Thursday after Ash Wednesday
The reading from the Gospel of Luke today poses a real problem for those of us who want to follow Jesus. Jesus seems to be saying two things. First, he knows very well that he is going to suffer greatly, be rejected by those in power both in the church and the state, die, and then be raised. And then he seems to say that if we want to follow him we need to do the same thing. That is, we need to take up our cross, suffer, and in that suffering find our resurrection. If we do that, we will save our life. If we do not, we will lose our life or, at least, a life worth saving.
So, here’s the problem or perhaps, put another way, here’s the question. What is this cross that Jesus asks us to bear in his name?
Biblical scholars have struggled with this word from Jesus because it can be taken to mean that what Jesus wants is for us to name the thing that is the greatest burden or greatest source of suffering in our life and embrace it on the grounds that by doing so we will have followed Jesus. We will have been faithful to Jesus and to his suffering on our behalf. In short, we will have paid our debt to Jesus and earned our way into heaven.
If that is the right way to read this text then we have to ask ourselves: what is the greatest burden in our lives? Could it be an abusive relative or boss or co-worker? An exhausting job that gives us no sense of purpose? A spouse who daily undermines our dignity as a child of God?
If burdens like these are the ones Jesus has in mind then we have a problem. God became flesh in order to save us. Jesus died on the cross to free us. But read in this way, this text seems not just to tell us but to command us to embrace our suffering. More than that, it seems to say that enduring suffering at the hands of those in power (in Jesus’ day, the elders, the chief priests, the scribes and in our day perhaps a boss, a spouse, a relative) is to follow him.
But, if Jesus’ message were that we should embrace abuse or ill-treatment or the like then why die on the cross? If what God really wants from us is obedience to the powers that be, why send your beloved son to teach us that God is love? Why not just let the powers that be keep on doing what they have always done—instrumentalize other human beings for their own gain?
What if the cross Jesus has in mind is whatever in our lives gets in the way of us taking seriously his love? What if giving up our life for Jesus means giving up that which gets in the way of fully embracing the fact that just in being we are worthy of God’s love and grace?
Perhaps the question Jesus puts to us today is something like “do you get it?” Do you get it that I suffered so that you might have the courage of God’s love and grace to throw off whatever is tempting you to forfeit yourself?
Jesus doesn’t want us to suffer. He didn’t take a beating at the hands of the principalities and powers just so that we would do the same. On the contrary. He wants us to live into his love and grace—to take seriously that he died for us. To offer us the chance to be free. I believe that what he is saying here is not “keep on suffering” but, rather, “do not forfeit yourself to the powers in your life who diminish you. Live into the love of my ridiculously generous act of grace.” He knows that is not easy.
Perhaps that challenge is the greatest cross we bear.
- Sue Trollinger