Reset your mind

If we say a decision is “set in stone” we are describing something that is very difficult or impossible to change. If we describe someone as being “set in their ways”, we are saying they are unwilling to change their habits, behaviours and opinions.

And when we say we are setting our mind on something, we mean that we are determined to reach a goal or objective and focusing our mind, effort and actions on getting there. It’s important that our minds are set on the right thing because our mind-set determines our way of thinking and our opinions, the way we see ourselves and the situations we face.

In today’s Gospel passage, we see Jesus emphasise the importance of your mind being set in the right place. Jesus rebukes Peter for his mind being set in the wrong place.He says that Peter has set his mind on human things instead of on divine things.

Jesus had just told his followers God’s divine plan for him. This wasn’t new information. Prophets had spoken about the Son of Man and what would happen to him. But Jesus needed to teach his disciples that He was the promised Son of Man – the Messiah – who had been promised to the world. He needed them to understand that He was the fulfilment of all the prophesies, the living Word of God become manifest and present in the world. No longer just words spoken by a prophet or written on a scroll, but God's Word made flesh and living among the people.

Jesus tells his disciples that God’s divine plan for the Son of Man is for him to undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and after three days rise again.

Peter doesn’t want to hear this. He refuses to believe that his friend and his teacher has to walk that path. His disbelief is understandable. From a human perspective, God’s salvation plan doesn’t make sense.

Since Jesus had called Peter to follow him from his life as a fisherman to become a fisher of men, Peter has witnessed some amazing things. He was there when Jesus healed his mother-in-law, a paralysed man. He had watched Jesus heal a man with a withered hand, cast out demons from oppressed people. Peter had seen Jesus bring a dead child back to life, feed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish and four thousand people with seven loaves and a few small fish, walk on water, heal a deaf man and a blind man.

On top of all these miracles that Peter had witnessed, he had heard Jesus’ teaching with an authority over God’s words that drew crowds. Seeing all this, Peter was convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah. In fact, just before this morning’s passage, Peter had declared that Jesus is the Messiah, when other disciples were still debating whether he was Elijah, John the Baptist come back from the dead, or a prophet.

Peter was convinced that Jesus was divine....but his mindset - his way of thinking and understanding - was still very human.

The human perspective

From a human point of view, the Messiah should be a hero figure. The culmination of all the miracles and amazing encounters that the Gospel of Mark describes should be leading to a big dramatic showdown. If it was a movie, at the climax, Jesus would face off with the religious leaders and the secular leaders, produce an irrefutable miracle that would reveal the truth of his identity to the whole world, everyone would believe in him, he would destroy his enemies, and rescue his people. End credits.

But this is a human perspective. God’s divine plan involved rejection, betrayal, becoming the victim of injustice and then suffering a torturous death. The miracle of the resurrection isn’t something that leaves everyone without any doubt.

At the resurrection, the hero doesn’t emerge with a crown proving his kingship, instead he is mistaken for a simple gardener.

Yes, the salvation story isn’t one a movie director would have chosen to be a box office winner.

But Jesus says that Peter and everyone who wants to follow him must change the location of where their mind is set.

We must reset our mind from seeing situations through human eyes and see them through God’s.

This is not easy. The longer we live the more set in our ways we can become. It is difficult to change our habits, behaviours and opinions when we have been – and continue to be – shaped and influenced by secular society.

Take Abraham, for example,… Abraham was given a promise by God that he would be a father of nations. He believed God’s word’s but it was a long process for him to shift from a human mindset to a divine one.

From his human mindset, he focused on what was possible and reasonable. Abraham was in his late 90s and his wife couldn’t have children when God made a covenant with him.

He believed the promise but because he was still viewing things from a human mindset he decided that having a child with his wife’s servant, Haggai, would be the only rational way that would enable God’s promise of a child to be fulfilled.

It took Abraham many years for his faith to grow strong enough to realise that God who gave him the promise was able to do what he had promised in a divine way that might confound human ideas of what is possible.

He finally understood that having a divine mindset means putting your trust not in your own strength and talents or in your human conceptions of what is possible or not; but instead putting your trust in the God of the impossible, the God who calls into existence the things that do not yet exist.

God changed Abram's name to Abraham – which means father of multitudes or father of nations. God called Abraham a father when evidence for him ever becoming a father did not exist. God renamed Sarai, Sarah – which means Princess, of not just Abraham or her family, but of many.

Their new names moved them away from their family and human connections and into God’s divine plan. The new names he gave them prophesied who they would become: Parents whose descendants would include Jesus, the Son of Man. By giving them new names, God called into existence the things that did not exist.

And what of us, who want to follow Jesus? Jesus tells us that we must, like Abraham, move our minds from a human mindset to His Divine mindset.

In the passage he gives us an idea of how we can do this. He says to his disciples and the crowds: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

How to reset our minds

(1)  Deny ourselves

Just like Abraham and Sarah were given new identities and new names, God has given those who believe in His Son, new identities and new names. We are called Saints, Children of God.

He has called into existence the things that do not exist because, when we look through a human mindset, we are weighed down by our present reality. We are aware of our unsaintliness, the flaws in our character, the ways of thinking that have developed from our upbringing, our socialisation, and the influences that surround us.

When we look at ourselves through a human mindset, we see that often times we don’t bear much of a resemblance to our heavenly Father – maybe we have a tendency to bear grudges rather than forgive, at times we can be lacking in love and compassion to the people in our lives.

Today’s Psalm describes a God who “does not despise the poor in their poverty” nor does he “hide his face from them but when they cry to him he hears them.” At this time of financial difficulty, at a time when politicians seek to cast blame on the poor, the vulnerable, the sickest and weakest in our society – it can be an effort to shift away from this human mindset and towards a divine one.

Yes, we may look at ourselves and not always see the new identity that God has given us. But Jesus asks us to view things through a divine mindset. To believe that we are his Children, that we are His Saints, and that God is able to call into existence the things that do not yet appear to exist. Like Abraham we can be fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised.

We can put our faith in Him to breathe his resurrection life into us. And to continue the transforming, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in making us resemble our Father more and more.

(2)  Take up our cross

We are called to take up our cross, to embrace a life of service and sacrificial love. Jesus demonstrated this type of love when He gave up His life for the sake of the world. To follow in His footsteps, we must also be willing to put others’ needs before our own.

Serving others could be as simple as offering a listening ear to a friend who needs to talk, sacrificing your time or money to help those in need. We can serve our church communities, our villages, and our families by building and strengthening meaningful relationships.

(3)  Follow Jesus

Jesus calls us to a life that follows his footsteps, being obedient to God’s plan, even if that means a change to our own plans.

Following Jesus, living our lives with a divine mindset,  means that we will face opposition, rejection and persecution, especially when the world around us is fixed in a human mindset. There will be times when our commitment to follow God and His ways will place us in opposition to popular opinions.

Jesus encourages us that, even if we may suffer and lose things or relationships because of our faith in the Gospel, we will receive His salvation. If we are not ashamed of Jesus and the Gospel when they are in conflict with the values of our society, Jesus will not be ashamed to claim us as His own when he returns in glory.

A time to give up

During this time of Lent, as we think of giving up things and fasting from chocolate or other indulgences, maybe we can be challenged to give up our human mindset.

As we read the bible, as we pray, we can ask God to show us the parts of us that are not set in the truth of His Word. The thoughts and behaviours that mirror attitudes in our society and that do not align with God’s mind.

We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us to set our minds on divine things by denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus’ example, so that our actions and how we treat the people in our lives will bear a stronger resemblance to our Father.