Take up your Cross

Reading Matt 16:21 – end

Preamble

In the last Blog post we looked at a number of important Bible characters and discovered that they all had the same faults and failing that we all experience.

The above Gospel reading re-introduces us to one of those characters, Peter, and another of his gaffs. Jesus had previously asked his disciples the question, "Who do you think say that I am?" Peter had replied, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Peter had seen all the great miracles, he had heard all the inspired teaching, he had seen how Jesus had dealt with the Scribes and the Pharisees and was convinced that Jesus was the one who had come to save Israel.

However, Jesus teaching to his disciples begins to take on a different theme. He now openly talks about handing himself over to those same Scribes and Pharisees, to suffering and death. All this is too much for Peter who takes Jesus aside and rebukes him – in other words he begins to tell Jesus off for even thinking this way. But Jesus tells him off for thinking about human things rather than the things of God.

But let us pause for a moment -are we not guilty of the same attitude. We praise God and declare him to be the Lord – we pray, "Thy will be done." and then we question when things do not seem to go the way we imagined.

Take up your cross

Let's read those words again: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

What does Jesus mean by "take up your cross?" We often interpret it as meaning some sort of suffering. We ask someone who has a long standing medical complaint and they may well reply something like, "Well my dear, I must not complain, after all it is a cross I have to bear." This may be partially right but really Jesus was talking about something else. The clue is in the phrase, "Let them deny themselves." The cross we are all meant to carry if we are to be true Disciples of Christ is all about subjugating our will to that of God's. I believe that it is the hardest thing we are called upon to do. It is totally against our human nature which makes me and my will the centre of the world.

In 1943 a Psychologist of the name of Maslow produced a theory which he called the Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow believed that the most important needs where physiological (food, sleep etc.) followed by the need for safely – and this could include not only physical safety, but job security etc. This was then followed by the need to love and be loved and then the need for esteem and lastly the need for creativity. How people meet these needs varies from society to society and with time. For example, to the Victorian esteem came with class, today it seems to come with money and possessions.

Whatever we think of Maslow's theory it is easy to see that there are forces within us that keep on driving us in a certain direction. They are not wrong in the eyes of God, after all he put them there for our benefit, but there are times when the Will of God calls us to go against one or more of them. A good example is in our reading. Maslow says that one of our needs is safety. Peter was responding to that need by warning Jesus to stay away from Jerusalem. Jesus knew that God's will was that he put aside that need however much it pulled him in the opposite direction.

So then, taking up our cross in this fashion, bringing our needs and desires into line with the will of God, is both challenging and difficult. In fact it is the most difficult challenge we will ever face –so difficult that it cannot be a one off action. In Luke's version Jesus talks about taking up the cross daily. That is the only way it can be done.

Listening to God

How then do we go about taking up the cross?

There is really only one answer – listening to God, daily. It is fine coming to Church on a Sunday. It is fine listening to the words of the liturgy or the words of the sermon. It is fine going to the altar to partake of the body and blood of Christ – but that is just an hour or so in a week, the rest of which we often spend in meeting OUR needs.

Both as individual Christians and as a Church we really have to get to grips with this. As individuals how much time do we spend reading our Bibles and being quiet with God? As a Church have we ever taught people how to do that and do we supply both time and space so that people can?

Choosing Life

Of course we have to have the will and that is not easy. As I have mentioned there are forces that drive us. Jesus terms it as "wanting to save our life" that is putting me and my needs above everything else. If I do that I end up with nothing. On the other hand, the more I put that aside, the more I will experience what true life really is.

I think I know what all this means. Two years ago I was on retreat at Holy Island. After two days communing with God, it seemed that even the peace if the Island was too noisy. Just off the coast there is St Cuthbert's Isle a very small Island that is cut off for a lot of the day. I managed to wade across and had the island to myself. It was just me and God. Not long after being there it seemed that time and space ceased to exist and for a while I truly believe that I experienced what it really means to be alive. In fact I felt more alive than I had done in some time.

But experiencing God in that way is not just for the few. It is the right of all those who call themselves God's people. It is the right of everyone here.

Tomorrow is the beginning of September, in many ways it is the start of a new Church program. Perhaps this is an opportune moment for us to pick up that cross. To find new life where God is the focus and not ourselves.

Changes will not come overnight – carrying a cross is not easy – sometimes we may stumble – sometimes others will have to come to our aid and help us with the weight. The stations on the walls tell the story. But the reward is real life – the thing that the world seeks – but never finds and is open to you.