“ Live Long and Prosper ”

 Dear Cross-Taker-Uppers,

We’ve come to that time in the lectionary cycle where we turn toward the end of Jesus’ ministry.  It happens one day when Jesus reveals that he:

“ …must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

…Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ” 

It sounds like Jesus is challenging “followers”—or those who wish to come after him—to follow him into death.  …This would be a new definition of “following.” 

When Jesus says, “Follow me” to the first “followers” on the shores of the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry, no one expects that to mean that “followers” were committing themselves to die like Jesus will die.  Yet here we are, a dozen or so chapters later, and Jesus is saying, “take up your cross.”  But before you go looking to get and take up a cross, perhaps we might consider what denying ourselves and what following after Jesus might mean for us aside from a centuries-old model of public execution! 

I believe Jesus is speaking somewhat metaphorically.  He reminds his followers that it’s possible to “win the world” but that it costs you your life.  So, it’s possible to have the things of the world, but only at the expense of not having the things of God.  Those that “follow Jesus” …give up self, bear the burden of discipleship, and follow where it leads.  For Jesus …that clearly leads to Jerusalem, great suffering, death, and resurrection.  For followers of Jesus …taking up our cross and following, likely doesn’t lead to Jerusalem, great suffering, being killed and raised in the same way. 

It wouldn’t be fair to try and make “cross-taking up” as just anything we want to trade it for.  Following Jesus means living out the values of the Kingdom of God—loving God and neighbors and ourselves.  Helping to feed the hungry, while it can include “suffering” generally isn’t suffering.  But being committed to justice for all, surely might mean taking risks that require courage and conviction.  None of us is likely to end up in a public trial and being executed for “following Jesus.”  In general, Jesus was a man of peace—who can argue with being peaceable.  But there are times when true “peace” requires action, resistance, maybe even civil disobedience.  But the question here is not how quickly we might die for Jesus’ teaching or beliefs, but really, how we live them out! 

I believe Jesus is not calling us to die for what he or we believe in, but to LIVE FOR IT.  Our “following” isn’t the commitment to end in death, but to transcend it.  It’s about living …so that our lives are indistinguishable from the Kingdom of God. 

So that “taking up our crosses” isn’t a hill on which we die or a belief for which we suffer—but is the work of living fully, as best we can, the values Jesus proclaims. 

So, live long …and prosper the work of Jesus’ hands!