Audio Transcript
Pastor John, sometimes a verse becomes so familiar to us that we read it without stopping to reflect on what the words actually mean. But by pausing and paying closer attention, we can make discoveries that can alter our lives forever. One such verse is Mark 8:38. It’s part of a larger argument in Jesus’s teaching and, in fact, it appears to be the bottom line of a bigger argument — making it even more important that we not rush past it. Jesus says this: “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” The idea of Jesus being ashamed is a striking and unsettling thought. Can you help us understand why he says this — and help us imagine what such divine shame might look like on the day of judgment?
Mark 8:38 really is a striking verse, and it’s striking for two reasons (at least). One is that it’s hard to imagine Jesus being ashamed. I mean, just the thought of it stops me dead in my tracks. If Jesus says, “I’m going to be ashamed of you,” that’s just striking. Jesus, ashamed? And the other is that this verse is the fourth and bottom level of a four-step argument for faithful discipleship — taking up your cross and following Jesus. It’s the deepest argument in a four-step argument for why we should take up our cross and follow Jesus. So, let me just walk through the argument, and then we’ll linger for a moment over what that might be, Jesus being ashamed.
Level by Level
Here’s the whole argument. Jesus says in Mark 8:34, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Now, that’s the main point of the argument. Everything else is supporting that. The next four verses are four distinct arguments, each verse arguing for the one before it, building a deep foundation for this exhortation: “Take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me.”
1. Saving is losing.
Mark 8:35: “[Because] whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In other words, if you spend your life trying to save yourself from the painful consequences of following Jesus in this world, you’re going to lose your life. You’re going to perish. You’re going to go to hell. But if you embrace the cost, the loss, the pain — indeed, the shame — of following Jesus, then you will live forever. That’s level one of the argument for why we should take up our cross and deny ourselves and follow Jesus.
2. Profit is forfeit.
Now, next level down, Mark 8:36: “[Because] what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” In other words, you may succeed in avoiding all the painful consequences of following Jesus if you are consistently ashamed of his words, and you devote yourself to accumulating all the comforts and securities and wealth and popularity that you possibly can. But in the end, that will do you no good at all. You will forfeit your soul, even though you gain the whole world. That’s argument number two.
3. Nothing is enough.
Next level down, Mark 8:37: “[Because] what can a man give in return for his soul?” And the answer is this: There’s no amount you can ever store up that would enable you to buy off Jesus at the last judgment.
“If we considered it foolish to hold fast to Jesus, he will consider it foolish to hold fast to us.”
You can’t trade; you can’t give. Your currency is not going to work. You gain the whole world, and it will be enough to satisfy you temporarily (maybe) in this world, but it will not work. It won’t be enough to negotiate on the last day. You will lose your life. If Christ and his words have been so unimportant to you, so cheap, that you devoted your life to hiding them to protect yourself and your wealth and your comfort, it will not be enough, and you will lose your soul. That’s level three.
4. Shame invites shame.
Here’s the last level of the argument, the one that is so striking about the shame of Jesus. It’s the last of four becauses: Because, because, because, because, Jesus argued. (Oh, what a revelation it is to discover how Jesus and the rest of the biblical writers don’t just link phrases together with no sense, but argue!) Mark 8:38:“[Because] whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Now, that’s the bottom of the argument for why we should deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus and not be ashamed of him or his words, even though they may bring us painful experiences of being shamed. In those experiences, in those very experiences of being shamed, we can be like the apostles in Acts 5:41. They went out rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to be shamed for the name of Jesus. Magnifying Jesus should be more important to us than avoiding the painful disapproval of a sinful and adulterous generation.
Shame and Jesus
So, what is shame? (It’s helpful to dig into the obvious sometimes.) What is shame? It’s the painful or uncomfortable feeling of being seen as foolish, weird, stupid, weak, rejected, disrespected. There are small embarrassments in life that we get over in a hurry, and there are horrible experiences of being shamed that give wounds for a lifetime.
Being shamed or being ashamed is not a feeling of being disapproved because you did wrong. We call that feeling guilt. It’s a feeling of being disapproved because you are seen as foolish or ridiculous or worthless, and the more powerful and admired the people are who ridicule you, the more painful it can be. So, being ashamed of Jesus and his words would mean that we spend our lives avoiding all such disapproval or opposition or rejection by either concealing Jesus and his words or changing them so they fit the priorities of the people we want to please.
What, then, is Jesus’s shame? “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). Jesus tastes the feeling of what it would be like to be a fool at the last judgment day, and he turns and he acts wisely.
So, if we considered it foolish to hold fast to him, he will consider it foolish to hold fast to us. If we turned away from esteeming him and advocating for him because we didn’t want to look foolish, Jesus will turn away from us so as not to look foolish on that day. If we felt it would be shameful to side with Jesus, he will feel it to be shameful to side with us. If we spent our lives saving face with fools by disassociating with Jesus, he will save face with the wise, his Father, and the holy angels, by disassociating with us.
Shameless of Jesus
When Jesus points out that we are trying to avoid shame from an adulterous and sinful generation, he’s warning us, “Don’t make such an insane choice. I’m coming with the glory of my Father and with the holy angels. Whose blessing do you want? That of the sinful and adulterous generation praising you, commending you, thinking you’re cool, smart, intelligent? Or God’s? Don’t be insane, dear people.”
This is not salvation by works. This is salvation by faith, which embraces Jesus as supremely valuable. This is salvation by faith, which is not ashamed of Jesus. That’s what faith is: embracing Jesus, trusting Jesus, receiving Jesus as more admirable than all the people that the world wants to impress.
So, reading the argument backward goes like this. To have Jesus be ashamed of you is terrifying. Therefore, it is futile to devote your life to accumulating wealth by hiding the words of Jesus. You can’t buy him off. Therefore, trying to save face before worldly people by getting rich will mean you forfeit your soul. Therefore, be willing to lose your life in this world with all of its esteem, and you’ll save it. Therefore, take up your cross, deny yourself these temporary, worldly moments of esteem, and follow Jesus.
