Taking Up Our Cross

Good Friday Homily 2011

Today we are called as Christians to stand at the foot of the cross.

In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things, the figure of him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger.

That reflection by Deitrich Bonheoffer, the German theologian executed by the Nazis encapsulates why the message of Good Friday is lost in our secular culture of materialism and the pursuit of progress.

Even among Christians there is too often a movement from celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on that first Holy Week to rejoicing over our Risen Lord on Easter, and proclaiming the empty tomb as the sign of victory over death.

But we are here this morning to stand at the foot of the cross, and reflect on Jesus, the suffering servant. Jesus the man who suffered a humiliating, painful and ignominious death—usually reserved for slaves, rebels and common criminals.

The historian Josephus writes of mass Crucifixions in Palestine under Roman rule, as the Romans sought to crush resistance to their rule.

So when the early followers of the way chose to use the cross as the symbol of their faith in Jesus they were using a symbol of a form of death most people living then would regard as one of degradation, humiliation and horror.

It is as if we used an electric chair, or a gallows as a symbol in recent western society.

The Cross is a reminder of the radical call Jesus makes when he teaches that to follow him, we need to deny ourselves, to take up the cross.

He teaches that if we want to save our lives we will lose them. But if we are prepared to lose our lives for his sake and the sake of the Gospel, our lives will be saved.

It’s hard to wrap our heads around that. The disciples of Jesus certainly have difficulty.

Take Peter. When Jesus asks who do you say that I am, he answers with a clear and certain—“You are the Messiah.” Yet Peter is the one who ends up paralyzed with fear after Jesus is taken prisoner, and denies him three times.

The Messiah as suffering servant is something Jews have always struggled with. The Jewish author and historian Philo wrote that the Messiah would “take the field and make war and destroy the great and populous nations.”

That warrior Messiah hope isn’t hard to understand, the Jewish people having been enslaved by Babylonians, Greeks and Romans. They yearned for deliverance just as their ancestors had under the yoke of the rule of Pharaoh in Egypt.

Jesus brought a different idea of what a Messiah would be---one who would sacrifice his life, and rise again so that all who follow him might find salvation and eternal life.

But the discipleship Jesus wants is a costly discipleship—taking up our own cross, denying ourselves, being prepared to care for others above ourselves.

So being a follower of Christ means suffering and sacrifice. We have to preach the Good news of the gospel.

During this season of Lent as we prepared for Easter, it was a time of reflection, not just to wallow in thoughts of sin, and gloom, but to examine ourselves, to seek to grow in faith and love.

Self-denial is not something which is embraced by our dominant culture.

Neither is forgiveness.

But Christ died for us. And as Bonhoeffer writes, if we follow Jesus it makes a fundamental difference on how we live:

I can no longer condemn or hate a brother [or sister] for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed through intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died.

So we need to take seriously the call to take up our cross to serve Christ—to see Christ in those in need of comfort, of food, of any kind of help. Let us pray this Good Friday that we might better discern how to follow Jesus, our risen Lord, our suffering servant.