February 15, 2015: Bearing the Cross

Matthew 16:24-17:8

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. ²⁵ All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. ²⁶ Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? ²⁷ For the Human One is about to come with the majesty of his Father with his angels. And then he will repay each one for what that person has done. ²⁸ I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see the Human One coming in his kingdom.”

17 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain. ² He was transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

³ Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. ⁴ Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good that we’re here. If you want, I’ll make three shrines: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was still speaking, look, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!” ⁶ Hearing this, the disciples fell on their faces, filled with awe.

⁷ But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” ⁸ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

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“This is my Son whom I dearly love.  I am very pleased with. Listen to him!” This statement from the “cloudy” voice of God serves as the linchpin that keeps the two episodes in this lesson together.  Why should God feel the need to say these words?  For two equally important reasons: 

1)     Jesus had something worth saying.

2) The message that Jesus is sharing will be hard enough to digest that a divine message of support is in order.

Before our lesson begins Jesus has already told his disciples that he will experience great suffering and death when they get to Jerusalem.  Now he is saying, “If you follow me, the same sort of thing is in store for you too.  Say “no” to yourself and take up your own cross.”  That’s a hard message to hear.  We often domesticate the phrase “bearing the cross,” by using it to refer to situations like dealing with our in-laws (“I’m spending the day with my mother-in-law, I guess it’s my cross to bear.”) or some other annoying situation (“I’ve always had bad eyesight, I guess that’s my cross to bear.”).

This misses the radical nature of what Jesus is talking about.  Saying “no” to yourself and helping others is a big “about face” from the way the world often works, especially in Jesus’ day.  The ancient world ran on an understanding of honor and shame.  Honor was the cultural currency that got you through life. Shame was the threatening motivation that kept people in line.  The idea of saying “no” to yourself, of lowering yourself before an “equal” or “inferior” person was considered ludicrous.

Here are two examples. 

After the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.E. the victorious Greek Commanders gathered together to vote on who received “battle honors” for the triumph that had saved their land from invasion.  There was to be a first place and a second place prize. Each commander felt honor-bound to vote for himself for first place. To do anything else…to actually lower yourself before a perceived equal…was unthinkable. There was dozen or so way tie for first place.  Second place was unanimously awarded to a man named Themistocles, who everyone knew was the actual person who deserved first place. (Plutarch Themistocles in Greek Lives, 17.)

In his book Humilitas author John Dickson talks about the way ancient people found the idea of lowering yourself in front of someone you considered to be equal or lesser than yourself to be rather weird.  The second-century Jewish Sage Yeshua Ben Sira once wrote “…incline your ear to the poor and return their greeting in humility.”  When his grandson translated his Ben Sira’s writings into Greek, however, he changed the word “humility” to “gentleness.” The idea of being humble in front of people obviously below you was just too strange and unpalatable. (Dickson, Humilitas 100-101).

How often do we today have to listen to people try to get all of the attention, trumpet their own works, or push others around…quite often with a veneer of faux humility thrown on top.  How often do we see an athlete who grandstands or a celebrity who jumps onto the stage at moment meant for someone else so that they can steal with spotlight? (I'm looking at you, Kanye)

Jesus’ words to his disciples are indeed weird and could certainly use the voice from a divine mountaintop cloud.  They’re weird, but they are entirely world-transforming.  As Christians we are called to follow Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is inviting us into a new way of life; a transformed way of living.  It might seem weird at first, but it is also a blessed relief to let go of all of the anxiety.  The things for which we are exhaustively striving, the things that we grip onto with white-knuckles, the things we allow to drag us down: all of these things do not have to control us.

It might be weird, but it’s nothing short of salvation. This is the same Jesus who has already said, “Come to me all of you who are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest…” (Matt. 11:28)  This is the same Jesus who will tell his followers, “…I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20b)

Let’s listen to him.

Sources sighted in this post:

Dickson, John. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership. Grand Rapids, MI:

          Zondervan, 2011.

Plutarch. Greek Lives. Translated by Robin Waterfield. New York: Oxford University      

          Press, 1998.