Finishing the Race

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]

Mark 8:31-38
At the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968, a runner named John Stephen Aquara ran in the marathon, representing Tanzania. Shortly after the race began, Aquara fell, causing serious injuries to both a knee and an ankle. He received some medical attention and then, bandaged and still bleeding, got back on the trail and resumed the race. He limped, hobbled, and skipped. Two hours after the other competitors had finished, John Stephen Aquara crossed the finish line. He even took a victory lap around the stadium. When a reporter later asked him why he had continued in the race when it was clear he could win no medal, Aquara replied, "My country didn’t send me seven thousand miles to enter the race. They sent me here to finish the race." [1]

When we turn from sin as a way of life and trust Jesus as our God and our only hope, our eternal destinies are assured. The believer in Jesus lives in the certainty that the Savior Who died and rose for sinners like us gives eternity with God to all who surrender to Him.

But our lives from that point aren’t meant to be spent just waiting for eternity. The Bible says that followers of Jesus are to live as aliens in a foreign country and that each of us, in our own ways, are to be "ambassadors for Christ." The Bible also says that life is a race and that each of us are to run it like competitors going for the gold. We’re to live each day we have on this earth with purpose and meaning and faithfulness to Christ even if everyone around us thinks we’re crazy. As followers of Jesus living in this world, we’re to be like John Stephen Aquara. We’re runners God has sent into the world not just to enter the race, but to finish the race!

Our Gospel lesson for this morning gives us a good indication of what’s involved in the race that you and I are to run. Just before the beginning of the incident that our lesson recounts, Jesus’ key disciple, Peter, made a stunning confession. He said that Jesus is the very reflection of God in a human being. Jesus, Peter says, is the Messiah and the blessed Son of God the Father. Jesus tells Peter that he’s absolutely right. What a feeling that must have given to Peter and the other disciples! Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, about to begin His rule, and they were in on the ground floor.

But Jesus didn’t leave them with that heady feeling for long. Jesus chose that very moment to tell the disciples that He would go to Jerusalem, undergo all sorts of suffering, be rejected by the religious leaders, be condemned by the government, be killed, and three days later, rise again.

Mark, the writer of our lesson says that Jesus "said this quite openly.” So openly, in fact, that he riled Peter up! Peter pulled Jesus aside, grabbed Jesus by the shoulders as though trying to talk sense into a man who had stepped out onto a fiftieth-story building ledge, and shaking Jesus, began yelling at Him. One of the other Gospel writers says that Peter said, "God forbid! This will never happen to You, Lord!"

In this little performance, Peter manages to make Jesus fiercely angry! Jesus condemns Peter passionately. He tells Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things!" The word Satan basically means one who obstructs or opponent. Peter thinks that he’s being a nice guy. He thinks that he’s encouraging Jesus to banish any negative thoughts about suffering or crosses. But Jesus tells Peter, "Get out of My way! The Father didn’t send me just to enter the race. He sent me to finish the race!"

For Jesus, that means suffering physically. It means suffering rejection and death on a cross. It also means something that Peter doesn’t seem to have heard: rising from the dead.

After lowering the boom on Peter, Jesus calls together His disciples and the crowd of people who watch His every move and He tells them: "If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me."

Followers of Jesus are called to finish the race just like Jesus did. Our race as followers of Christ is like a journey. In this journey, three major things need to happen. First: We're to say goodbye to our selfishness. (I must confess that I find this extremely difficult to do! More often than I care to think, my attitude is like that of George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life: "I want to do what I want to do.")

But jettisoning our selfishness is precisely what Jesus means when He says that we’re to deny ourselves. Jesus calls us to quit worrying so much about ourselves and think about others.

Six years ago, I read about a woman who managed a North Carolina nursing center. She made a point of cultivating personal relationships with all the residents and had a genuine love for helping meet their physical and emotional needs. An avid gardener, she grew roses behind the nursing center and saw to it that each resident received a fresh-cut rose on their breakfast tray each morning. She gave of herself, treating others as she wanted to be treated because some day, she knew that she could be a resident of that nursing center. But she wasn’t ready for that yet when I read her story in 2003. You see, she was only ninety!

When you know that God will preserve you here and in eternity, you can abandon self-absorption in order to care about others, no matter your age or condition.

In our journey, Jesus says, also we need to carry our baggage. That’s what Jesus means when He tells us to take up our crosses. A lot of people have the wrong idea about what Jesus means when He tells us this. They think that “carrying our cross” means enduring the everyday challenges, frustrations, or tragedies of life. But our experience tells us and the Bible affirms, that everybody faces these things in life. They happen whether we want them to happen or not. They happen whether we’re Christians or not.

Jesus though, is talking about something we voluntarily take, something we choose to endure, like He voluntarily took up a cross to save us from sin and death. Taking up our cross then, means embracing experiences we’d rather not go through, knowing that when we do, others may see Jesus in us and want the hope and life Jesus offers.

An acquaintance of mine, a pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church, named Tom, his wife Barb, and their neighbors in north Cincinnati suburb once found out that their brand new homes were built on a toxic waste dump. The situation made it onto the TV news and into the newspapers. Many of Tom’s and Barb’s neighbors reacted with fierce hatred toward the builder, public officials, and others.

But Tom and Barb made a decision, as Tom told me at the time, to be positive witnesses for Christ in the midst of this situation. Even as they sought to get their neighborhood cleaned up, Tom and Barb resolved to demonstrate and live the love of Jesus Christ. They made that resolution in spite of seeing the value of their home plummet and being concerned about the possible effects of their home’s location on their health.

As Tom put it: "This presents us with an opportunity to show Jesus to people. And Barb and I are on our knees a lot, asking God to help us be faithful." Tom and Barb volunteered to go through a situation they could have simply moved away from by, instead, looking for ways to help others experience the saving love of Jesus. They suffered for the sake of others. That’s what people do when they take up their crosses. I pray to God that one day I will be that faithful!

Finally: We’re to actually take the journey Jesus gives us. That’s what Jesus means when He says "Follow Me." Lots of people go to worship on Sunday mornings. But they don’t journey through their weeks with Christ! Day in and day out, we’re to put Jesus first and make following Him our highest priority.

That isn’t always easy! Loving God and loving neighbor in a dog-eat-dog world can be hard. It may mean rejection and suffering of one kind or another, just as it did for the Savior we follow. But remember—always remember—that Jesus, as He says, in our lesson today, will never be ashamed of those who dare to follow Him. Followers of Jesus are life’s ultimate winners. We belong to God forever. And we want to take as many people with us to heaven as possible! Those who humble themselves by denying themselves, taking up their crosses, and following wherever Jesus leads may look like Clark Kent to the world. But in the eyes of the only One Whose opinion really matters, they look like Superman and Superwoman.

God calls us not just to enter the race. But to finish the race. Let’s be true to that call!