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Thought
for the Week Sunday 13 September – Trinity 14
Most people
react to the Cross of Jesus Christ in a negative fashion; they recognize the
face of suffering and of death in the cross and so, even when they know about
the Resurrection, they want to avoid all talk about the cross. Most people, in
other words, react to the cross like the Apostle Peter reacted to Jesus when
he spoke for the first time to the disciples about what was going to happen
to him. We hear those
words in verse 31 of today's reading from Mark chapter 8: Jesus began to teach his disciples
saying: "the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and
after three days rise again." "What is
this" - Peter must have thought.
"A good man - an innocent man - a man of
faithfulness - a man who is my friend
- must suffer and then be killed!" Peter felt
that this was wrong! And so he argued with Jesus! We read in
verse 32 that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him - and while we
do not know what he said, we can well imagine it. Don't talk this way Jesus - it's
wrong! No one who is good should have
to suffer. God rewards
the righteous and punishes sinners, and you - you Jesus - you
are not a sinner! You are the
Messiah - the promised Saviour of Israel.
You should not have to suffer, you should not be rejected and killed! But Jesus - as
we read in verse 33, looked at Peter and the other disciples and then he
rebuked Peter, saying to him You are not thinking like God, you
are in fact speaking like Satan would
speak - trying to get me to avoid what I must do, trying to corrupt me
into thinking only of myself and my own survival. Jesus is our
example of loving obedience showed to us during his life and particularly in
his trial and crucifixion. Then as we see
in verses 34 to 35 - Jesus turns back to the disciples and to the people
assembled there with him and says: If anyone would come after me, they
must deny themselves and take up their cross
and follow me. For whoever wants to
save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the
gospel will save it. To take up
one's cross here means to forget one's own opinions about things and about
people, to forget one's own righteousness and goodness, and to do what Christ
would have done, to do what he did on the way to the cross, and show such
forgiveness and self-sacrifice in obedience to God the Father. It is so
simple - yet it can
be even harder to do than to actually die for Jesus. To follow
Christ who was rejected because he was good to prostitutes and tax
collectors, and other sinners and outcasts, well that is often much harder. It is so easy
to slip into the ways of the world, into the ways of those who walk in
darkness. No lights
flash when you are in a situation where you must choose Christ, or
yourself. No bells ring when you are
faced with either judging someone or loving them. It is easy to
go along with what others are saying, - or to let it
go by for the sake of their so called friendship, it is easy to
choose to save your own life - all you have
to do is go with the flow. The way of the
cross is - by and large much harder - for it is a way that contradicts the easy
way of the world, a way that often earns you the hatred of those who are
blind to God’s ways, and calls upon you the hostility of those who do not
like the light to shine upon their acts. The way of
choosing to deny oneself is difficult because our self is reluctant to die -
reluctant to allow God to work in us and through us - reluctant to trust that
God can and will work a wonderful work in us when we follow in his path. This is the
cross that most of us are called to carry each and every day. This is, for
most of us, what is involved in denying oneself and choosing to follow the
master: to give up our own opinions, our own selves. To live for Christ and
as the reading from James 3 v 1 – 12 reminds us, to speak in such a way that
is pleasing to him. Our tongues
are one of the most powerful instruments that we have because the
consequences of what we say can be so far reaching. This is emphasised in the
following story: In a land across the sea, there is an
old city where no one lives. Weeds grow on the rooftops of ruined houses and
the streets are overgrown with grass and nettles. But once, it was a thriving
township. Long ago,
hundreds of people lived here. One afternoon, a wise and holy man was seen
walking along the main street. His eyes were full of tears. He kept his head
bowed low as he made his way through the town centre and out to the open
countryside. The townspeople watched him, shocked. But no one dared to ask
him the reason for his obvious distress. Then the mayor
made a guess. ‘Someone must have died at the other side of town,’ he
suggested. A woman took
up the story. ‘Could it be the plague?’ she asked. A young woman began to
weep, as she thought of how the plague might kill her children. In no time,
the town was in uproar, quite certain that the plague had struck. There was a
frantic scramble to get away from the town before the infection spread. The
people loaded up their donkeys and carts, and streamed out into the
countryside. Within an hour there was not a single soul remaining in the
town. They never
went back. The town began to rot away. Foxes settled in the ruined houses and
birds nested in the collapsing rooftops. One day, the
holy man came back, and tried to find his old home. He couldn’t begin to
understand the devastation that he discovered. After all, only a short while before he had been happily peeling
onions for his dinner, and he had gone out for a while to give his streaming
eyes a little rest. Being able to
speak is a wonderful gift. We can ask for exactly what we want or need. We
can tell people what we are thinking. We can tell jokes. We can have a
conversation with our friends. We can help people by telling them what they
can do. We can sing the praise of Jesus and pray. But, also we can say unkind
things. We can be rude and disobedient. We can lie. We can make someone cry.
It is one of the crosses that we have to bear. So ‘take up
your cross and follow him’ Following Christ means speaking for him. Showing
our love for him and those around us. Be true and obedient to Christ and
watch what you say. Amen. Adrian Wilson: Reader, Anglican
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