generation, then the son of man will be ashamed
of him. So, when he says the in the
glory of his father with the Holy Angels, it's probably a
reference to the second coming. So where we have that language
of coming with the angels, most likely he's talking about The
second coming which hasn't happened yet.
So Jesus saying that on Judgment Day anyone from that generation
his own generation hurt, who heard about Jesus, but chose to
reject him will be rejected by God, so he's kind of reinforcing
his original teaching, which is that if you don't lay down your
life and follow Jesus, you won't inherit eternal life.
Notice how that's the same point he was making earlier on, but
now he's making more graphic is saying that on Judgment day, you
will be rejected by God. So Jesus wants the crowds to put
things in perspective. Yes, there's things in their
life that they're concerned about but one day there will be
a judgment day and Jesus is calling for a radical decision.
Interestingly, this is the first time Jesus makes reference to
his father in The Gospel of Mark when he says he comes in the
glory of his father. The only well, the first time in
Mark, the uses the word father. Now we go to verse 9:1.
Continuing Jesus said to them, this could be a different
occasion. Remember, Mark is not
necessarily saying this is the same chronological day.
He just says, and he said to them, truly, I say to you or
amen. Amen.
I say to you or verily, verily, as some translations, have it.
That always tips us off, that Jesus is about to say something
important. Truly, I say to you, there are
some standing here who will not taste death before they see the
kingdom of God. Come with power.
Our. So when he says there are some
standing here, he's talking to the crowd.
He says there's some people among you, who will not taste
death before they see the kingdom of God, come with power.
So the king, what's going on here?
When did the kingdom of God come in power?
Well, it must be at some point in the future from when Jesus is
speaking, the kingdom of God had already come in a sense.
By the time, Jesus was speaking. It had come in the person of
Jesus but it would not visibly come with power.
Until some other point in the future and there's different
answers to when Jesus is talking about when does or did the
kingdom of God come in power, some would say the Annunciation
because that's the very next thing that happens in the gospel
of Mark, some might say, Pentecost some have said,
perhaps in context, he's talking about his own death and
Resurrection, but I don't think that's as likely because he's
why so who will not taste death because that's possibly only
like a year away from when he's talking.
Talking. So I don't think that, that fits
necessarily, I think the best fit for this, the day when the
kingdom of God comes with power, would be 70 AD.
When just the temple was destroyed, and Jesus was
publicly Vindicated, and the kingdom of God became gloriously
evident for their general public.
So, the kingdom of God arrived in Jesus, but it didn't become
publicly manifested and to 70 AD.
And there's a lot that could be said about the significance of
the destruction of the Temple. And that makes sense some people
in the crowd, but not all of them would survive till 70 AD,
which is about 40 years between when Jesus is speaking and the
Fulfillment of the event. So I think that's the best bit.
Jesus, he is prophesying that the kingdom of God, will come
during the lifetime of some, but not all the people there.
So I think it is a reference to 70 AD.
And that's the end of the passage.
So, I want to finish here, as I sometimes, do with a quote, from
the Catholic commentary on sacred scripture for the gospel
of Mark. It says this, these sayings of
Jesus would have hit home for Christians in 1st Century.
Rome for some of whom taking up the cross, but became a cruel
reality, during Nero's persecution.
But what about those times and places where there is little
direct persecution of the church, it is easy to forget
that the self-denial and a Readiness to suffer that Jesus
describes a part of the normal Christian Life.
In fact, the only way to the inner transformation that
prepares us to enter his glory. There are kinds of persecution
more subtle than that, of ancient Rome.
But no less a threat to Christian discipleship.
How often a Christians, pressured to tailor their words
and behavior. So, as to win approval and avoid
derision from the world, how often are they attempted to
soft-pedal the gospel in order to conform to the political
Correctness of the age, the danger of refashioning
Christianity into something more safe and comfortable is summed
up in Jesus challenge to Peter. You are not thinking as God
does, but as human beings do, So I think that's quite a nice
summary of how we might apply that to our 21st century
context. Certainly Jesus teachings would
have hit home to the early Christians as they were
persecuted in Rome, but it should hit us as well.
Should hit home for us today, is we have a tendency to not give
ourselves fully to Jesus. So, how does the Catholic
Church? Develop teachings?
Based on Mark chapter 8, There's a couple of interesting
references here. So firstly in paragraph, 4, 59,
which is in the discussion about, why did the word become
flesh? It says, Jesus is the model for
the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law.
Love one. Another, as I have loved you,
this love implies an effective offering of oneself after his
example. So you'll hear the last part of
that Echo is Mark chapter 8, where Jesus suggest that we need
to offer up ourselves and follow his own example.
There's also a reference to it in the section, on marriage.
Interestingly, in paragraph 1615 of the catechism.
We hear this by coming to restore the original order of
creation, disturbed by sin. He himself gives the strength
and Grace Till they've marriage in the new dimension of the
reign of God, it is by following Christ are announcing themselves
and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to receive
the original meaning of marriage and liver.
With the help of Christ. So that's quite a nice promise
to Christians who are trying to live out a Christian marriage
that by taking up their crosses in marriage.
And following the example of Jesus, they will receive
blessings and receive the original meaning of marriage
with the help of Christ. And then in paragraph 2544 it
says, Jesus in Joins his disciples to prefer him to
everything and everyone and bids them to renounce all that they
have for his sake and that of the Gospel.
And that there is in the section about what it means to have
Poverty of heart or to give our heart fully to Jesus.
So, I'll put those catechism references in the show notes.
As always, hopefully you enjoyed today's podcast and please tune
in again tomorrow.