U-turn?
Like a lot of you, our family has been on the road quite a bit this summer.
One of the things our kids love to do when we’re on the road is play Travel Bingo.
Most of you have probably played Bingo at some point in your life. And Travel Bingo is very similar. The way it works is you have to find certain things & as you find them, you can mark that spot. Of course, the first person to get 5 in a row gets Bingo.
So some of the things on the Travel Bingo boards we have are things like a Water Tower, Cattle Crossing, Low Clearance, things like that. Fairly common things you might find when on the road.
I did a quick count & there are 19 different road signs on our travel bingo boards.
You know what’s not on there? A U-turn sign! Which is interesting only because it’s probably the road sign I look for & use most often!
Have you ever had to make a U turn in your life?
There are times in all of our lives when we need to make a U turn. When what we’re doing isn’t working. When how we’re living isn’t life giving. When we realize that we are the culmination of the daily choices we make & the result of those choices over time have led us to the place we are now & where we are is not where we want to be.
At this point, we have another choice to make.
Medicate the pain of our present reality, however we choose to do that.
OR…
Change direction.
And changing the direction of your life is the hardest thing you will ever do.
What we don’t talk about, what no one tells us, is that one way or another when we change the direction of our lives something has to die. Something has to end so that something new can emerge & begin.
[Tweet “When we change the direction of our lives something has to end so that something new can begin. “]That’s exactly what Jesus asked his disciples to do. In the text we’re going to look, he asks them to make 3 u-turns in a row, each one more difficult than the one before.
U-turn #1: WHO IS JESUS?
Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.”
Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
This is the first u-turn Jesus is asking his disciples to make. Do you believe, like a lot of people believe, that I’m John the Baptist? Or Elijah? Or some kind of powerful prophet?
Do you want to believe in that direction?
Peter is the first to make the u-turn. Reflecting on everything He’s experienced since the first day he met Jesus, he speaks first…
Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”
You are the one we’ve been waiting on for thousands of years.
The word Messiah is a Hebrew word that literally means, “anointed.”
Throughout Israel’s history special people were set aside through anointing for special purposes. Priests were anointed to serve as mediators between God & man. Prophets were anointed to bring the word of God to the people of God. Kings were anointed to lead the people of God.
And Peter, along with the disciples, along with all the Jewish people, had been living under Roman oppression for a long time. They were hoping for, praying for, waiting for a Messiah. A prophets, priest or king who would lead them & deliver them!
If you’ve ever desperately wanted deliverance then you know something about what Peter, the disciples & the Jewish people at that time wanted.
And Peter was right. Jesus is Messiah.
But what does it mean for Jesus to be Messiah??
U-turn #2: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR JESUS TO BE MESSIAH?
Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.
You can just imagine what the faces of the disciples must have looked like as Jesus is talking. Some of them, their jaws just hit the floor. Others have their heads turned side ways & they’re squinting at Jesus in complete confusion.
None of them had a category where Messiah & death went together. Jesus is talking but it doesn’t compute.
This is the second u-turn Jesus is asking his disciples to make. That being Messiah meant something very different than what they had anticipated.
Peter, who had made the first u-turn is not ready to make the second u-turn. Not yet! He had just spoken up & made the declaration, “Jesus, your are Messiah,” & now he feels the responsibility to pull Jesus aside & correct him.
As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.
You can just imagine Peter telling Jesus, “Jesus, you got to stop it. What are you talking about? This is not what it means to be Messiah.”
Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Jesus looks at Peter & tells him, Get behind me. Jesus has a laser focus on his mission to go to Jerusalem & suffer & die on the cross. Jesus looks at Peter & says I don’t need you standing between me & the cross!
So far, Jesus has asked his disciples to make 2 u-turns. First, Who is Jesus? Second, What does it mean for Jesus to be Messiah? But there’s one more turn they have to make…
U-turn #3: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HIS DISCIPLE?
Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower you must TURN from your selfish ways, take up your cross and follow me.
(Mark 8.34; NLT 2007)
Not only is Jesus redefining what it means to be Messiah, he’s redefining what it means to be His disciple.
To be a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean you’ve landed a spot in the inner circle of the most powerful person on the planet, it means you follow him even to the cross! It means you embrace the way of the cross.
[Tweet “To be a disciple of Jesus means you embrace the way of the cross.”]Lamar Williamson made this observation…
Precisely those who profess faith in Jesus as the Christ are the ones who misunderstand his mission & who must now be asked AGAIN if they really want to follow him. – Lamar Williamson, Mark (Interpretation Commentary)
The Call to Die is a Call to Really Live
The call of Jesus is a call to come & die, but it’s also a call to come & live. Really live.
But we can’t experience the abundant life in Jesus until we are willing to die with Jesus.
Something has to die. Something has to be abandoned.
And maybe your problem if you’re being honest, maybe my problem if i’m being honest, is that there are some things I’m still holding on to other than Christ.
Jesus says, you’ve got to be willing to give up everything to follow me.
Whatever it is, let go of everything that isn’t Jesus. Be willing to abandon everything to take hold of Jesus.
[Tweet “Don’t let anything keep you from giving up everything to follow Jesus.”]His original disciples, they found something in Jesus worth giving up everything for. Peter was crucified upside down. Andrew was crucified in Greece. James was beheaded. John was exiled. The rest all gave their lives in similar ways for Jesus.
What does your faith cost you?
If following Jesus doesn’t cost you something, if it’s not difficult, if you’re not giving up something, who are you really following?
What needs to die, what do you need to abandon, so that you can follow Jesus?
What no one tells us is that either way we’re going to loose our lives to something.
How many people at the end of their lives look back with regret & think, I lost it. I gave it all up. For what?
When we choose to loose our life & die with Jesus we have the hope of resurrection.
It’s a call to die. But not just to die, it’s a call to live!
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