³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

To understand the importance of what Jesus meant, we must observe well the language he used: “must” (v. 31). But why was it necessary?

The death of Jesus was part of the divine plan for the establishment of his kingdom. Not because death could not be avoided, but because he had to create awareness in men.

Peter had decided to follow Jesus and believe in what he said, but his idea of a messiah was very different from the one in front of him. He had not understood anything yet. His hope for a new kingdom, one of liberation from the Romans, confused his senses. In response, Jesus turned and reprimanded him strongly, recognizing where the attack was coming from.

The Jews had not considered the problem of sin in the human being, but the Lord knew that it was not possible to implant the great principles of his kingdom in unregenerate hearts. There was no other way to bring about the kingdom except through his death and resurrection.

The Lord Jesus continues to call us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. During Lent, not only do we stop eating sweets or dedicate ourselves more to devotional reading, but we commit to true discipleship.

Discipleship means taking up our cross and serving people in need, orphans, people without food, people without shelter, and people who are persecuted because of their race. Being Christ’s disciples means dying to what the world offers and proclaiming him as our Lord.

Prayer: Lord, do not let us fall into the temptation of thinking that leaving our comfort zone makes us your disciples. Only the sacrifice of Jesus can do it. Amen.

Martha Amaro is a Christian educator serving in partnership with the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico, along with her husband, Jaime, since 2001. They train leaders nationwide to facilitate the Children and Worship Program and develop children’s clubs to spread the good news of Jesus.

¹⁶For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us,

¹⁷as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

²³Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Do you struggle with doubt about your faith in God? Do you really believe that God is watching out for your well-being and best interests? I once had a conversation with a friend about these questions. He commented to me that if he would pray and read the Bible more, maybe he could have more faith. As I reflected on his comment, I began to empathize with his sense of unbelief and powerlessness. He hoped that by doing good deeds it would produce more faith.

In our passage, Paul is writing to the first-century church in Rome that was made up of mostly Gentiles. He was making an important point that Abraham was not justified by works (vv. 1-8), nor by circumcision (vv. 9-12), but only by faith in the promises of God. Abraham was the father of both Jews and Gentiles, of all who are saved by faith. Clearly, even where no ground for reason or hope existed for Abraham to believe, he put his hope in an all-powerful God who created humanity and the world.

Paul tells us that Abraham’s faith was strengthened because he was fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised. He did not try to earn faith; rather, he simply had faith. He didn’t try to believe God, he just believed. Our lives would be so much simpler if we would just learn to live in the same way.

As twenty-first-century Christians, we have the entire Bible to read about God’s faithfulness and power to keep his promises. We need only to take the time to remember how faithful God has been in our lives to anticipate a hope for tomorrow. During this season of Lent, let us grow in our faith in an all-powerful God of creation and resurrection.

Prayer: Sovereign Lord, your hand has touched the dry bones of our faith, your Word has breathed new life where there was death, your Spirit has raised us up from where we lay, your love has brought us home and to your cross, and by your grace we stand forgiven and free. Hallelujah!

Luis Ruiz is the supervisor of RCA mission in North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. His role is to consult with area mission partners to initiate and evaluate mission programs and projects, to provide oversight and pastoral support for missionaries, and to maintain strategic ecumenical relationships.

¹³For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

As the father of two small children, I spend a significant amount of time watching Disney movies. In light of today’s lectionary passage, I find myself reflecting on the story of Disney’s 1997 animated feature Hercules. In this retelling of the Greek myth, Hercules, the beloved child of the gods Zeus and Hera, is stolen away as an infant and (nearly) stripped of his divinity as part of a nefarious scheme. As a teenager, Hercules discovers his true parentage and excitedly heads to the local temple to meet Zeus and, as he so inspiringly sings, “to find where I belong!” Disappointingly, Zeus informs Hercules that Mount Olympus is only for those who are fully divine, but that, if he’s able to prove his worth and heroism, he will be welcomed home with open arms.

Today, I hear the words of Paul’s good news ringing in sharp contrast to those of Zeus. Zeus offers Hercules a chance to prove what has been inside him all along, to prove by his deeds that he is who he says he is and, only then, to be accepted as such.

As Christians, our story is quite the opposite. It was not through the law of works that our spiritual father Abraham, and we ourselves, received God’s promise. Rather, it was through a simple, childlike trust. God has offered us all his love, and that is something that no worthy or heroic deed, no gut-wrenching sacrifice, no endless grind through the workaday world could ever earn. In Christ’s death and resurrection, God our Father throws open the doors to a home that was never ours by merit of our birth or our deeds and sings out, “Come! I love you! This is where you belong!”

Prayer: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for your promise. Forgive us when we try to earn your love, to prove our hollow faithfulness, or to make our heroism the center of your story. Humble us so that we might listen to the words of your promise anew and find our home and our joy with you. Amen.

Jeff Lampen serves with his wife, Chelsea, and their children, Lorelei (four years) and Caspian (five months), in Lupeni, Romania. The Lampens work alongside the New Horizons Foundation, developing a faith-focused educational curriculum for youth groups and guiding international students through educational and spiritual experiences.

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

In these words of Mark we see Jesus’s entry point into his public ministry. Like the opening kick-off of a football game, the baptism of Jesus is the play that gets everything started. And yet, while nothing seems to have actually happened on the part of Jesus, the Father declares that in Jesus, he is “well pleased.” It’s not possible that the pleasure of the Father could somehow be misplaced. Jesus, without yet doing a thing, pleases his Father.

As we pass through Lent, the end of Jesus’s ministry comes into sharper focus. Although Mark doesn’t provide any details, we can see that the preparation before the baptism has been sufficient training to carry Jesus through each and every step of his ministry, including that final, very painful step: death on the cross, where he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). At this point, is the Father still pleased with Jesus? Mark is silent, but I believe the answer would be a resounding “Yes!”

The Nicene Creed reminds us that Jesus came to earth “for us and for our salvation.” There is nothing about his life and ministry that does not contribute to that final outcome of salvation for all who will place their trust in him alone. The Father is pleased in the preparation of the Son, and he is pleased as the Son lives a life that accomplishes exactly what was intended: the removal of our sin so that we could know real peace with God and receive the certain promise of eternal life with Jesus, our Savior and our Lord.

The Father is pleased at the baptism, and he must also be pleased at the crucifixion, for there could be no other way to reconcile sinners with a holy God but for Jesus to carry our sin away, clothing us in his righteousness.

Prayer: Lord God Almighty, thank you for the pleasure of the Father at the baptism of the Son, and for the faithfulness of the Son as he traveled to the cross. Clothe us in the righteousness of Jesus, fill us with the Holy Spirit, and shape our lives each day, so that they too are pleasing to you. Amen.

Brad Kautz serves as pastor of the Jicarilla Apache Reformed Church in Dulce, New Mexico, on the reservation of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, where he lives with his wife, Robin, their youngest daughter, and two foster children.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Read that again. When I read this passage, I think, “Wait, what? I don’t think I get what this is trying to say.” The good news is that if you wonder this, too, we are in good company. Martin Luther once wrote this about the passage: “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.”

Even though the passage is difficult to understand, it has a simple effect on me: it ultimately leads me to the cross. It reminds me of the suffering, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. It reminds me that Jesus literally would have done anything to bring us to God, including dying a most gruesome and horrible death and going to the most horrible place after dying. Jesus is our bridge to God, and through his death and through the waters of baptism he has paved that bridge for us.

As Christians, we should want to share that good news with everyone. We want everyone, whether near or far from us, to know about that bridge. For hundreds of years RCA missionaries have been leading people to the bridge. Millions of people have been baptized, saved, and have crossed that bridge. What are you doing in your own life, through your own relationships and your own community, to bring people to the bridge?

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Thank you for forgiving our sins. Help us to find places to share that same love with others. When we do find those places, please give us the words to share and the actions to live out, so that we may help bring others closer to you. Amen.

Scott Engelsman is the RCA development coordinator for Global Mission, mission supervisor for Europe and parts of the Middle East, and the supervisor of disaster response.

¹Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
⁴Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
⁵Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
¹⁷The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent—a season of repentance and conversion as we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. During Lent we are particularly attentive to the sin and depravity that separate us from God and one another. And in the church, that attentiveness is often heavily seasoned by feelings of guilt and failure.

To a certain degree, a particular sense of guilt and failure is an appropriate response to an increased awareness of our sin (v. 17). On the other hand, it is not an end in itself. The Christian faith is not about feeling bad for our failures (though preachers often use our bad feelings to “encourage” change); rather, the Christian faith is about disciplining ourselves for a better future—in a word: hope.

Notice the verbs in Psalm 51. The psalmist starts with wash, cleanse, and purge but does not end there. By the time we get to verse 10, the psalmist moves toward future-oriented prayers: create, restore, deliver.

Why?

So that “my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance” (v. 14).

If we use the season of Lent merely to focus on our sin and failures, we miss what is most important. Awareness of our wrongdoing is only useful inasmuch as it drives us toward a more faithful future. We look at where we have been, we look at where we are, and we use the knowledge of our past and present to help us orient toward where we are going: a future of greater faithfulness.

As the season of Lent progresses this year, do not hesitate to be honest about where you have been over the past year (or where you are right now), but never forget to look forward, that God may open your lips, that your mouth will declare God’s praise” (v. 15).

Prayer:
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.

Open my eyes, that I may see my transgressions and their consequences with clarity, open my heart, that I may know the depth and breadth of your grace, and open my mind, that I may begin to recognize your will for my life.

Through your Holy Spirit, grant me the courage to embrace the priorities of your kingdom even when they seem foreign to me, that you may be glorified in all I say and do. Amen.

Tim TenClay is an RCA pastor serving the Waldensian churches of Palermo (La Noce), Marsala, and Trapani on the Island of Sicily (Italy). He is the husband of RCA missionary JJ TenClay and the father of two daughters. Although pastoring three churches keeps him busy, he is an avid (albeit slow) bike rider and an enthusiastic knitter.