Take Up Your Cross

One minute he is the rock, the next a stumbling block. It was as if Peter went from making straight A’s in discipleship to flunking the final. One moment a believer, the next compared to Satan. What gives? How can things change so suddenly?

Just last week he was in Caesarea Phillippi saying that Jesus is the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel.

But now he isn’t so sure. Right after his announcement, Jesus blessed him but then told him not to tell anyone. Maybe it’s best he didn’t because almost immediately Jesus started acting strange and saying all this stuff about how he had to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die? I’m sorry....what?

This is the Messiah? The one they had waited centuries for Now he was going to be killed? It didn’t make any sense. As I mentioned last week, there were all sorts of theories and hopes for how the Messiah would save God’s people....but murder at the hands of the Romans wasn’t part of the plan. Surely there is another way. There’s gotta be another way.

And so Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him saying “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” Peter tries to tell Jesus what God should do. Peter says no, it cannot be. Perhaps he had different ideas of Messiahship. Richard Ward says “ saying ‘no’ to the way of Jesus will become a habit for the Church. Too often when Jesus says “Cross!” the church votes “Crown!”

Peter doesn’t understand the way of this Messiah, one that would be killed. Jesus has so much power to work all these miracles, why is he doing this? This scene with Jesus is reminiscent of earlier in Matthew chapter 4 when Jesus was tempted by Satan. Turn these stones into bread. Let the angels save you. Bow down and all power will be yours. Take the shortcut.

Notice Jesus’ response to Peter. He calls him Satan (that’s a far cry from the rock just days before). He says “Get behind me…for you have your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Get behind me. Back in ch. 4 when Jesus was responding to Satan, he said “away with you.” But to Peter Jesus adds a location- behind me. In the gospel of Matthew, the language of behind, after, and following signify discipleship.

Jesus isn’t merely rebuking Peter in return. He is reminding Peter of his place as a disciple- the place of following behind. How many of us have grown impatient or frustrated and have tried to get out ahead of Jesus at times, and when I say at times I mean on the regular?

But Jesus says “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 will find it.”

Deny ourselves? Take up the cross? But the cross is an ugly death. It is shame, pain, humiliation, and dishonor.

It all sounds like too much, and if we aren’t careful in how we interpret this....it can be. This verse taken out of context can lead to extremes. Some have used it to justify anything as “our cross to bear” in life. That we suffer for the sake of it and just have to accept our lot in life. Others have used it as a means of extreme self-denial. But is this really what Jesus is asking of us?

For the disciples, following Jesus was a matter of life and death. 10 of them died as martyrs for their faith. We should not forget this and what this meant to them when Jesus said “take up your cross and follow me…lose your life in order to find it.”

Sometimes we want another way, but any other way is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace. Bonhoeffer said “ Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Instead, Bonhoeffer calls for costly grace.

Bonhoeffer knew this costly grace well. He was a theologian and professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York who left safety and security and his new fiancee in 1935 to return to Germany when Hitler was in power to lead a seminary for the Confessing Church. When he made his decision to return to what ultimately led to his death, he said “I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” In 1943 he was arrested, yet he continued to write and serve as a pastor and counselor for prisoners across all denominations. On April 9, 1945 he was killed at Flossenburg at age 39, just a few days before the camp was liberated. His last words were “This is the end_ for me, the beginning of life.”

Bonhoeffer said that “grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

Audrey West says “Instead of hoarding bread made from stones to relieve his own empty stomach, he fed the hungry multitudes. Instead of claiming the privileges of Sonship to call on God’s angels for his own benefit, he used his privilege to save, heal, and restore the lives of sick and marginalized persons. Instead of grasping after worldly varieties of power and authority, he opened the kingdom of the heavens to all who would follow after him in the way of righteousness.”

This is costly grace. What might this look like for you? The epistle reading for today sheds some light on what it looks like to live out this kind of grace.

“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good....Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer..extend hospitality to strangers..Bless those who persecute you; Live in harmony with one another..overcome evil with good.”

This is taking up your cross. It is sharing in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is both the character and the criticism of a faithful life. Taking up the cross is more than wall art or a mantra of personal blessing . It is a reminder of the cost of grace freely given. It is the summons to come and follow.

“Will you leave yourself behind If I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind And never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare Should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer In you and you in me?”