Lent 2, Year B 2024
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
That is a catchy little song that most of us know. We’ve decided to follow Jesus and there is no turning back. But when we sing that song, do we stop to think about what it means to follow Jesus? And no turning back? If you think about it, that sounds pretty daunting. Following indicates that we are going somewhere with him. Where? Where are we going, Jesus? The disciples kept asking that question and quite clearly did not like Jesus’ reply. They wanted freedom from an oppressive government and thought the Messiah was going to rally together an Army and God would do some whooping up on the Romans to defeat the empire. They did not like Jesus’ action plan. Peter takes Jesus aside to remind him who he is and get him to consider a different strategic plan. To be honest, I think we, too, would rally behind Peter even today once we really listened to where Jesus said we were headed.
Jesus began to teach that he must undergo great suffering and if any wanted to become his follower, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. But how many of us really get what he means? What does it mean to take up the cross and carry it in the way of Jesus? How many of us have heard this passage and bought into the idea that we must suffer for suffering’s sake and like it! The more you suffer the better Christian you are? How often have we accepted our own suffering as something God wills for us? I think we need to take a closer look at what picking up the cross and carrying it means.
Here’s the thing. It’s pretty clear in the Gospels that Jesus doesn’t really like for people to suffer. He especially didn’t like to see people go hungry, he wanted the blind to see and the lame to walk. He didn’t like to see people who were sick, or abused, or who suffered from violence. He didn’t like to see the suffering of the poor, the plight of the refugee, the rejected, the unloved, the lonely, and the vulnerable. He hung out with the underbelly of proper society and preferred to befriend those who were treated as worthless and nothing but trouble. He would exhaust himself healing folks, touching the untouchable, befriending the outcast, welcoming the stranger. So much so he would have to escape to a quiet place alone, often at night, to get a break.
Taking up the cross is a different kind of pain. Jesus suffered for us. His resolute walk to Jerusalem was on behalf of everyone that suffered to relieve that suffering by taking it on himself. So to take up the cross, to suffer like Jesus is to suffer for others. It’s not my suffering that Jesus wants, but my being willing to endure the hardships of relieving the suffering of others. That’s the cross that following Jesus leads to. Relieving the suffering of others is not popular. Standing up for folks who have no one to stand up for them upsets the status quo. And Jesus was willing to take on the consequences of doing just that. Remember the words of the prophet Isaiah that we heard on Ash Wednesday, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Jesus wasn’t telling his disciples that he was going to suffer greatly and then be killed because God wanted him to die, he was telling them that when you choose the fast to loose the bonds of injustice, untie the yoke, offer freedom to the oppressed, and break the chains that bind folks to misery, you will suffer at the hands of those in power, those who benefit off the backs of the poor and suffering. The pushback from the powers that keeps others in suffering is the pain of the cross.
Jesus isn’t advocating for your suffering nor or are you in a spiritual boot camp to get tougher for Jesus. Suffering for suffering’s sake is not of God. We are not suffering to get right with God. Rather, love leads us through some choices that we make to relieve the sufferings of others that may cause us pain and hardship, too. It is a willing act of love, not a divine marching order. Jesus wanted his followers to know that following him was to follow love, and loving one’s neighbors, loving the other, will not be easy. It’s uncomfortable, at best. Loving is hard work and I think most of you know that. We are willing to endure a lot for those we love.
But here’s the other thing. We hear a lot of talk about going to the cross, being led to the cross, but the cross is not the goal. It is the doorway to hope. The cross is not our ultimate goal. Jesus demonstrated that his suffering for all of us leads to our liberation from evil, our redemption and restoration, our resurrection with him. Suffering is never the goal, but Jesus showed us that when we shoulder the burdens of others with them it will often be hard, but we will also find hope, we will find life, we will find resurrection. Resurrection is our goal.
In this midway point in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus starts explaining to his disciples what’s going to happen and it doesn’t make a lick of sense to them. None of it made sense to any of them at the time. Not until they saw Jesus triumph over death and ascend into heaven. Then they got it and began to spread that hope of liberation. The Gospels are written in hindsight and we benefit from that, but this was unknown territory to the followers of Jesus in his day. The Gospel of Mark was intended to be read out loud from start to finish to Mark’s community–the whole of the Jesus story in one story time hour. It’s a profound exercise to hear the Gospel in that way and everything falls into the context of the Resurrection.
The way of Jesus, which is the way of love, led to the cross because he was willing to stand up to the powerful for the sake of the oppressed and poor and that got him killed. And he knew that, but he also knew the ultimate hope. He knew that to conquer death was to face it. To conquer fear is to face it. God’s plan is beyond the cross, through the suffering, past the hardships. That is what God wills for us. God will wipe away every tear and we, as followers of Jesus, are to be about the same business. Loosening chains, feeding the hungry, wiping away tears. We know that life awaits us, not death. Suffering will not be the last word, but joy. And we can harness this life and joy now even as we walk this path, picking up a cross along the way, because we see the new day dawning, the resurrection is our destination. Jesus is the morning star on the horizon on which we keep our eyes.
[sing] I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Magdalena's Musings 