At What Cost?

by Parrish W. Jones, Ph.D.

Psalm 26

We find Jesus and Peter in the midst of a conversation that we entered into last week. This conversation between Jesus and the disciples takes place at the foot of the mountain on which Jesus will be transfigured with Moses and Elijah. Let us also recall that the struggle at the foot of this mountain is over understanding who Jesus is—the question with which this particular part of the Gospel begins: "Who do people say that Jesus is?"

Last week we saw Jesus praising Peter for his profession of faith, for getting it right. We also saw how easily we become arrogant instead of contemplative over the charges we receive from Jesus. Jesus told Peter, and so us, that whatever the church looses on earth will be loosed in heaven and whatever it binds on earth will be bound in heaven. Yet, we must recognize our brokenness and capacity for evil because the charge indicates that God will not automatically fix the choices we make. Today the tone changes a bit and again Peter plays a large roll.

The focus for our discussion this morning comes from a part of the answer that Jesus gives to the question, "Who is Jesus?" In essence, Jesus tells his disciples, "I am the one who has to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die."

Now Peter will have none of that so he rebukes Jesus for even suggesting it. Notice how quickly the tables turn. Peter goes in what appears to be a flash of the eye from being the center of praise for giving the right answer to getting it all wrong. We should contemplate the words of Jesus: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

It seems to me this is our biggest challenge: to keep our souls set on divine things instead of human things. In our Older Testament lesson, we only read the beginning of Moses's dialogue with God. Following our part of the text, Yahweh introduces himself and tells Moses what will happen. Now the name Yahweh comes from Hebrew words that can be translated a number of ways: "I will be there." "I am he who causes things to be." "I am who I am." All imply presence and action.

Moses hears all that God says God is going to do for Moses and his people and then quibbles with God. The first quibble, of course, is over who the heck this God is. The second is over the incredulity of the people when Moses shares with them this bit of good news. So God gives Moses a few signs for the people to demonstrate, not the power of Moses, but that "God is there".

Still unsatisfied, Moses plays the trump card telling God, "I can't talk very well in public." That didn't deter God so Moses finally does some whining: "Can't you send someone else?" God sort of let him off the hook by agreeing to commission Aaron as his assistant. So there was the mission team—whimpering, whining, quibbling Moses and Aaron, who was about to get the surprise of his life.

See how easily we focus on the human things instead of on "the One who causes things to happen" and what that One can make happen in our lives. God never calls us without also providing us with the necessary gifts to carry out the call. Yet, instead of hearing the call and trusting God, we quibble just like Moses. We resist and tell God that God must really want something else. Such is the case with Peter.

I think Jesus surprises his disciples. He says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." We are not surprised by these words because they are so common to us. However, the disciples hear these words in a different context than ours. They know about crosses and they are not things of wonder, beauty and adulation. In Jesus' time crosses were about torture, oppression, destroyed and pillaged communities, religious repression, violence and bloodshed, and burdensome and impoverishing taxes so the cities of empire could be fed and entertained. The disciples had lived through seeing neighbors and, perhaps, family members hung on crosses along the roadside until the birds had pecked their bones clean. Crosses were a primary means of intimidation.

We too easily brush aside the power of this notion of taking up the cross by saying things like, "That's my cross to bear." When we say that we are usually referring to some challenge in our life. The reference may be something that is grievous like an on going illness or a challenge with a child or family member or even our job. However, the scriptures have other words for those kinds of things. They call them trials, tribulations or temptations.

A cross is a horse of a very different color. When we see the symbol of a cross, what should come to mind is the saving work of Jesus that, contrary to Mel Gibson's take on it, was not just to die on a cross. He came to bear the burden of the sin of the world: the common sin of daily life and the sin of human frailty; the sin of social and economic injustice and of political repression and oppression; and, yes, the sins of repressive religion that binds instead of frees the souls of God's people. In our text today, he is directly struggling against the sin of Peter's inability to focus, a sin that is a large part of the life of Christians and of the church today.

In fact, Jesus says that to be faithful to him, to truly get behind him and support him, to follow him, we must be willing to surrender the very thing we cling to with all our energy, namely our lives. Fact is, of course, few of us will be called on to follow the noble road of martyrdom. Few of us even know anyone who has. Those reading Matthew knew such people.

Moses knew such people and did not want to be one. He was wandering around the desert where we found him this morning because he ran from martyrdom. Moses was not too anxious to go back down that road.

However, death and martyrdom are easier than the daily walk of being faithful to Jesus and standing behind and supporting Jesus against our culture of accommodation and assimilation. The disciples found that role a daunting one and abandoned Jesus when he needed their support most.

What then does it mean to take up our cross. It is to hear our call and to follow it faithfully where it leads. We do not talk enough about that in the church and that is often where we end up in the wrong place as Christians and the church.

How seriously have you listened to God's call to you? When I ask that question, I know that I am asking you a deeply personal and dangerous question. To search that question out may mean asking questions you've never asked before and hearing answers you never wanted to hear. The question goes to the heart of vocation, to what you do in professional life, and what you do in family life. The question goes to the heart of family and national identity.

The question of call asks you to ask some significant questions: Can I see Jesus doing what I am doing as a profession? Can I honestly believe that Jesus would affirm my professional direction? Does my profession build up community or contribute to community destruction? Is what I am doing what I believe is what God actually wants me doing or is it simply the humanly prudent thing to do? Is it a matter of personal pride and prestige that comes from a need to satisfy family or community yearnings or pressures? There are probably another hundred questions that grow out of these that have to do with our local and national culture. But you see where this leads.

I confess that I have had to ask myself and continue to ask myself these questions when it comes to seeking and accepting calls to particular churches. I spent considerable time asking myself if being in ministry wasn't a matter of prestige for me instead of a matter of call and servant-hood. It is so easy to get wrapped up in self.

Jesus though calls us to lose ourselves in service to him. We are not all called to the same thing, but the motivation and the questions for the journey are pretty much the same. What is the cross you are called to and what will it cost you?