Holy Cross Day: Glory Through Suffering

We’ve all had times when we were sure we had everything right, only to find out we were completely wrong. The apostle Peter had more than one of those moments, and we do too. That’s why we relate to him so well.

But Peter doesn’t always get it wrong. In Mark 8:27-30, he responds with holy insight when Jesus asks the classic question “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter answers, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:27-30). He nailed it!

But when Jesus explains that the Christ is to be killed, Peter loses it, exclaiming, “I’ll never let them kill you.”

And Jesus rebukes Peter in a strong way: “Get behind me, Satan!” (v. 33).

That’s Peter. He often gets it wrong, but he’s wholehearted. He goes all in with everything he says and does.

Upside-Down Glory

The passage we’re looking at today, as we prepare to celebrate Holy Cross Day, is Mark 9:2-13, Mark’s recounting of the Transfiguration. Here, Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him to a mountaintop, where they have the privilege of seeing what the account in the Gospel of Matthew describes as a vision: Jesus transfigured (made glorious) before them, speaking with Moses and Elijah.

I love this passage. Our friend Peter wants to bask in the glory of Jesus’ shining face. He’s been longing for a strong, radiant Messiah, and this whole idea of a suffering and dying Messiah is not what he has in mind – not at all.

And so right after Peter gets it right about who Jesus is, his immediate response to the sight of the Messiah with Elijah and Moses, is “Let’s make tents, one for each of you.”

This is hilarious. Poor Peter. His three heroes are up on the mountain talking about whatever they’re talking about – likely the redemption to come – and Peter wants to set up tents so they can just hang out. Right after his incredible confession of faith, Jesus had to rebuke him, and now he is the clueless disciple, wanting to set up shelters when Jesus is preparing to march to his death in Jerusalem.

Peter just doesn’t get it. The Transfiguration is not about building tents and hovering in that mountaintop moment. Instead, it’s about Jesus’ death and resurrection, a preview of the coming glory in the resurrection after the cross. It’s an astounding picture of God invading the world and imbuing it with his transformative grace, not a display of power and glory – at least not in the way Peter thought of it.

Peter’s understanding of glory was different, upside down from our Lord’s picture of glory, because our Lord’s picture is a glory through suffering by way of the cross. After the Transfiguration – from here on out in the rest of Mark – Jesus is marching to his death in Jerusalem. He’s marching to the shameful cross, which he will transfigure into glory.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus avoided popular messianic hopes that called for his instant enthronement, which would be glory without suffering. That was the temptation Satan brought to him. Instead, he was going to fulfill the task of glory through suffering.

The Great Reversal

Jesus going to the cross is God’s choosing the way of weakness. This is a Philippians 2 type of sensibility. The cross reveals God as one who is willing to not grab onto power in the way we know power. And he relinquishes our understanding of power, the worldly understanding of power, for the sake of love. Philip Yancey writes. “Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. At a point of convergence on the hill of Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.”

Through the cross, Jesus is going after the mother of phobias: the fear of death and guilt, which arises and gives energy to all the other anxieties in our lives. Many of our fears and anxieties are only the tip of the iceberg, while below the surface are the anxiety-producing ultimate concerns of death and guilt.

In Jesus’ cross, his death, his resurrection, he is attacking our ultimate enemies, our root fears and anxieties, to free us from all the other fears and anxieties. And this all sounds interesting, but how do the cross and resurrection really get to the heart of these things? John Calvin said it well in his commentary on Hebrews 2:15: An overdose of fear comes from ignorance of the grace of Christ.

That’s helpful. That puts it together. But how is this not just a cheesy platitude? First John explains it: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. … In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [atoning sacrifice] for our sins” (1 John 3:4-5, 4:10).

It’s the sinless one acting on behalf of the sinners. Jesus takes all of the curse and the threat and the consequence of our sin, which is death. And this is what’s amazing: Hebrews 2:14 says Jesus conquered Satan by becoming an atoning sacrifice to remove “the power of death.” The power the devil has over us is the fear of death. Jesus shared in our humanity so his death might destroy the devil and free those who are held in slavery by their fear of death. He was made to be like us in every way, that he might be an atonement for us in every way. And Jesus’ death cleanses our guilty conscience so we can have confidence rather than fear in our relationship with God.

This boldness in approaching God (Heb. 4:16) is the opposite of the fear of death. It’s the opposite of the guilt of sin. It’s the opposite of expectation of judgment. The Great Reversal has taken place. Freedom has taken the place of bondage and judgment – because Jesus has taken the place of the guilty. And because of that, you’re forgiven of all your sins. The written code against you and its regulations are canceled. He took it away and nailed it to the cross.

No Condemnation

The work of Christ brings deliverance and renewal precisely because it brings forgiveness and pardon. Sin and guilt were the grounds of Satan’s dominion, the sphere of his power, the secret of his strength. But when the guilty and the sinful have the threat abolished, Satan’s dominion over us has ended. The ground of Satan’s authority – or perceived authority – was the using of the law against us to condemn us, the pointing out of where we violated it and the haunt of that.

And Jesus is our Advocate who says, “No. That has gone to me. I’m treated like I violated the law. They are treated like they are innocent, and because I was righteous and I’m giving that to them, they are declared righteous.”

Because of his death and resurrection, guilt and sin have no right to condemn you. You might condemn yourself. Others may condemn you. But for those who are in Christ, there is now no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17).

That’s glory through suffering, not a glory without suffering. Thanks be to God that that’s what we’ve been given.

When anxiety reigns, you don’t need principles; you don’t need more accountability and surveillance. When you just can’t be good enough to stop, you need a lot more than glory without suffering.

When guilt swamps you, when you look at the commands and realize you don’t do those perfectly, and your comfort’s not in your obedience – when fear paralyzes you, you can’t rely harder on your plans. You need hope; you don’t need a can-do attitude.

When you’re overwhelmed, look to the Christ who provides glory through his suffering. Look at the holy cross – where that debt was paid once for all.

Now, receive this benediction: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:6-7).