I’m currently still preaching a sermon series called Good News from the Gospel of Mark with the Newark Church of Christ. The premise for each message is that Mark wrote his gospel so that Christians would continue living as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Such living requires both faith and discipleship. That is, we must not only believe in Jesus Christ but also, because of our belief in Jesus Christ, commit ourselves to learning from Jesus in order that we may embody the gospel—the good news of the kingdom of God—in our own lives just as Jesus does in his life.
Yet as I type these words, I realize that not everyone professing the Christian faith is interested in actually following Jesus. The lack of discipleship is one of the reasons why Christianity, for the most part, no longer presents a compelling story that other people might consider to be a better alternative to the stories they’re already living.
Now I’m not one who likes ultimatums but sometimes ultimatums are necessary. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’s ultimatum is the cross. There is no path to kingdom of God except though the surrendering of life to death upon a cross. So Jesus clearly says, “Whoever want to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mk 8:34).1 Whatever taking up our cross as followers of Jesus might look like today, doing so seems strange, if not irresponsible and foolish, in our American society. For this reason, listening to Jesus becomes extremely important.
Perhaps saying that Christians should listen to Jesus sounds rather axiomatic. After all, don’t all Christians listen to Jesus? Sadly, I believe the answer is no. In fact, what should be rather obvious is that not everyone who professes the Christian faith actually listens to Jesus. But let’s hold this thought for a moment and take up Mark’s invitation to join Peter, James, and John on the mountain with Jesus in Mark 9:2-12.
The Christian faith is a tangible reality lived by us as people willing to carry our crosses as followers Jesus gathered together as local churches. The way in which the Christian faith becomes real is by listening to Jesus.
The scene we are invited to observe is where Jesus is transfigured. As Jesus is transfigured, the voice of God speaks from a cloud and says, “This is my Son, whom I love, listen to him!”2 On the surface, listening to Jesus seems like an easy point to understand but in reality it is more difficult than we realize.
When Jesus was transfigured, he appeared with Moses and Elijah. These two great prophets of Israel symbolize the past that animates the nationalistic aspirations many of the Jews have embraced in their desire to the kingdom of God restored. Their understanding of the kingdom is mistaken but it’s because of this misunderstanding that the disciples can’t accept Jesus’s talk about crucifixion. So God identifies Jesus as his Son and says, “Listen to him!” And immediately Moses and Elijah disappear, leaving only Jesus as the voice the disciples must listen to.
The problem of listening to Jesus is a matter of when rather than if. That is, almost every Christian will agree that they should listen to Jesus. In fact, I can’t think of one Christian who would say differently. The problem is that there are other competing voices that many Christians listen to alongside of Jesus, unconsciously regarding these voices as having equal or more authority than Jesus.
I’m particularly alarmed by the increasing influence of people advocating Christian nationalism, which fuses aspects of Christianity and America into one ideology.3 The rise of Christian nationalism is due, in part, because Christians are listening to other voices besides Jesus. But what makes the voices of Christian nationalism so attractive is because they speak to the desires of many Christians, which says something about just how much the ultimatum of carrying the cross and then following Jesus has been ignored.4
So I want to offer an important reminder. Christianity is not just an idea we mentally ascribe to. The Christian faith is a tangible reality lived by us as people willing to carry our crosses as followers Jesus gathered together as local churches. The way in which the Christian faith becomes real is by listening to Jesus. Herein lies a great challenge to faith and discipleship in North America: Will we, who profess the Christian faith, listen to Jesus? That is a question that we will answer in the way we live and what we live for—the kingdom of God or just another kingdom of this world.
All scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
The verb akouō (“listen”) in Mk 9:7 is in the imperative form which makes listening to Jesus a command rather than something like a suggestion or just a piece of advice.
Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back For God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, updated ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020, 2022), 10.
Contrast the ethic of Jesus that resulted in the non-coercive self-surrender of death on the cross, with the ethic of Christian nationalism that calls for a nation to be led by “Christian warriors” which are considered to be “Christian men who embrace their God-given masculine energy to conquer and lead,” see Andrew Torba and Andrew Isler, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide To Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations, (gab, 2022), 27.