Reflection -- Take Up My What?

God provides comfort and healing where they are needed, but we are not restored just to sit back and relax.  God expects us to move on in our journey, following Jesus.  That is the focus of this week’s gospel text.

Jesus is not only our guide on the journey, but our model.  He faithfully followed the path he knew was set before him.  As the exchange with Peter shows, he took God’s way, which was not the easy way.  He was prepared to take up his cross, perhaps already knowing that the cross would become a place where untold millions would find restoration and freedom for centuries to come.  None of that would have been possible had Jesus followed Peter’s advice and been guided by human nature rather than “divine things.”

Jesus also says that we must deny ourselves, take up our own crosses and follow him.  What is that about?

It is definitely not about going around with a sour face that says to the world “look at poor me, how good I am and how much I suffer.”  That is just another form of manipulative seeking after attention.  It draws attention to the self, not to God or the things of God.  That is also the case with a false humility.  We are certainly not to think too much of ourselves, but we are not to think too little either.  We are, after all, God’s children. 

Note too that our cross is not something that is shoved upon us.  No, God, in God’s grace, has granted us free will.  Our cross is something that we take up willingly because we finally begin to understand what life in imitation of Christ looks like.

We can also be assured that our cross is not something that is impossible for us to bear.  Jesus said “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

But the cross that we are to pick up does stretch us, sometimes joyfully and sometimes painfully.

One “working model” of what our cross is all about I have always found helpful is based on what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Think of the vertical dimension of the cross, the upright beam, as representing the dimension of our link with God.  Our prayer flows up to God and God’s love flows down to us. 

We struggle throughout our lives to clear away the clutter that blocks that flow. This is where “deny yourself” and “whoever wants to save his (or her) life will lose it” come in.  Like the many demons that inhabited a man whom Jesus healed (Mark 5), the things that block our spiritual health are named “Legion.”  To name but a few they include a society that presents the only worthwhile goals as pursuit of wealth, power, and material goods; our human drive for control; and our urges to “fix” others (note that it is our cross we are to pick up, not someone else’s).  Sometimes it is just an accumulation of the dozens of routine things that occupy our daily lives -- not necessarily bad things, it’s just that we permit them to get in the way and crowd out the best.

The other dimension of our cross, the cross beam, is horizontal.  It represents our role as followers of Christ in reaching out to others.  If we have the vertical dimension in order, this dimension will work perfectly.  If we can clean out all of the clutter that blocks the flow of God’s love into our minds, hearts, and souls, that flow will be so powerful that it cannot help flowing out to others.

So picking up our cross does involve effort, but the payoff is huge.  The cross carrying is not about some kind of masochism, it is about life!  It is about living life to its very fullest, as God designed us to do. 

So set to work with your “housecleaning” today.  Get rid of everything that gets in the way of your relationship with God.  Remember that Jesus also said “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

revclay

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Mark 8:27-38

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 

He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."  And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 

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."   [NRSV]