Mark 8:34-38
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
As I read this passage I am reminded of a job interview I had many years ago. On the surface it seemed like a great opportunity with a lot of advantages over my current job. I was underpaid, overworked, and stressed. This new opportunity had an improved title, more interesting work, more responsibility, better salary, a shorter commute, a nice new building, and everyone I met seemed nice. So why wouldn’t I take it?
The problem was that in doing research on the company before I went to the interview, I couldn’t really tell exactly what they did. So over the course of the conversation I found out that they offered check cashing “services”. After learning this I did some more targeted research and found that, like many other companies in this industry, they charged exorbitant rates for this service. I talked about it with my wife and we agreed that even though on paper it was a great opportunity, it wasn’t worth the cost of being part of an oppressive system.
In this passage, Jesus reminds us that in order to be faithful Christians we need to be able and willing to self-deny, to sacrifice that which might be easy and might make us feel good in the short term. This passage is telling us that anyone who will truly follow Christ cannot be more interested in themselves than in the teachings of Christ. In the end everything worked out, I eventually found a new job and I am thankful that through Jesus we are able to find our path.
