Pastor’s Thoughts
If there ever was a season in the life of the church that I would point to and say that it can truly be transformational, it would be Lent. You’ve heard all the history before about Lent being a time of repentance or turning around of one’s life. It is a time traditionally when Christians prepare themselves to celebrate the joy of Easter. We do this by traveling through the valley of the shadow of death in our worship and our devotional life. We examine our motives, our actions, our beliefs, and ourselves. I would like us to reflect on what is contained in Jesus’ public call to ministry in Mark 8:34 where it says “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Let us examine closely the transformation that this call engenders.
This public announcement is very specific and unmistakable. The cross had only one meaning in the Roman empire: upon it dissidents were executed. It was the instrument of political and military punishment. “Mark introduces here the central paradox of the Gospel. The threat to punishment by death is the bottom line of the power of the state; fear of this keeps the dominant order intact. By resisting this fear and pursuing the kingdom practice even at the cost of death, the disciple contributes to shattering the powers’ reign of death in history” (Ched Myers)
Now we read this quote from Mark and usually reason for ourselves that this is a way for us to deny ourselves things that we usually enjoy for the forty days of Lent, and we entertain some romantic notion about the cross that requires very little change in our lives at all. This I would challenge is very far from the original thrust of the passage. As one scholar carefully argues the context of Jesus’ words here are meant for a courtroom. This was an appeal to Christians who might be taken to court for persecution. When there they are faced with either having to profess Jesus or deny him. Denying him requires self-denial or the risk of one’s own life.
Now granted in this day and age most of you who are reading this understand that your context is quite different from the time that this was first put forth. Yet I do not think that we can let go so easily the force of the words, even in our context. We still live in a world where forces and powers still try to rule and control through fear. Sometimes those powers are from outside of our culture sometimes they are from within. Sometimes these forces are from outside the church sometimes they are from within.
Scholars and other believers alike have tried for ages to tone down the meaning of Jesus’ teaching about “taking up one’s cross” In a nut shell here is how its been done. The first way is to say that the whole saying is hyperbole (over exaggeration to make a point), that it was a “vivid way of telling people to do their duty and try their best” (Abraham’s Curse by Bruce Chilton page 74). Yes Jesus did use metaphors, and the use of “cross” here in this saying is not literal that would require every single disciple to seek actual crucifixion. His use of “his cross” here refers to “any eventual trial that a disciple will face, rather than the unique personal fate that awaited Jesus in Jerusalem” (Abraham’s Curse page 74) Jesus’ use of the cross here is to symbolize the burden that disciple would take up in his life, despite the pain and the risk and the danger that may come with it. The use of this symbol does not make the whole saying metaphorical. Jesus here is talking about actual self-denial here, which could include Roman execution. We keep as “modern” people trying to tone down what Jesus meant here because we want a safe, gentle, non-threatening Jesus rather than this one who calls us in following him to such lengths.
Then there are other scholars who have said that the text doesn’t say what it says is to just flat out deny that Jesus actually said it, and instead that it was the early church putting words in Jesus’ mouth since the early church was facing persecution and needed Jesus in this instance to give words to bolster the cause of the martyrs of that age.
The second way in which scholars and believers have tried to evade the meaning of Jesus’ words here is to say that his words only applied to his disciples at that time. A variant of this would extend this particular call to discipleship to those who have completely devoted themselves during the history of the church up to this time, to Jesus’ way of life: namely monastics, clergy, high officials in the church, and the like.
But it is interesting that the text itself demands suffering from “anyone” who would follow him, not just from a select pool of followers in his own time or later from followers with special status or rank. “Anyone” means “anyone” in Aramaic (the original language of Jesus), in Greek or in English.
To quote Bruce Chilton one last time he says “ Although a variety of means have been developed, from popular paraphrase to scholarly deflection, to sidestep Jesus’ demand for self-sacrifice in the life of discipleship, the hard fact of his teaching remains”. So in the end we must deal with this and deal with it head on. During this Lenten season that remains, I encourage us all to ponder again these words of Jesus, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34). What does self-denial and taking up one’s cross mean to you in your life in this world today?
In Christ
Rev. Bruce McDaniel