A fate worse than death

 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  --1 Corinthians 1:18

During World War II, British and American secret services developed a poison pill, initially called an "L-pill" (Lethal pill) which was given to agents going behind enemy lines. For example, one of the objectives of the Dieppe Raid in August, 1942 was to discover the importance and performance capability of a German radar station on the cliff-top to the east of the French town of Pourville.  To achieve this, RAF Flight Sergeant Jack Nissenthall, a radar specialist, was attached to the South Saskatchewan Regiment.  He was to attempt to enter the radar station and learn its secrets, accompanied by a small unit of 11 men of the Saskatchewans as bodyguards.  Nissenthall volunteered for the mission fully aware that, due to the highly sensitive nature of his knowledge of Allied radar technology, his bodyguard unit were under orders to kill him if necessary to prevent him from being captured.  He also carried a cyanide pill as a last resort.

After the war, the L-pill was was offered to pilots of the U-2 reconnaissance plane who were in danger of being shot down and captured while flying over Eastern Europe, but most pilots declined to take it with them.  During wartime, brave people like Sergeant Nissenthall took the poison pill with them to avoid a fate worse than death.  After the war, the pilots refused to take this instrument of death with them, perhaps believing they would never need it.  They may have thought they would avoid capture, or that they would not be tortured, or that perhaps they were not brave enough to use it.

In our passage today, Jesus bade His followers to take the Cross, an instrument of physical torture and death, with them everywhere they went.  If they refused, then they were not considered true followers of His.

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."  And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power."  --Mark 8:34-9:1

 Many so-called Christians today have a shallow view of what it means to follow Christ.  They believe that Jesus will lead them out of harm's way in this life, and rescue them from all physical danger.  He will heal all their diseases, they say, and provide them earthly riches.  To them, there is no fate worse than death, because they believe Jesus has borne all their sorrows in this world and taken away all earthly grief.  They even go so far as to say that if they do have earthly troubles or are inconvenienced in any way, then that is their cross to bear.  

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead of looking out for our own best interest, Jesus asks us to deny ourselves.  That's crazy.  According to Larry Pierce's Outline of Biblical Usage, a cross is "a well known instrument of most cruel and ignominious punishment, borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from the Phoenicians; to it were affixed, among the Romans down to the time of Constantine the Great, the guiltiest criminals, particularly the basest slaves, robbers, and the authors and abettors of insurrections."  This is what Jesus want us to identify with?  That's insane!

Were the soldiers and airmen of World War II to be captured, their silence was to be secured at any cost for the sake of themselves and their countrymen.  Conversely, Jesus admonishes His followers to go seek out the lost, and to speak the name of Jesus and tell the good news of Christ, which the world is trying to keep secret.  We are not to remain silent, but to preach Jesus even if it costs us our lives, because in spiritual terms, there is a fate worse than physical death--the eternal separation from God in hell.  To the world, logic says that self-preservation is instinctual, and that doing everything you can to prolong life and avoid death is quite logical.  But the Bible says,

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."  Where is the wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the disputer of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  --1 Corinthians 1:18-24

Each of us has within ourselves the thing that will kill us.  If we are to die in a car crash, chances are good that we have access to a car.  If we are to die of sickness, we live with the potential of exposure to that very disease.  If we are to die of old age, we possess within us the genetic make-up that will cause our hearts to stop after so many years.  If we realize that, then it may be easier for us to proclaim the name of Jesus and share His word to all we encounter, no matter the cost.  It may cost us our reputation, but God is glorified.  It may cost us our standing, but Jesus is exalted.  It may cost us our very lives, but the Holy Spirit will gather us up to Himself in heaven, along with those who have believed the gospel that we preached.  If it was worth it to Jesus to take up His cross for me, then it follows that I deem it worthy to take the cross of Jesus with me wherever I go, regardless of cost.

There is a fate worse than death, but the world doesn't believe it.  We are to repeat that message relentlessly.  In this age of Covid, governments may enforce rules that are designed to protect the health and well-being of the populace.  An unintended consequence is that the gospel is not shared in churches.  God bless the brave pastors in Canada and elsewhere who are willing to go to jail rather than limit the scope of their preaching.  They are truly denying themselves (e.g. foregoing their own health, safety and freedom) for the sake of the gospel.

At the end of our focal passage, Jesus told His followers that at least one person among them would not die before seeing the kingdom of God in His power.  He may have meant the young disciple John, who was arrested for preaching the Gospel, and exiled to the small, barren island of Patmos.  It was on this island during this period of exile that John saw the vision that became the book of Revelation.  Generations of Christians have been encouraged by John's vision and the words written in the Book because John was faithful, and did not keep his mouth shut.