Then he began to teach them
that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the
elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days
rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began
to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and
said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things
but on human things.”
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. For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it
profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can
they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be
ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
***
I must admit, the cross is
not my favorite symbol. I’d prefer the empty tomb, granted it would hang less
well from a chain around our neck, but symbolically, I like to focus more on
Christ’s glory than glorify his suffering. I am thankful as Presbyterians we do
not have a crucifix hanging here above my head. Its interesting, the three
symbols required for our worship are the table, the font, and the pulpit, none
of which make me squeamish, and all of which hope to bring Christ closer to us,
through the sharing of communion, our baptism, and the Word. Conversely the
cross seems too lofty to share, to great a burden for humanity to be saddled.
So, if I was one of the disciples, I would certainly be Peter. Disbelieving the
necessity of Jesus’ suffering and our own, but here I am proved wrong. The Son
of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief
priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again, and
“If any want to become his followers, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow him.”
For what would be the point
of following Jesus, if he couldn’t be there in our deepest suffering when we
needed him the most? What would be the point of Christ’s divinity, if Jesus
could not relate to our humanity? What would be the point, as we watch the
great suffering in this world, lands revenged by both war and drought, families
broken with illness and addiction, huge disparities in wealth and education,
continual oppression of people and groups? What would be the usefulness of a
risen Christ is Jesus had not carried his cross through the humanness of pain,
through the broken of life, and the reality of suffering.
I know in my own life, the friends
I go to when I’m in that need a friend moment, are the ones that have been
there too, the ones who meet me with their own tears as I tell my story,
because they place themselves in that feeling we share. I so appreciate the
people who are able to look at the pain in their life, and therefore be with
others in their pain. As a pastor, people often assume I have had the life of a
goody two shoes, a man came in off the street the other day, took one look at
me and said, “I don't think you’d understand what I’m going through.” I told
him, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” He did anyway, and I knew it was his
loss, because I have been in low places, I have heard hard stories, and I am
not about to ignore, or paint over how hard life is, neither his in that time,
nor mine in times past. I think the Peters among us get this. Maybe Peter had
been in that hard place, and didn't want Jesus to have to go there too, didn't
believe that suffering was necessary for divinity.
Perhaps suffering isn't
necessary for divinity, but suffering is a part of humanity, and therefore, if
divinity is to come down and be with us in in our suffering, Jesus had to carry
the cross. Maybe in his carrying the cross, Jesus carries with us our own
burdens, our own sorrows, our worries, our pain, and our fear, our anger. Maybe
he meets us in our tears with tears of his own, because he knows that pain, and
in being able to relate and have compassion he helps us carry our cross. Maybe
likewise, to be with others in their suffering, we too have to have felt the
weight of the cross, be willing to look at the way a crucifix can hang above
our heads, and offer compassion, for through that compassion Christ is raised,
and divinity is with us.
Its not an easy task, to
carry the cross, its not an easy task to watch others carry their cross, it is
not an easy task to hear and witness another’s burden, so much so, that
sometimes even reading the news feels a cross as its own, but when do hear the
stories of our common humanity, our suffering is lifted through our compassion,
and Christ is risen. I always feel better after talking to the friends who can
meet me in that tough place. I know they feel the same. When I am up on the
news, I feel a greater bond with humanity, and am able to see ways I can offering
compassion and through fulness in my own life. I wonder, where are the place
you are carrying a cross, and what might it be life to share. Where are the
places you have witnessed the burden of someone else’s cross and by your
witness helped carry? Where are the places in the world where you want someone
to know you have heard their stories and carry with them, the cross? Where have
you seen the divinity of Christ, in the sharing of Jesus’ suffering, and the
hope of a risen Lord?
This is the symbol, it is the
cross, it is not a symbol which glorifies suffering, it is a symbol that tells
us we do not carry our burdens alone, that as we share them, Christ is risen,
and divinity is with us.
