I always think that a good Lent is full of challenges… For lots of people that might mean giving something up, something like chocolate perhaps. Others might take something up, for example, reading the bible more or a Christian book.
Some use Lent as a space to catch up on something that needs doing. Some will take a break from something that they do regularly…
All kinds of things that might be useful, but none of them arein a spiritual sense unless they
are doing something to get us closer to God….
We can give up chocolate and it might help us lose some weight, which is good, particularly for people like me, but will it bring us closer to God and, if so, how ? – If the answer is yes, then that’s great, but if it’s just about dieting, then it’s not about Lent and it’s not about God…
Similarly, with using the time to catch up with something that needs doing – if it’s not about getting closer to God, it’s not about Lent and it’s not about God… And what about giving up something we do regularly – well maybe we just wanted a break anyway, maybe we weren’t enjoying it as much as we once did – but if giving up is not helping us get closer to God, it’s not about Lent and it isn’t about God…
In our gospel today (Mark 8:31-38) Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples that he must suffer and even be killed, and of course, they don’t understand – this didn’t fit in with their expectations of a Messiah…
And Peter was the one who called Jesus aside and suggestedthis couldn’t happen. You can almost imagine the conversation as Peter says ‘this isn’t what we followed you for’, ‘how can you be the Messiah if you’re dead’, ‘what happens to us after, if you’re just giving in like this.’ You can imagine the conversation for yourself.
But it’s one that made Jesus angry as he said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan !’
In his words, Peter was allowing his own feelings, his own wishes, to be his guide – he was expressing what he wanted – it had nothing to do with God…
And I wonder sometimes if we use Lent for our own purposes and for things we want to achieve, and if we do then we’re actually potentially allowing our will to get in the way of God’s plans…
We’re actually doing just what Peter was doing and can expect perhaps a similar response from Jesus…
But of course, Jesus didn’t leave the situation like that – Jesus didn’t end the conversation with a rebuke but with some teaching and a challenge as he invited his disciples to think a bit more deeply about what his purpose there was, and what their purpose might be as well.
And it is in the first part of this small teaching passage that he lays it all out clearly, (v.34) ‘if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me...’
The listeners would have known clearly what ‘taking up the cross’ meant. This was execution for dangerous criminals, where those criminals would submit completely to the authority of Rome by carrying their own cross to the place of execution… The execution wasn’t enough by itself, there had to torture and humiliation as well… It was in many ways the ultimate submission…
And this was the image Jesus asked his disciples to recognise – carrying the cross was going to be a symbol, not of death, but of submitting to Jesus – offering our lives completely to him…
This isn’t a submission where humiliation and torture feature, it doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t want us to have pleasure in life – there are plenty of places where Jesus shows that he does want us to enjoy full lives, but lives lived with him as our guide, as our inspiration…
He is suggesting that we should be willing to lay down our lives for him as we recognise that without him, life has no meaning… All the things that we possess or inherit can’t begin to compare with what we gain from a relationship withJesus.
I mentioned that a good Lent is a challenging Lent and taking up the cross involves some challenges. There are without question the innumerable benefits a relationship with Jesusbrings.
There is the privilege of representing him in the world today as one of his followers, there is the realisation of the love that he has for us and the promise that he never leaves us, but there is another side…
And that is to recognise that what Jesus doesn’t offer is an easy life, a life full of rewards for his people – we all know that life can be tough sometimes, we all know that sometimes it isn’t easy to be strong and faithful. Life still can present challenges, but as we submit to Jesus, we also lay those challenges on him. We put him in charge of them.
And Lent is a wonderful opportunity to think about where our priorities lie. I was in a meeting earlier in the week and one of the people there said that as you do things, you always have to ask yourself ‘why’.
Sometimes the answer will be instinctive and the question hardly needs asking, but when it comes to Jesus and our relationship with him, we need to spend some time.
What is it that we’re doing to grow closer to him ? If we’re doing something for Lent, how is that helping us get closer ?If we’re giving up something, how is that helping us ?
In our lives, what are we doing that involves ‘taking up the cross’ ? Where are we stretching ourselves as Christians ?How are we revealing something of the life and love of Jesus through our lives, by the things we do or words we speak ?
It is good to fill Lent with challenges !
So back to taking up our cross and we automatically assume that it is a miserable experience because we associate it with the death of Jesus, but we know that wasn’t the end becauseJesus rose and that makes taking up the cross a living rather than a dying experience…
If we think it’s miserable, then we will be hesitant abouttrying to do it, but to take up your cross means more appropriately asking the question, “what am I giving my life to?” and then further asking, “how does the thing I am giving my life to honour God?”
These are big questions for our lives, but they’re also lent questions…
What am I doing in this season that I can take beyond Lent and beyond Easter, that will transform me…
We all are giving our life to something. Whether it be God or whether it be pursuing material wealth or possessions or busying ourselves working or doing good in some way or all kinds of things.
For Jesus, of course, it was the actual cross, it was walking to the cross and dying and then defeating death once and for all. It was showing us a better way to live, a way of love, of justice, of peace. That was the thing he gave his life to, and it quite literally was a gift to each of us.
To take up your cross and follow Jesus means to take the thing you are giving your life to and giving that to God. It is to say, here I am and here is what I care about in my life, and here is how I will use those gifts and talents and my very being to serve God… It is that literal submission of our lives… That is our cross…
In some ways, it’s so much easier than carrying the literal cross through the streets, as Jesus did. But if we do it properly, it isn’t easy. If we do it properly it will be tough at times, but we will do it accompanied on every step of the journey by Jesus…
Unlike him as he carried the cross, we have our hands free – free to serve him, free to care for people everywhere, free to share his love, free to work in difficult places and surroundings, with people who we might struggle with at times, free to spend time putting our hands together in prayer or holding them up in praise…
We know a wider story than Jesus’ first disciples did. Still though, we perhaps recognise their struggles and misunderstandings. We perhaps understand the struggles they had to believe that this was the right plan as Jesus headed for the cross, but it was a beginning and not an ending…
We are called to take up our cross, to serve God and we do it with his strength… And while we carry our cross in times when it might not be easy, we still need to thank and praise God that the journey, however tough, doesn’t end with the cross, but with the empty tomb and with Jesus risen from the dead and alive for evermore. AMEN
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