Learn to Live as a Loser

Mark 8:27-38; Isaiah 50:4-91; James 3:1-10

One of the daily comic strips in the Chillicothe Gazette is “The Born Loser.” Brutus Thornapple has been a hapless victim of circumstances for 50 years now. He can never get anything right, nothing ever goes his way, he has a hectoring wife and a harrowing mother-in-law. He is the epitome of “loser.” 

I remember that “loser” was a taunt that was hurled frequently on the elementary playground. Today we would consider that activity a mild form of bullying, for it devalues the ones who are thus labeled.

At the close of last week’s episode of the television program, “The Biggest Loser,” the woman weighed in after participating in the program for a year. The final weigh-in showed that she had shed almost half of her starting weight. She had lost 151 pounds and was down to svelte 158 pounds. She looked wonderful. Her life attitude had totally changed. Through the support of the exercise and nutrition counselors and her faithful husband she was a new woman. She was the biggest loser but in reality she was the biggest gainer.

Speaking of gains, that other religion of the land – OSU Football – now has two buckeye leaves on the win chart towards what practitioners of that faith hope will be a second coming of the glories of last season’s national championship. 

Let me refresh your memories of the gospel account of last season. The intended starting quarterback, the Big Ten conference player of the year for two years, was injured before the season began. His backup stepped in and, after a shaky start, led the team to an 11-1 record, setting 17 school and two Big Ten records, before breaking his ankle in the last regular game of the season. At that point, the third quarterback came off the bench to lead the team to victories in the conference championship and the two national playoff games that gave Ohio State the national championship. It wasn’t the expected hero but two benchwarmers who made the difference.(1)

Sitting on the bench is the pits. Every team has them in case of emergency, so to speak. They are the pinch-hitter in baseball or the sixth man in basketball. Pro football teams play 11 positions for offense or defense and the carry a 53-man roster. Benchwarmers have enough talent to get them to the bench, but they don't start because someone else has more talent. They could sit on the sidelines and sulk about how unfair life is or how the coach doesn’t like them. Or they could be the ones greeting the teammates as they come off the field. They could be the ones who sit next to the teammate who fumbled the ball and offer words of encouragement. They could be the ones who set aside their dreams, their hopes, their lives for their friends and for the sake of that community called the team.

The image is most vivid in the realm of sports. But there are second- and third-stringers in all walks of life. There are spouses who give up good jobs to follow their mate as he or she seeks or makes a significant career advancement. There are those who quietly serve behind the scenes and out of the limelight doing what they know they are called to do and getting little or no glory for it. 

There was a letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch recently from a doctor who had served in Perry County under the National Health Scholarship Program of three years of service in a rural clinic in exchange for his medical education. The government clinic worked 8 to 5 on weekdays only. Next door to the clinic was small town doctor who often saw patients in the evenings, on weekends, and on holidays. He also made frequent house calls. The Genesis Healthcare System, to whom he had sold his building and his practice a he looked towards retirement, fired him with no explanation. The letter writer said that he didn’t know or care about the financial and political reasons behind his firing. But, he said, “I am willing to bet he has worked harder, longer and for less money to provide health care for the people of Appalachia than any executive of Genesis Healthcare System of Zanesville.”(2) Another loser who is really a gainer.

Prophets talk about speaking “truth to power.” Jesus spoke divine truth in the midst of human power. He revealed his messiahship to his disciples on foreign territory. Caesarea Philippi, at one of three sources of the Jordan River, was a vacation spa built by Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great, and dedicated to Tiberius Caesar and himself, hence the name: Caesarea Philippi.  It was situated on a beautiful terrace about 1,150 feet above sea level on the southwest slope of Mount Hermon overlooking the Jordan valley. The Sea of Galilee, on the other hand, lay nearly 700 feet below sea level. The summer’s oppressive heat drove any who could afford it to retreats like this royal spa. It must have been of considerable significance to Mark and to his audience that this should be the place where Jesus revealed his full identity to the disciples. The fundamental apostolic creed proclaimed, “Jesus is Lord,” not Caesar or his puppet king, Philip.



No matter how little we think we know about scripture, all of us have had Christ’s messiahship drilled into us. We have heard this reading from Mark, along with its parallels in Matthew and Luke, so many times that it has lost its shock value. Peter says, “You are the Christ,” and our thought is, “Yeah, everybody knows that!” But at the moment that Peter uttered those words nobody knew it. Not the disciples, not the religious elite, not the political incumbents, not the man or woman in the street. Peter’s words shattered the existing order of things. In an earsplitting phrase the world was forever changed.

Changed, not because the unimaginable had been put into words. Changed, not because a long cherished dream was about to become reality. Changed because the long-held dream was completely reinterpreted, cast in a new light, re-imaged. The one in the know threw out the generations-old dream of a military/political conqueror and replaced it with a loser. The expected champion would not do physical or verbal battle with the powers that be. He would hold his face high and submit to every ploy and trick in the book and be defeated, dying in the most hideous fashion. Then, in the midst of tyrannical gloating, he would show God’s true purpose and exercise the power for which no earthly power was a match. 

It is always disconcerting to hear Jesus tell the disciples not to tell anyone about him. It is really an extension of other times when he asked individuals not speak about him. And they always do. Peter’s response to Jesus’ explanation of his messiahship suggests the reason Jesus may have tried to keep it quiet. Peter’s response shows that he didn’t understand. He had the right title but the wrong definition. If everyone went off talking up Jesus as Messiah but with the wrong understanding, the entire mission and ministry could be compromised. The whole Palestinian world of Jesus’ day would be trying to force a square peg Jesus into a round hole revolution. The end result would be devastating. There will be no glory and reward in that misguided approach.

Some scripture passages are filled with information. Some are filled with rules and guidelines. This one has neither. It has a single demand. It requires a personal commitment. Who is Jesus for you? Only you and you alone can answer that for yourself. And we have to do so knowing that we may have the title right but may not fully understand the meaning. What does it mean for us if we call Jesus Savior? Son of God? Messiah?

Peter was human. We are human. Jesus urges Peter, urges us to gain another perspective. That is a lifetime of work. We are invited to find in our relationship with Jesus the promise and the hope that somehow the divine perspective on who we are and what we are about will break through our wall of humanity and grow within us. Then we will find a way of life that is different from the way of the world, a way that fill truly and eternally fulfill all that God intends. The world calls it “losing.” God calls it salvation. If that is the case, each of us is called to learn to live as a loser, for those who lose their lives because of Jesus and because of the good news will save them.

Praise the Lord.

(1) Thom Shuman, “benchwarmers and toothpaste,” midrash@joinhands.com, Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 11:17 AM
(2) Ronald Bloomfield, “Physician gave all to a poor community,” Columbus Dispatch, Friday, September 11, 2015, B, 14.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2015 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.