Then 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 (Mark 8:31)

Fred Craddock was a preacher and a teacher of theology. One time when he was teaching at the University of Oklahoma on Jesus. He was talking about the things Jesus said and explaining them clearly - stuff about loving your enemies, that kind of thing. There was a girl sitting at the back of the class who suddenly stood up and started slamming her books on the desk mumbling, Jesus and the losers! I can’t stand this.” She stuffed her books in her bag and went out still mumbling, “Jesus and a bunch of losers!”

In Western society - perhaps no more so than in America - we are very success-oriented. We are taught that it’s important to be successful and we’re taught to admire successful people and we’re given a pretty clear idea of what success looks like. Success is wealth - it’s living in a big house and being able to afford the fanciest cars, the best of foods. Success is power - it’s the ability to shape the world you want it; to be able to tell other people what to do and to have them serve your every whim. Success is fame - it’s having the spotlight upon you; having your picture in the papers and enjoying the attentions of the media until you reach that point of ultimate acclaim: “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here”.

I doubt that folk in the first century were altogether different. That’s what, I imagine, provokes the response of the Apostles when Jesus tells them that he’s going to suffer, be rejected and wind up nailed to a cross. I don’t think any of that is going to make it into those “self-help”, motivational books that successful people often write to convince us that they got where they are entirely through their personal merits, grit, drive and perseverance and that if we only shared their admirable qualities we could all be winners because, after all, luck doesn’t come into it.

To the Apostles Jesus’s talk of suffering, rejection and death must have sounded an awful lot like failure. Perhaps they were afraid that, if he carried on the way he was going, saying the things he was saying, then they were hitching their star to a loser. But here’s a thing that’s pretty central to the Christian Gospel: in the eyes of the world Jesus looked very much like a loser - not that that was particularly uncommon. 

When Jesus talks about suffering, rejection and violent death he’s not talking about anything in the slightest bit unusual. Right now, as at every moment of every day, there are countless people suffering in the world - most times they don’t have the spotlight of fame on them nor are they surrounded by the trappings of wealth or status. People are rejected every day - they are forgotten by the world and spend their nights on park benches or huddled in doorways; they are harassed and picked on, beaten or spat on for the colour of their skin or for their sexuality. People die violent deaths - they are people like the people of Eastern Ghouta, caught up in conflicts they didn’t invite; or they are ordinary people, like the thieves crucified on either side of Christ, condemned by brutal oppression.

This is the world Jesus was born into. It’s no accident that Mark reports him describing himself as the Son of Man at this point. In Christ God shared the life of a human being - in some ways an ordinary human being; sharing the hurts, the sufferings, the disappointments and brutalities that humanity experiences. If God had wanted to he could have shared the life of one of the winners in the eyes of the world. He could have come into the world in the life of a wealthy ruler in the great palaces of the Middle East and lived a life surrounded by opulence. He could have come into the world in the life of a mighty Caesar and commanded great armies to conquer in his name. He could have come into the world in the life of someone who knew nothing but pleasure and comfort for all the days of a long life. But he didn’t.

Jesus lived his life among life’s losers. He lived among the sick and the poor and the hungry and the exploited. He rubbed shoulders with the kind of people the world turned away from - the folk they labelled sinners; lepers, Samaritans, outcasts. And he walked the same route to death we all walk, whatever our wealth, whatever our status, whatever our fame.

We live in a success-oriented society. We are taught to admire life’s winners - to look up to them, to doff our caps to them, to treat them with deference. We can, too easily, be beguiled by the glamour that surrounds them. We can see them as the “important” people in the world and judge ourselves as successes or failures by their standards. There are even some people who cleave to a version of Christianity known as the Prosperity Gospel which insists that, if we follow God’s rules the  he will reward them with all those trappings of winners - wealth, power, fame.

We are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful. We are called to be like Abraham - following in God’s way and trusting in God however unlikely it seemed that things were going to work out. We are not called to be successful in the eyes of the world. We are not called to be winners in the eyes of the world. We are called to be faithful and to walk among and alongside those the world labels losers - just as Jesus did.

We are not called to be successful - we are called to be faithful. We are called to bear witness to the love of God - the love that shone in the world: a love that is for the poorest as much as for the wealthiest; is for the weakest as much as for the most powerful; is for the forgotten as much as for the famous. A love that does not divide the world into winners and losers but in which all - every man woman and child - are beloved children.

We are not called to be successful - we are called to be faithful. We are called to bear witness to the justice of God - a justice in which all are equal. We are called to be a voice for the silenced and a shoulder for the weak to lean on. We are called to be a voice for peace in a world which too often is marred by bloodshed and conflict; where the divisions that scar humanity so often drive us to violence. We are called to stand up for what is right is right - to do what is right - even if it’s inconvenient or difficult.

We are not called to be successful - we are called to be faithful. we are called to walk the road we all walk - the road that leads us home to God - bearing witness in the way that we live to the promise of God that there is life eternal for all who accept his love - not just the Pharaoh in his pyramid or the film star whose work is seen when he’s gone, but for all: for the suffering and the rejected and the broken. For you and me.

We are not called to be successful. What the world calls “winning” is passing glory and shiny things. A life lived faithfully, with integrity and compassion for those the world calls “losers”. That’s something that will shine for eternity.

Lord, may we be blind to the temptations of success and walk in your way as faithful servants

Preached at Gretna Old parish church