Imagine trying to ride a bike but the steering has been reversed and is completely opposite to everything you’ve been taught about and experienced riding a bike. When you turn the handlebars to the left the wheel turns to the right. When you turn the handlebars to the right the wheel turns to the left. Whichever way you turn the handlebars the bike goes in the opposite direction.

What do you think that would be like? It would certainly be confusing. There would probably be a lot of crashes, some skinned knees, and cussing. We’d have to let go of our old ideas and understandings. We’d have to practice and relearn how to ride and steer a bicycle. We’d have to learn some new ways of thinking and acting. 

That’s exactly what we saw in a video Bishop Read showed us at Diocesan Council on Thursday of last week. He invited us to unlearn old things, think new things, and learn new ways of living and being in the world and with one another. I think Jesus is doing the same thing in today’s gospel (Mark 8:31-38). Jesus is reversing the usual and accepted ways of living. 

I wonder if that’s what’s got Peter so upset. Some say Peter doesn’t get it, that he rebukes Jesus because he doesn’t understand there is a cost to following Jesus. I wonder if it’s just the opposite. 

I wonder if Peter absolutely understands the cost and challenge of following Jesus and that’s it’s so frightening and contrary to what he thought it was that he rebukes Jesus. 

Peter has just been told that the one he has watched heal and relieve the suffering of others, the one he heard accept and welcome outsiders, the one who raised the dead to life will himself “undergo great suffering … be rejected … and be killed.” 

Something about that clicked for Peter. The light came on and Peter realized that following Jesus meant walking that same path. It didn’t sound at all like Jesus that day by the lake when Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 

You know how when you get an advertisement in the mail the details, warnings, and consequences of the deal are at the very bottom of the page in little bitty print? Today’s gospel is the little bitty print at the bottom of the page. I think Peter just read the fine print on what it means to follow Jesus. 

My guess is that for most of us Jesus is reversing what we’ve been told about what matters most, the values we should have, and the ways we should live our lives. Do not store up for yourself treasures. Don’t build bigger barns to hold more stuff. Sell your stuff and give the money to the poor. Welcome the stranger. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemy. Put away your sword. Forgive seventy-seven times. Don’t strive to be number one, be last and servant of all. 

Today’s gospel is like riding a backwards bicycle. Everything is opposite to what makes sense and the direction we want to go in our life. It’s summed up in these two reversals. 

• “Those who want to save their life will lose it.”
• “Those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
  save it.”

We’ve heard those before. Probably none of that is news to us. But it may be new to the way we are living and what we’ve come to believe about being a follower of Jesus.

I suppose, like me, you’re here today because you consider yourself to be a follower of Jesus. So what does that mean for you today? What are you doing that makes you a follower of Jesus?

Does following Jesus mean getting baptized and going to church on Sundays? Is it about being good, believing the right things about Jesus, and getting into heaven? Is it about joining a prayer group, studying the Bible, attending Sunday School, going on retreat, participating in parish activities? 

Does it mean offering your time and money to the church? Is it about being nice to others and posting prayer hands and inspirational sayings on social media? Maybe following Jesus looks like being a priest, reader, acolyte, chalice bearer, or choir member on Sundays. Or maybe it’s about praying for and helping others.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. I’ve done most of those things and more. I suspect you have too. Some of them are still important to and a part of my life. Maybe yours too. I think they can have value and meaning. They can sincerely and authentically express our faith.   

I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t do those things but I wonder if that’s really what Jesus is talking about when he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Self denial and taking up our cross are the reversal at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. It’s part of the fine print that we sometimes skip over or do not want to read. It contradicts the belief many of us have that Jesus died on the cross so we don’t have to. 

But what if Jesus is reversing that belief and taking us in a different direction? What if Jesus didn’t die on the cross to save us from our cross? What if Jesus died on the cross in order to show us how to die on ours? 

How does your understanding and practice of following Jesus line up with what Jesus says about following him? Put that question in the specific contexts of your life.

What does following Jesus mean in your marriage, family, friendships? What does it mean at work and in relationship to others? What does self-denial look like and ask of you in those settings? 

Think about the upcoming elections, local and national. What are they asking of you as a follower of Jesus? If Jesus is your first allegiance what will you bring to the election process?

What does it mean for you to take up your cross in the context of migrants crossing our southern border? The immigration conflict in our country? What reversal is being asked for?

At Council on Saturday morning a gentleman, probably in his mid or late seventies, came up to me with tears in his eyes. He said, “Sutherland Springs, El Paso, Uvalde, when?” I think he was searching for the reversal of what it means to follow Jesus in the context of gun violence. What might that reversal mean for you today?

In every situation we can go along to get along. We can keep doing what we’ve always done. But I wonder if that’s really working for us. Are we bringing about change that gives life and offers healing or are we just getting better and more efficient at doing what doesn’t work? As Bishop Read said at Council, “Nothing changes if nothing changes.”

Maybe it’s time we started riding the backwards bicycle of the gospel. 

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Image Credits:
#1: The Backwards Brain Bicycle on YouTube.
#2: Photo by Manuel Guerrero on Unsplash.