March 8, 2009

In the sermon I gave two weeks ago, I suggested that one of the strengths of our Holy Scripture is its continuing relevance.  I made the point that each Bible account is actually two stories.  One is a lesson to an ancient people, telling them how to order their lives, their worship and relationships to please God and secure His blessing.  The second meaning in each passage is instruction to contemporary readers.  Every generation that opens the pages and encounters the word of God finds clear guidance and articulated expectations for faithful behavior in their own time.  Here are the two stories at work in our gospel passage this morning:

Jesus, James, John and Peter return from their trip up the mountain.  They rejoin the other nine disciples and Jesus knows his time with the group is growing short.  He doesn’t know exactly how the events will unfold, but he is certain that when they get to Jerusalem, he will no longer be a free agent.  He knows he will fall into the hands of the Romans and be put to death.  Jesus tries to prepare the disciples, but they resist his news and suggest alternative outcomes.  Jesus realizes he must quickly change his tactics.  Up to this point in his ministry, his strategy has been to teach in-depth lessons and concepts to his disciples and to preach more introductory theology to the crowds.  Because he sees time growing short and opportunities slipping away, he changes the pattern.  Here in Mark 8:31, we see Jesus calling the crowd and the disciples together.  He will give them the same instruction, hoping that at least some in the gathering will grasp and accept the call to a radical shift in living and believing.  Jesus says in very explicit terms, if you decide to follow my lessons and my example, you must know that suffering, sacrifice and hardship will definitely be part of the experience.  Becoming one of my followers will put you in conflict with powerful, unforgiving forces.  Jesus mentions the cross specifically.  All those in his audience knew what he meant. 

In year 33, the Roman Empire was magnificent.  It was prosperous and efficient, orderly and expedient.  To keep her captured people terrorized and in their place, Rome instituted a gruesome device of torture and death.  If a person was convicted of rebellion, civil unrest or aggravating the state, he or she was sentenced to crucifixion.  The prisoner would carry the cross beam up the designated hill.  At the summit, the convicted person would be nailed to the cross beam, and the cross beam with the person now attached would be lifted up and hammered into the long staked beam.  For days, for days, the person would hang there before finally dying of suffocation.  In plain view for entire cities to see, Rome’s no tolerance policy was evident and effective.  “He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”  Jesus is clear and direct.   He knows that the worship, the ethics and the compassionate relationships he advocates are contrary to the public policy of the day.  He is fully aware that he is a perceived “national threat” and that his followers will be treated as subversives and anarchists.  He is at odds with his world.  The political, religious and cultural structures of his time hold in their hearts values and loyalties very different from those he proclaims. 

Jesus does not intend to mislead people touched by his message.  He describes the reality of the situation.  I will be rejected.  I will be killed.  I will come to you again after three days.  If you carry my message to others, if you live as I have taught, you too will be tortured and killed.  Your time on earth will not be easy as a follower of the Son of God.  However, and this is equally important to hear and understand, if you do decide to wrap your heart, mind and soul around, the good news, if you decide living “the way of Christ” despite its dangers is the better course for you, know the rewards that await you.  Suffering, rejection, literal trials and persecutions may be inevitable, but there are also compensatory benefits.  The life I promise is the abundant life.  My way brings peace of mind and a restive spirit.  My way brings you into a community where care and friendship and more than words.  In living the faith that I profess, we take real care of one another.  We share what we have so the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of all God’s beloved are met.  No one walks “the way” alone.  And, when our abundant life on earth comes to an end, those who took up the gospel for my sake will have their reward.  They will be remembered.  Their faith will be recorded and eternal joys await them.  This world and its effects can seem mighty, important and harsh, but it is temporary.  Its power passes away.  Life in the kingdom of man is short.  Life in God’s kingdom is eternal.  Jesus told them, when the book of life is reviewed on the last day, those who gave their allegiance to me will find themselves with the Father, in glory, surrounded by the holy angels, for all eternity.  This is the meaning Jesus wants the crowd and disciples to hear in their time: prepare to suffer great pain and almost certain death as my follower.  Know the greater rewards that await you.

The meaning Jesus sends us in this passage is slightly more nuanced.  In 21^st century America, professing Jesus Christ as the author of one’s salvation is not a capital offense.  We are not arrested, beaten, tried or executed for loving Jesus.  No one cares.  No one cares if we study his words or follow his teachings, pray the prayer he taught the disciples, wash one another’s feet or take bread and wine in remembrance of him.  Officials and mobs leave us alone in our worship and practice of Christianity.  Today, we do not live under the threat of the cross’ crossbeam.  Following Jesus no longer requires sacrifices to outside forces.  Today, taking up one’s cross has internal and psychic implications.  Today, Jesus says to us, if you want the benefits, the rewards, the promises and great joys that come as the result of aligning yourself to my ways, you must identify the obstacle, the stumbling block, the crosswise thing in your life that inhibits faithfulness.  You must locate and notice that thing that comes between us, that crosses our interactions, that keeps you from living the Great Commandment and engaging the Great Commission.  Jesus is asking, dear brother, dear sister, what is the issue, the relationship, or condition that draws you away from the good news. 

We each have something in our life that weighs us down and that makes us feel small.  At various times in our lives, there is a presenting issue that makes heartfelt worship laborious and expansive mercy tiresome.  In the living of our lives in a broken world, we encounter “crosses,” “burdens,” “irritants” that draw us away from our resolve to live the way of Christ.  A cross can be a supervisor with limited leadership skills who we don’t respect, but are consigned to work for.  A cross can be a relative who can’t seem to get her life together and constantly needs help with bills or employment or childcare.  One person’s cross could be an aging body that no longer responds as one wishes.  Each day brings aches and pains that siphon off energy and focus.  A cross can be a hurt that goes unforgiven or the anxiety of steady expenses coupled with decreasing income.  A cross can be feelings of loneliness or unfulfillment.  In our day, the cross we’re called to bear is that thing which obstructs our gratitude and saps our resolve to live as Christ taught.  They are conditions that are personal and pose a real and present danger to all believers.  Crosses requiring attention and sacrifice include a parent with dementia, a teenager with mood swings, a colicky baby, an overworked spouse, a complaining mother-in-law, a slow economy, boredom, addiction, depression.  Jesus calls modern day believers to a clear understanding and renewed intention.  He says in these crosses, in the burdens of your life, do not be weak-willed.  See potential for transformation.  Move away from whining and complaining and see the issue as an opportunity to respond as Christ would.  Reframe the problem.  Turn the burden into choice.  For the good of the world, I’ll be the one who deals with my sister, the lunatic.  For the good of my eternal soul, I’ll support this incompetent boss.  I won’t join others in denigrating his intelligence or choices.  When I add the witty dig, I diminish my compassion and I cheapen the image of God that resides within me. 

When we claim the irritants of our lives as our cross to carry in pursuit of a rich, faithful life in Christ, we soon find strength and unexpected grace in the burden.  We feel better about our own reactions and we see a hopeful future for the dilemma.  Just as with the first disciples, Jesus reminds us, when you take up your cross, whatever that cross is, and follow me, I will remember you and not be ashamed of you when I come into my kingdom. 

May we be diligent in locating our cross.  May we be strong in its shouldering.  May we be transformed by its burden so that the joys of a life in Christ are open to us on earth and in heaven.   Amen.