It comes as a shock! Moments earlier, Peter has said that Jesus is the Christ, the one in whom so much hope and expectation has been invested.
It should be a high point. And yet the mood has swiftly changed. Instead of happy talk about a great new future, instead, of learning of their important roles within the Kingdom of Jesus with all the benefits that they could hope for, the disciples hear Jesus talking not of triumph and glory but of rejection and death. No wonder Peter protests. Surely this is not the way that it was meant to be.
And yet, one of the lessons which the disciples have to learn is that this is the way of Christ’s Kingdom. For an essential lesson to learn about Jesus is that Jesus does not enter into the ways of domination by which so much power was in his time and still is in our time exercised, but instead he acts in powerlessness, love and self giving. Whilst domination from strength dehumanises those who get in its way, Jesus offers an alternative vision by being alongside us as one experiences the full vulnerability of human life. And this is what Incarnation is about. Our hope is not based on distant act from a far off place but it is rather based upon a Saviour who comes alongside us and shares in our weaknesses. And of course, it is in dying for us on a Cross that Jesus reveals the immensity of Divine love for each of us.
Today’s reading, however, reminds us of another matter. It reminds us that whatever some of our hymns may say, we are not promised a life of ease. Rather than a promise that we shall be ‘happy all the day’ Jesus is concerned to equip his people for hard times ahead. It is as one of our better hymns puts it;
“Father hear the prayer we offer
Not for ease that prayer shall be
But for strength that we might ever
Live our lives courageously.”
And indeed by the time that Marks’s Gospel was first being read, his readers knew the reality that those who followed Jesus were often meeting with the hatred, rejection and violence that had been directed at Jesus himself. I think that in his teaching, Jesus is warning his disciples that to follow in his way of love and vulnerability, would expose them to the hatred of those who would be blind to love. Jesus and those who follow him will share in facing the enmity of those who confront the Gospel of love.
The Christian is called to pattern his or her life upon that of Jesus. As such, we have to take Jesus seriously when he tells his disciples that following him means taking up our cross. We know that this is inevitably a tough call for a cross was a particularly gruesome method of killing those whom the Roman held to be of no value. So what does it mean today?
Firstly, I think we need to avoid two common misunderstandings.
The first misunderstanding is one that is based in abusive relationships. Too often one hears the dominated person, often the mistreated woman, talk of the injustice they suffer as being “a cross that I must bear.” Without straying into the very real difficulties of such situations and the question of why people stay in abusive relationships, we need to be clear that this is not a cross in the sense in which Jesus uses the term. Whilst as we shall see in a moment a cross may invite suffering, the cross that Jesus calls us to take up does not deny us our status of beloved children of God or dehumanise us. Christ affirms your value. He does not take it away.
The second misunderstanding that often occurs regarding Jesus’ call to take up our cross, is when difficulties over which we have no control such as family tragedies are seen as a “cross that we must bear.” Be careful with this temptation. We are talking about things which are very painful BUT we do such situations no good if we speak of them as God's will in being the cross that we are called to bear. In such situations, the Cross may be seen in the costs in time or money which are incurred to do God’s work in helping those in such situations.
When Jesus speaks of us taking up our cross, he is speaking about a calling that each of us has, to be about his work even when doing so runs contrary to how most people see as the sensible way to act. At times, this calling involves danger.
Examples of the danger s involved in taking up one’s cross, could include the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In June 1939 he arrived in New York just a short time after he had received his call up papers from the German authorities. In New York, he had a whole range of options from pastoring German refugees to taking up one of a host of lucrative academic appointments which he was well qualified for. But this man who only a few years before had written the Christian classic, “The Cost of Discipleship” quickly realised that he had made a mistake. He realised that his place was in Germany playing a role within the Confessing Church which had been taking the risk of confronting Nazism when so much of the rest of the Church had gone along with the evil. And so after just three weeks against the advice of many of his friends, he began the journey back to Germany fully aware of the risks he would face. And ultimately for Bonhoeffer, the journey back led to imprisonment and in the final weeks of the war to a hangman’s noose.
A more recent story concerns the Christian Peacemaker Teams which in their belief that Christ rejects violence have sought to be peacemakers even if it means putting themselves into extreme danger. For several weeks, we have seen on the television screens the story unfolding of the four members of such a team who were kidnapped in Iraq. Even now, we do not know hat will happen to Norman Kember and his Canadian colleagues but we do know that their American colleague Tom Fox was found murdered with the signs of torture on his body only a couple of weeks ago. Four men determined to take following Christ seriously, four men who took up their cross and who have paid the price.
Bit it needn’t always be about physical danger. It can be about following in the path of a man such as John Profumo. Forced to resign from the MacMillan Government as a result of the sex scandal with which is name will always be linked, he responded by walking into Toynbee Hall, a place of refuge for some of the most destitute people in London to offer help with the washing up, only to devote the remaining forty or so years of his life to helping those who had been consigned to the bottom of the pile. And of course, countless others serve in similar ways, helping those who need is greatest, taking up their cross.
And that is our calling too. C.S. Lewis put it well when he wrote,
“Christ says; give me it all. I don’t want only so much of your time or money or work, I want you. No half measures are good enough. Hand over the whole self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as theories you think wicked - the whole outfit. And I’ll give you a new self instead.”
This morning as we travel on in Lent, we see Christ travelling resolutely on the journey that leads him to rejection and death. He asks us to identify with him by linking our lives to his. He asks you and me to take up our crosses so that we might be a part of his work. But as we do so, he offers us a comfort. In all things, he, who loves us enough to go to the barbarity of an old rugged cross for us, is with us, loving us, valuing us and helping us. For his presence brings the hope and expectations which Peter placed in Christ’s Kingly domination, to fulfilment in humble service.
AMEN
It should be a high point. And yet the mood has swiftly changed. Instead of happy talk about a great new future, instead, of learning of their important roles within the Kingdom of Jesus with all the benefits that they could hope for, the disciples hear Jesus talking not of triumph and glory but of rejection and death. No wonder Peter protests. Surely this is not the way that it was meant to be.
And yet, one of the lessons which the disciples have to learn is that this is the way of Christ’s Kingdom. For an essential lesson to learn about Jesus is that Jesus does not enter into the ways of domination by which so much power was in his time and still is in our time exercised, but instead he acts in powerlessness, love and self giving. Whilst domination from strength dehumanises those who get in its way, Jesus offers an alternative vision by being alongside us as one experiences the full vulnerability of human life. And this is what Incarnation is about. Our hope is not based on distant act from a far off place but it is rather based upon a Saviour who comes alongside us and shares in our weaknesses. And of course, it is in dying for us on a Cross that Jesus reveals the immensity of Divine love for each of us.
Today’s reading, however, reminds us of another matter. It reminds us that whatever some of our hymns may say, we are not promised a life of ease. Rather than a promise that we shall be ‘happy all the day’ Jesus is concerned to equip his people for hard times ahead. It is as one of our better hymns puts it;
“Father hear the prayer we offer
Not for ease that prayer shall be
But for strength that we might ever
Live our lives courageously.”
And indeed by the time that Marks’s Gospel was first being read, his readers knew the reality that those who followed Jesus were often meeting with the hatred, rejection and violence that had been directed at Jesus himself. I think that in his teaching, Jesus is warning his disciples that to follow in his way of love and vulnerability, would expose them to the hatred of those who would be blind to love. Jesus and those who follow him will share in facing the enmity of those who confront the Gospel of love.
The Christian is called to pattern his or her life upon that of Jesus. As such, we have to take Jesus seriously when he tells his disciples that following him means taking up our cross. We know that this is inevitably a tough call for a cross was a particularly gruesome method of killing those whom the Roman held to be of no value. So what does it mean today?
Firstly, I think we need to avoid two common misunderstandings.
The first misunderstanding is one that is based in abusive relationships. Too often one hears the dominated person, often the mistreated woman, talk of the injustice they suffer as being “a cross that I must bear.” Without straying into the very real difficulties of such situations and the question of why people stay in abusive relationships, we need to be clear that this is not a cross in the sense in which Jesus uses the term. Whilst as we shall see in a moment a cross may invite suffering, the cross that Jesus calls us to take up does not deny us our status of beloved children of God or dehumanise us. Christ affirms your value. He does not take it away.
The second misunderstanding that often occurs regarding Jesus’ call to take up our cross, is when difficulties over which we have no control such as family tragedies are seen as a “cross that we must bear.” Be careful with this temptation. We are talking about things which are very painful BUT we do such situations no good if we speak of them as God's will in being the cross that we are called to bear. In such situations, the Cross may be seen in the costs in time or money which are incurred to do God’s work in helping those in such situations.
When Jesus speaks of us taking up our cross, he is speaking about a calling that each of us has, to be about his work even when doing so runs contrary to how most people see as the sensible way to act. At times, this calling involves danger.
Examples of the danger s involved in taking up one’s cross, could include the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In June 1939 he arrived in New York just a short time after he had received his call up papers from the German authorities. In New York, he had a whole range of options from pastoring German refugees to taking up one of a host of lucrative academic appointments which he was well qualified for. But this man who only a few years before had written the Christian classic, “The Cost of Discipleship” quickly realised that he had made a mistake. He realised that his place was in Germany playing a role within the Confessing Church which had been taking the risk of confronting Nazism when so much of the rest of the Church had gone along with the evil. And so after just three weeks against the advice of many of his friends, he began the journey back to Germany fully aware of the risks he would face. And ultimately for Bonhoeffer, the journey back led to imprisonment and in the final weeks of the war to a hangman’s noose.
A more recent story concerns the Christian Peacemaker Teams which in their belief that Christ rejects violence have sought to be peacemakers even if it means putting themselves into extreme danger. For several weeks, we have seen on the television screens the story unfolding of the four members of such a team who were kidnapped in Iraq. Even now, we do not know hat will happen to Norman Kember and his Canadian colleagues but we do know that their American colleague Tom Fox was found murdered with the signs of torture on his body only a couple of weeks ago. Four men determined to take following Christ seriously, four men who took up their cross and who have paid the price.
Bit it needn’t always be about physical danger. It can be about following in the path of a man such as John Profumo. Forced to resign from the MacMillan Government as a result of the sex scandal with which is name will always be linked, he responded by walking into Toynbee Hall, a place of refuge for some of the most destitute people in London to offer help with the washing up, only to devote the remaining forty or so years of his life to helping those who had been consigned to the bottom of the pile. And of course, countless others serve in similar ways, helping those who need is greatest, taking up their cross.
And that is our calling too. C.S. Lewis put it well when he wrote,
“Christ says; give me it all. I don’t want only so much of your time or money or work, I want you. No half measures are good enough. Hand over the whole self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as theories you think wicked - the whole outfit. And I’ll give you a new self instead.”
This morning as we travel on in Lent, we see Christ travelling resolutely on the journey that leads him to rejection and death. He asks us to identify with him by linking our lives to his. He asks you and me to take up our crosses so that we might be a part of his work. But as we do so, he offers us a comfort. In all things, he, who loves us enough to go to the barbarity of an old rugged cross for us, is with us, loving us, valuing us and helping us. For his presence brings the hope and expectations which Peter placed in Christ’s Kingly domination, to fulfilment in humble service.
AMEN
posted by Rev Paul Martin at 7:26 AM
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