I remember the first time I heard someone explain the very colorful passage where Jesus declares that if your eye offends/causes you to sin then gouge it out (Matt 5:29 and then again in Matt 18:9. My father had a friend from work over to dinner and he knew we were Christians. The man was "Christ Curious" and asked my dad what the passage meant. Was Jesus serious? If so, my dad's friend related, he'd be a blind, mute, paraplegic before the week was through. I laughed heartily, but it stuck with me. It is such a vivid image. My father went on to explain it was, naturally, Jesus being hyperbolic to establish how seriously God takes sin and, by extension, how seriously we should treat sin.
This Saturday (Hurrah for Saturday Evening church) our Pastor's homily/sermon (Is it "homily" in Presbyterian circles? I know it can be for Catholics...bah...) was on the basics of what Lent is all about. He said, "Lent forces us to ask the question, 'What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?'". The text was from Mark 8 where Jesus declares his own impending death. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him for saying he's going to die. (Seriously...Peter rebuking Jesus...whew...) Jesus turns around and rebukes Peter by calling him Satan. Seriously. He calls him Satan. And then he makes a statement that, because of the multi-millenia distance, sounds innocuous to us.
"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
Let that sink in. Let that REALLY sink in. Forget that we wear crosses as jewelry. Forget every time you've seen them in the sanctuary of your local church. Forget that you know the end of each gospel. What is a cross? What was a cross to them?
It was a horribly unclean implement of torture used upon criminals originated in its use by an oppressive gentile regime.
Pick up my cross? Really Jesus? What the heck are you talking about? I'm not condemned to die. I'm not an unclean law breaker. Did you eat some bad Matzo or something? You're talking crazy, dude. Maybe you should take a nap and we'll clarify that later. Let's get you out of the sun there, Mister Messiah, OK?
If they could see us from then to now and saw the representation of the cross in our churches, around our necks, tattooed on our arms, on our Bibles, as decals on our vehicles, I'm fairly certain they would throw up in their mouths a little. It was that repulsive to them. We're talking on the order of when Jesus declared that if they wanted to be saved then they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood. It cost him a lot of disciples.
This was, of course, Jesus speaking outside of time already knowing what was to come. But what is the cross we are called to carry?
It is not the things we give up for Lent. As difficult as that is, and the sugar cravings are pretty darn bad over here, it is not our "cross". Difficulties, disease, pain, problematic relationships, etc...I don't think that these are "the cross we have to bear". Sure, they are less than pleasant to go through, but I think there is a bigger meaning here.
I like how The Voice puts it, "If any of you wants to follow Me, you will have to give yourself up to God's plan..."
HIS plan no matter what it is, the cost, or what might happen as a result. Can you trust God's plan to death? I find it to be pretty easy to say, "Yes. In a renounce Jesus or die situation I would choose death." It is harder when you add torture to the mix. If you add public humiliation and shaming to it then I'm even less likely to be OK with the divine plan. How about working for no visible result and still putting in the time day after day? I often ask people, "What if God's "great and mighty" plan for you is to be a janitor? Or a stay at home parent? What if it's to work your 9-5 with no recognition? Would you deny yourself and give your all for His will?" I'm always surprised how many people discount that possibility. They brush it aside with some personal assurance that whatever God has for them is FAR more glorious than something so petty or humble...forgetting, of course, that the least will be greatest and the last first in Jesus' upside down rule that declares us all to be servants and subservient to one another.
A cross, at least in my eyes, matches Jesus' path. "I really would rather not have to suffer living through to this plan you have set before me...but, nevertheless, Your will be done."
The things we give up for Lent, I'm realizing, has more to do with the eye-gouging. What I give up offends me, is bad for me, is going to ultimately kill me or my relationship to God. I'm startlingly aware of why Jesus refers to these things in our life that offend as "body parts". We love them like they are. We take our sins or other negative behaviors and we clutch them to our chest, both disgusted by them yet very unwilling to give them up. I'm shocked at how much giving up something as simple and relatively innocent as sugar is quite like losing a limb. It becomes something of a metaphor for my "innocent" sins. Jesus is calling saying, "Cut it off. It's bad for you. Trust me. Pluck it out. You don't need it. It can only weigh you down. Make the clean break." Usually I find myself begging, "I only just want to keep it a little longer. Just a LITTLE bit longer. The littlest bit. Come on. Please?" It's a self serving lie, of course. He does know best.
I say to myself more than anyone else, "Let go. Give it up. Trust Him. The Father knows best."
Pax,
W
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