Ascend the Cross - The 2nd Sunday in Lent
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
February 25, 2024
“If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” That was the standard Jesus set for those who
wanted to follow him. It’s not the
evangelism strategy most churches nowadays are willing to embrace. In an age of declining faith, churches have
become desperate to draw people in.
And so churches have been pulling out all the
marketing stops to cater to contemporary desires and appetites. If Jesus, forgiveness of sins, and the offer
of eternal life won’t pack them in, well maybe a barista and a coffee bar
will. Or how about a rock wall for
climbing, or a big athletic field. Let’s
install comfy theatre-style reclining seating and big video screens. Make worship a multimedia assault on the
senses, like a summer blockbuster film. And don’t forget the electric guitars, drums, and bright lights. Repentance, sacrifice, and worship are
yesterday’s news. If you want a full
church, you better find a way to entertain the people.
Pastor Lynn always used to say that if all you
want is a full church, it isn’t hard to achieve. Just advertise that everyone who shows up
will get $100. It was the same in
Jesus’s day. As long as he was healing
the sick and feeding thousands, he had a virtual army of people adoring and
following him – so many that the imperial and religious leaders feared the obscure
carpenter’s son from a backwater town was going to take over the
government. It’s no wonder so many
people wanted him dead.
When Jesus wasn’t healing, feeding, and submissively
granting every wish and demand, and when he challenged his followers with a
difficult but necessary truth, you can guess what happened. Those followers promptly abandoned Jesus in
favor of the next person who promised to give them what they wanted, regardless of what they needed.
Friends, if people could look Jesus himself in
the eye and reject him, you can imagine how much easier it is today for people
to reject the Church when their demands or expectations are not met. And so in these days of dwindling attendance,
diminishing piety, and shrinking giving, you can see why it’s tempting for
churches to fall into the same trap Peter fell into – the tempting lure of
wanting to minimize or ignore the cross.
Now, before we go any further, let’s be clear
what Jesus means when he’s speaking of the cross, because over the past two
thousand years we’ve largely succeeded in taming and domesticating the
cross. At best it’s served as a symbol
of our faith, but more often than not the cross has become nothing more than a
wall ornament or a fashion accessory.
Not so in Jesus’s day. The cross was the Roman Empire’s preferred
method of maintaining order. They
perfected crucifixion as a method of torture and execution that would slowly, humiliatingly,
and painfully kill the state’s enemies. It was an act carefully calculated to intimidate and terrorize anyone
who dared oppose imperial power.
And so when Jesus warned the crowd that if they
wanted to follow him, they would have to deny themselves and take up their
cross, there could have been no misunderstanding what he meant. As Jesus prophesied, he himself would be
crucified. All of the disciples, except
perhaps John the Beloved, would also die as martyrs of the faith. Countless other followers of Jesus in the
first centuries of the Church would likewise be asked to surrender their lives.
Here in 2024, it’s highly unlikely – thanks be
to God – that any of us will be called to martyrdom in the same way as those early
Christians. But Jesus’s words still
stand and still apply to us. Here at
Grace and throughout the Christian Church, if we are to be true and faithful to
our mission and to our Lord, we must resist the temptation to merely entertain,
and instead boldly and unapologetically proclaim that if you want to be a
Christian, you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus.
But what does it mean for us
to take up our cross? We’re inclined to
think that we bear our cross for Jesus whenever we incur a hardship. But in every life, there will be misfortune. We all get sick, we have fender benders,
pipes freeze in the winter, and the list goes on. That’s just life. Surely our faith can help us endure and draw
meaning and silver linings from those things, but I don’t think the normal ups
and down of life are what Jesus meant when he challenged us to take up our
cross.
I think we get closer to the meaning
of these words for us today when we view taking up our cross in terms of a life
of discipleship. Do you remember how
Jesus summarized the life of a believer? Love God and love your neighbor. And so you can view taking up your cross – becoming a disciple – as an
affirmative choice to do those things that enable you to regularly and
faithfully love God and love your neighbor.
How do you know if you’re doing
that? Well, every Lent the Church urges us
to recommit to giving generously, praying regularly, and fasting, which broadly
means to live sacrificially, humbly, and simply, not selfishly and indulgently. To those three, I’d add one more thing: come
to worship. Worship is one of the most
important ways we express our love for God, and it’s how we’re formed and
transformed to love our neighbor.
But let’s take this one important
step further. Let’s not reduce being a
Christian to just an intellectual understanding that bearing our cross for
Jesus involves acts of love, discipleship, and even sacrifice for our God and
for our neighbor. We need to move our
faith from our minds into our hearts, and put our faith into
action. That’s what real discipleship
is.
After all, in Jesus’s day you only
carried a cross because you were going to be crucified upon it. It’s no different for us. A 19th century theologian,
Theophan the Recluse, captured this in a letter he wrote. He said, “Without the cross, no one has been
saved or can be saved. Just as the Lord
entered into glory after having suffered on the Cross, so all those who follow
Him will enter in glory together with him through their own personal cross. Do you wish to partake of this glory? Then, first of all, ascend the cross – and from the cross you shall enter Heaven.”1
Friends, that’s what I want you to
take home today. Jesus is calling us to
do more than carry the cross. He’s
calling us to willingly ascend it,
because core to our faith is the conviction that something must die in order
for something new and holy to rise anew. That’s Jesus in a nutshell. Look,
each of us has things that are holding us back from totally committing ourselves
to Jesus and fully loving God and our neighbor. It’s not that we can ever do those things in sufficient quality or
quantity to qualify for heaven. We’re
saved by grace. But ascending our cross is the pathway to a life of true meaning and
joy, because it’s the pathway of putting to death those things that keep us
from being the people Jesus created us to be – those things that make us want
to be entertained rather than saved.
Jesus and his followers all knew
that ascending a cross can be really hard. You need to know that too. We’re
not here because of the coffee or the entertainment. We’re here to follow Jesus, whatever the cost. And we’re here to die, so something better in
us can come to life. That may not be an
attractive evangelism strategy in this day and age, but it’s Jesus’s way, and
if we have to pick one or the other, let’s follow Jesus. Amen.
Gospel Text: Mark
8:31-38
31[Jesus] 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.32He
said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke
him. 33But 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.”
34He 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. 35For
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. 36For
what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed,
what can they give in return for their life? 38Those 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.”
Copyright Rev. Scott E. Schul, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Citation:
1 Kindling
the Divine Spark: Teachings on How to Preserve Spiritual Zeal by St.
Theophan the Recluse, © 1994 St. Xenia Skete, p. 57 (emphasis added).
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