Psalm 116:1-9
Mark 8:27-38
It is said that the Buddha once cautioned his students. He compared the task of trying to
understand his teaching to trying to pick up a poisonous snake in the wild: if you don’t go about it thoughtfully and intentionally, it’s easy to end up injured.
In today’s reading from Mark, Jesus warns his followers in a similar way. “It’s my cross to bear” is a fairly common saying, but too often it comes with a dangerous background, a poisonous misunderstanding of the teaching.
Listen as I reread verses 34-35: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
There is a sad, unjust history of the church, clergy, counselors, and others using this teaching to glorify suffering that should have been stopped. This phrase has been misused to encourage wives to stay in marriages even after they have disclosed domestic violence. It was misused to keep children from reporting abuse. It is misused to make God into a paternalistic, uncaring tool of the powerful at the expense of the marginalized. This kind of theology has been used to justify crusades, genocide against indigenous people, forced conversion, and other horrors that the God I know screams out against.
To be absolutely clear, God does not cause or desire suffering that causes harm for us. Our God is a God of justice and love. Anyone who teaches or counsels that God desires their people to stay in relationships and situations that are dangerous or that diminish spirits is wrong. If you have heard this before or if someone close to you has heard this, I am sorry. It is wrong.
The poisonous side of today’s teaching glorifies suffering, but just as the bite of a poisonous
snake can be lethal, when handled with respect its venom can have healing properties. The
healing word for today is that Jesus invites us to journey on his Way that brings life. And this isn’t just life in the sense of heart beating, lungs filling, brain signaling, but the paradoxical, holy life that transforms death and suffering.
In the first century Roman Empire, death on the cross was reserved for those with whom
officials wanted to make a statement. It was shameful, excruciatingly painful, and public, and it sent the clear message “When you challenge us, death follows.” That was the meaning of the cross to those in power.
But to those who follow the Jesus Way, the cross means something different entirely. Jesus
willingly took on the cross, not because he had to but out of love for his people. In his death and resurrection the cross is transformed from a tool of terror to a beacon of hope.
So when Jesus tells the crowd that to follow him they must deny themselves, take up their
cross, and follow him, he invites them to journey on his way, not to suffering for suffering’s sake. To deny oneself does not mean to accept abuse, but to surrender our own human hubris and tendency to look after ourselves at the expense of others. To take up our cross and follow Jesus means to take on the work of love and justice that we are called to in the world.
When we embark on this journey we will inevitably meet suffering on the path: it’s part of the human condition, and we can look to many of our teachers and saints to know that the power of the world often fights back against “the last shall be first and the first, last.”
And when we encounter suffering, the promise for us is that we do not face it alone. Jesus
travels with us. We also travel with one another. When Jesus teaches in our reading, he
addresses the entire crowd. As a community, just like that crowd, we shoulder our burdens and celebrate our joys together.
God does not cause or glorify suffering; God knows suffering and is with us in our own. The
psalmist knows this and has been there. The Psalm is a thanksgiving for God’s company during dire times: “the snares of death encompassed me…I suffered distress and anguish” they say. Even in these depths, God was with them and renewed them to “the land of the living.”
When we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the way of Jesus, we surrender to a
path that we don’t entirely know. There are difficulties and suffering, and there is also love,
justice, and peace. And we never travel alone. Thanks be to God, amen.
Weybridge Congregational Church 