by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
v34Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. “If any of you want to come with me,” he told them, “you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. v35For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it. v36Do you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! v37There is nothing you can give to regain your life. v38If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”Read: Mark 8:31-38)**
In our gospel reading this second Sunday in Lent, Peter protests when Jesus told them, “The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life.” (v.31). Peter objects the idea of a Messiah who must suffer as incredible and incomprehensible. Jesus, facing the temptation to resist his call to be a ‘suffering servant’, rebukes Peter and argues forcefully for disciples who resist the temptation to power and glory. Disciples “take up their cross,” the way of sacrifice and suffering, and “follow.” Jesus’ way is not the way of triumph and glory but of suffering and cross bearing. Disciples are those who voluntarily accept the way of the cross. As one famous theologian puts it, “Just as Christ is Christ (Messiah) only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross.” (D. Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).
***
The paradox of the gospel is that what seems to be the way of foolishness and failure – entering into the pain and suffering and rejection of Christ – is the way of life and joy and satisfaction. Our expectation contradicts the way of the Lord. We want Jesus in our lives, so long as he will make life easier, more comfortable, more prosperous for us. But Jesus offers suffering, rejection, death. And not only for himself, but for any who desire to be disciples. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me” (v.34). As fascinated as we may be with the drama of the crucifixion, we do not much like the idea of the cross being necessary for us. People come to Jesus expecting to have a comforter blanket, when, of course, he provides a cross. It is rather shocking to realize that the cross is more than a piece of jewelry to wear, or a stick of wood on the altar, or an iron symbol perching atop the church steeple. For Christians, the cross is a way of life.
***
Martin Luther posited that all true theology is a theology of the cross, rather than a theology of glory. Rather than God being known directly through God’s divine power, wisdom and glory, Luther contended that God is known paradoxically precisely where God is hidden, in the suffering of Christ. The church faces an ongoing temptation to proclaim a gospel that is triumphalistic. This is an idea that to be a Christian is to ‘feel good’ all the way. It is also the idea that if one becomes a Christian, his social status will become elevated. He will never want or need for anything, he has socio-economic advantages in virtue of his being a Christian, and he has power to “speak” areas of advantageous truth over his life and miraculously watch these things come to fruition. His relationship with God gives him unique standing which, in turn, garners him the necessary ability to prosper in anything and everything he tries to accomplish, and he has biblical justification to assume that what God wants for him (and all believers) is to live a healthy and wealthy life now – and saved from any suffering.
***
“Jesus has now many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His cross. He has many that are desirous of consolation, but few of tribulation. He finds many companions of His table, but few of His abstinence. All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to endure anything for His sake. Many follow Jesus into the breaking of bread, but few follow the shame of the cross.” (Thomas a Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ). We tend to sign on for the glory of it all, not the humiliation. We want healing, comfort, reward, success as fringe benefits for our faith. It is hard to build a successful church, some would argue, preaching the cross as a model of the Christian life. People do not want to hear it The temptation to avoid that message is still with us and more popular today. That is why preaching authentically and faithfully requires such integrity.
***
To know and follow Jesus means that we cannot guide, protect, manipulate, or possess Jesus. We are simply to follow. The Christian life is full of paradoxes. To try to hold on to life, to possess, is to lose its value, worth, beauty. To give it away, to share, to deny self in serving Jesus, is to find oneself. We learn who we are by serving Jesus in the least of our brethren. We fulfill our needs by denying ourselves for the sake of others. This is not a popular perspective in this time where we are urged to take care of ourselves, to ensure our needs are being met above all.
***
The paradox of faith is that it is in losing one’s life that one finds it, it is in giving that we receive, it is even in entering into the pain of the world and in experiencing the cross, that we find our greatest joy. ‘Our culture works hard to convince us that the secret to happiness is going around the cross, avoiding that which is tough and uncomfortable, worrying less about being good than simply doing what works. All this talk about death and suffering and rejection seems odd to some. But Christians see the world through the cross. But we do so in confidence that not only is there greater honesty in that, but that it truly offers the world its only full and lasting hope.’ (The Minister’s Annual Manual, 1999-2000).
This is the paradox of our Christian faith.
Let us pray.
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.(Collect, 2nd Sunday in Lent, BCP).***
