Repentance, in the sense I talked about last time, is not something we can accomplish once and for all. There are so many habits we have developed, so many “obvious” things we have learned to accept by living in the world, that just knowing we want to leave them behind is not enough. We are fighting lifelong patterns of behavior. The Good News is that, since Moses’ time, God has been telling us, He will give us the ability to change.

By this point in the gospel of Mark, Jesus has made it clear to His disciples that the End is coming. But what that End is going to look like is actually getting less and less clear to them. Surely, there must be a victory coming; but why then does Jesus keep talking about being captured by His enemies and losing His life? And then when he talks about their part in it all, it is also about losing their lives. How could His disciples be expected to make sense of all that? But with us, it is a different story: We live over 2000 years on the other side of the cross and the resurrection. It all makes sense now. Or does it?

By now, Jesus has crossed the point of no return. He is on the way to the cross. And that means that He won’t be with us, physically present anymore. And, more importantly, He is about to fulfill His mission… which means ours is about to start. The time is now. He is starting to “pass the baton”… to all of us.

Last time Jesus’ message was, “if you want to follow me you must count the cost”: For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it.  Whenever I covered passages like these in my sermons in Jail, I would always tell the men that this was an example of “Truth in advertising.” Jesus always told the truth even when it would most likely drive people away.

Last time, I used the parallel between passages in Mark (chapters 7 and 8)  and passages in Isaiah to point out that God had placed signposts along the way – for thousands of years – to identify the Messiah promised all the way back in Genesis: the Messiah that would crush the serpent’s head and deliver humanity from the bondage of sin. Yet, in His time, among His people, it seems no one made the connection. Why?

In chapter 7 of Mark’s gospel, the evangelist showed us the open hostility that had developed among the Pharisees and religious leaders against Jesus. That was the turning point for His ministry… for as the leaders go, so go their followers. Eventually, even the crowds that have been running in wonder after Jesus will side with the Pharisees and cry out: “Crucify!” Thus is set the stage for the culmination of the Mission of the Messiah. Soon there will be no turning back from the way of the cross. How did Jesus prepare His disciples for this? How do we prepare ourselves?