it's not what you thought

when you first began it

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark!

Well, we’ve got another problem on this second week of Lent; or maybe to be more accurate, I should say I’ve got a problem…

My problem, as it turns out, is today’s Gospel.

Because here’s the thing; I love you all, I know how hard following is, I know how busy you all are, and I know how you really do try to be faithful. And while I’d prefer to come up here and say something anodyne like “I know you’re  doing your best,” or “ you deserve a break;” today’s Gospel won’t allow me to do that kind of thing.

Sorry...

Jesus and his Word stands firm: Pick up your cross. Deny yourself. Don’t try to save your life, lose it. Follow me…

…And I thought I was giving up a lot when I dropped meat from my menu for Lent…

So, I’ve got a problem; although I love you, and although I know you’re doing your best; I can’t give you any wiggle room, I can’t let you off the hook of Jesus’ hard Word today…

Sorry.

…Folks like us; comfortable people, people living two-thousand years after Jesus’ earthly ministry; we’re all too likely to want to tame Jesus’ Word, to make it into an allegory or metaphor for something else.

We say things like, “my cross is this hairline that just keeps crawling ever closer to my crown.” While that may be true, and while we might be tempted to actually believe our pathetic proxies; Jesus’ Word resists all the violence we would do to it, this Word is too hard.

Pick up your cross. Deny yourself. Don’t try to save your life, lose it. Follow me.

Despite all our attempts to soften it; Jesus’ Word stands firm, he’s serious, deadly serious. Jesus will not let his Word be turned into something else; some metaphor or allegory…

…In today’s Gospel, Peter, and us along with him, finally get to the point of confessing that Jesus is the Messiah. 

But instead of praising us for getting the Sunday School answer right; Jesus does what he always does, he turns up the heat. After we confess Jesus as the messiah, he finally tells us, openly, what that means; he will be the messiah who will suffer, be rejected, killed even. 

And just as we’re tempted to join Peter in reprimanding Jesus for talking so un-messianic, Jesus points the finger at us. Jesus draws the conclusion we’ve been avoiding; if he is the messiah that will be rejected, humiliated, and legally murdered; more of the same is in store for his followers…

Pick up your cross. Deny yourself. Don’t try and save your life, but lose it. Follow me.

Although that may be more than we care to hear, thank you very much, Jesus’ Word stands firm; it breaks apart though all our attempts to evade it, to turn it into something else. 

Jesus’ Word today is too direct, it is too real, it is too hard…

In fact, were I to lose my courage, and say something as banal as, “now listen, I know this sounds hard; but let me explain to you what Jesus meant if he had gone to seminary and had a retirement account,” you’d all hear through the ploy. 

Sure, that kind of sermon might be comfortable for a little while, but we’d all go home knowing we hadn’t actually gotten Christ, we might have gotten a little of him, but not enough to inoculate us from a hard Word like, “take up your cross and follow me…”

  

Jesus Word today, it confronts us, it ends all our games. This hard Word of Jesus refuses to be put off, it rejects all our attempts to turn it into something else. His Word stands there, like a boulder in the middle of a cornfield.

Jesus’ Word today actually comes to us; and no amount of wiggling, no amount of reprimanding, not even a preacher caught in the middle of it all, can do anything to keep this Word from coming and actually addressing us.

I’m sorry to say it, but Jesus’ isn’t speaking in metaphor or allegory; he literally means it: pick up your cross, deny yourself, don’t save your life but lose it, follow him; he’s deadly serious. 

Here we are going along thinking that all Jesus wants for us is to be upright, pious, good people; imagining that is good enough. After hearing this Word today, though, we can’t shake the feeling Jesus is talking about more than any of that. 

And, although I’d rather not, I have to say; Jesus does mean more than any of that. 

I know it feels like you’re trying your best, doing all you can; but it isn’t enough for Jesus…

Sorry.

Jesus isn’t satisfied with your good works, Jesus won’t take your half-hearted piety, Jesus doesn’t even care if you to give something up for Lent, either. No, none of that is enough for him.

Pick up your cross. Deny yourself. Don’t try and save your life, but lose it. Follow him.

What? Need I say more?!?!? Do you have ears but cannot hear?

Listen, Jesus doesn’t want your pathetic attempts to be the person you know you ought to be; Jesus wants you - the actual you, the real you; the you that is sitting in the pew right now, the you with all your virtues and your sins, the you with all your joys and your sorrows. That’s what Jesus is after, you; that’s why Jesus comes to you today and says something like lose your life for my sake; because he’s speaking to actual sinners!

That’s the problem, finally, with all our attempts to turn Jesus’ Word into some allegory or metaphor; allegories and metaphors always point to something more, to somewhere else. 

And as long as that’s all Jesus’ Word is, we’re lost, we’re damned. Because I don’t know about you, but I need to be saved, really saved; and not just some idealized version of me, either; but the real me, the flesh and blood me. 

Thank God Jesus just shows up today and puts away all our metaphors and allegories once and for all with a Word that is too direct, too hard, too real for actual sinners to squirm away from. Jesus comes and refuses to point somewhere else, to someone else. 

Jesus actually comes today and asks for more of you than you can give; and that’s exactly the point! Hear this, Jesus doesn’t want any-thing from you; Jesus wants you!

Jesus wants to be the one you trust, the one you follow. Jesus wants to be your God, sinner though you may be.

See, Jesus isn’t happy with confessions that he is the Christ. Why Jesus is the Christ whether we say so or not! No, what Jesus wants, sisters and brothers, is to be your Christ, your savior; really, actually, for you!

This Jesus who show up today speaking this hard Word is not some metaphor, or insipid allegory; he is the savior you can actually look to for salvation!

Today Jesus comes and speaks the Word that is real, to real flesh and blood sinners. This is the Word of the Christ who actually comes and takes upon himself that one cross we can’t do a rotten thing about; death.

Jesus does all this to be the one you can trust, the one you can follow, the one you can hear say, “pick up your cross and follow me,” and finally respond with a hearty ‘amen,’ because the one who speaks this Word is none other than your messiah.

Pick up your cross. Deny yourself. Don’t try and save your life, but lose it. Follow him. Amen!