August 31, 2014
Discipleship 101
- Exodus 3:1-15
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
What does it mean to be a disciple – a follower of Jesus? Well, I think the message in today’s gospel states it pretty plainly. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (v. 24)
I remember the 1st time someone pointed out the cost of discipleship to me. It was in my second class at Christian Theological Seminary – 19 years ago. The class was Intro to New Testament. The professor was Ron Allen who some of you know. And as he was walking around the classroom that day he said, “And even Ruth Chadwick Moore will have to pick up her cross to follow Jesus.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but I certainly knew I didn’t want to pick up anyone’s cross. Not even Jesus’ cross. That burden would be too much. The cross is a symbol of death and suffering and humiliation. Why would I want to pick up that burden? And I guess if I am honest I still don’t want to do that. And yet I want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So what do I do? What do you do to be a disciple of Jesus? Do you want to deny yourself and take up the cross of Jesus and follow him?
Like Peter, we want to say, “God forbid it Lord! This must never happen to you.” (v. 21) We do not want our Jesus, our loving savior, to have to suffer and die. And we want to say, probably once again like Peter, “God forbid it Lord! This must never happen to me!” Because when Jesus says to deny ourselves, to take up our crosses and follow, he does not mean giving up chocolate, or putting on a necklace and attending worship regularly. The expression “to take up one’s cross” is not an idiom by which to refer to some trivial annoyance like an ingrown toenail or a toothache or a difficult mother in law – although those are crosses many of us have to bear! In the first century it was culturally unthinkable to make jokes about crucifixion just like it would be today to make jokes about Auschwitz. To take up your cross doesn’t even mean to move forward with courage despite the fact that you have lost your job or your spouse – as difficult as that may be. To take up your cross means that you are willing to surrender pride, ego, status, comfort and even life for the sake of the kingdom of God. To take up your cross means that, like Jesus, you may be subject to taunts, humiliation, rejection and shame. To take up your cross means that you are under a sentence of death; you are taking up the horizontal bar of the cross on your way to the place of crucifixion. It means you have abandoned all hope of life in this world. And then, Jesus, says, and only then, are we ready to follow him.
It’s a paradox isn’t it – that you find your life only when you lose it. But this isn’t a call to lose oneself in a selfless cause – as noble as that idea may be. It is a specific demand placed upon those who would be followers of Jesus. If we want to be disciples of Jesus we must be willing to surrender our own self-centered ambitions, goals and lifestyles for the way demonstrated by Jesus. It means putting someone or something other than yourself first – being concerned not so much with what YOU want, but what God wants for you. It means putting down the ego and picking up the cross. It means giving up control and letting God be in control of your life. And if you know me, you know that I struggle with that loss of control each and every day of my life.
“To deny oneself” is to refuse the ultimate ownership of your life’s direction and instead hand it over to another – in this case – to Jesus. Discipleship is not about you, it is about God, which is what Jesus means by the language of denying ourselves. We are not to forget who we are, but rather figure out who we are through Jesus and as people carrying the name Christian. Taking up the cross is the sign of that commitment.
So, do you still want to be a disciple of Jesus? The cost is high. I’m not sure I can do it. I want to embrace Jesus’ example of goodness but I also want to avoid the stumbling block of the cross.
So I look for ways to better understand this passage. If Jesus makes it clear that he is living into and reinterpreting his identity as the messiah by suffering and dying with his people, then maybe I better look at his example more closely.
Jesus is not a teacher or a leader who teaches about what it means to be the church from a distance. He is instead the good shepherd who lives with, leads and feeds his sheep, heals their wounds, protects them from enemies, sleeps in the same fold as they do and is willing to lay down his life for them. He is willing to undergo great suffering at the hands of elders, chief priests, and scribes because he wants to be the shepherd of our real, messy, flesh and blood lives. Jesus was the embodiment of the gospel – he showed people the gospel in all he did and said.
And then Jesus dies in our place. Jesus dies for our sins. Jesus dies because God cares for us too much to dismiss our sin and guilt with a flippant “It doesn’t matter.” Jesus dies because words were not enough – action was necessary to prove that God’s love and forgiveness are genuine. Jesus dies in our place, but not to exempt us from the cost of discipleship. This is what we call the doctrine of atonement. The gospel is an invitation to death before it bestows new life. This is how God’s love will redeem and resurrect sinners from the futility of a life devoted to profit and power in this world. Because Jesus dies for our sin, we may now give ourselves to him and die to the powers that possess and control us. Atonement that is for us will involve us.
For Matthew, the reward for such faithfulness is eternal life. He says that although the life of Christ’s disciples will not be easy, the day is coming when the “Son of Man” will appear in glory and “will repay everyone for what has been done.” (v. 27) God’s divine plan includes not only suffering and death, but also resurrection – the triumph of God over the forces of darkness and evil. Christ’s suffering and death leads to God’s action in the resurrection. Once again, this is the paradox of our faith – death leads to life.
I want to be careful here. I am not preaching that you go out and suffer just for the sake of suffering. I also do not believe that God wants us to suffer. I believe that God wants to bless us and love us, and that the redemption, the forgiveness, we receive through Christ’s death on the cross means to be reconciled to God’s love. So how do we reconcile suffering in discipleship? Where is the synthesis that will not negate divine blessing, nor completely condemn sacrificial suffering as a way to live the way Christ asks us to live?
The only answer I could come up with was some wisdom from another sermon I wrote on this subject 4 years ago. Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor – whose sermons are so wise and yet so understandable explains it this way. “Jesus may not have made a good parish minister, but he made a very good savior, and I don’t think he is through saving us yet. His best tool has always been the very thing that killed him – that cross he ended up on – the one he was carrying long before he got to Golgotha. He is always offering to share it with us, to let us get underneath it with him. Not, I think because he wants us to suffer, but because he wants us to know how alive you can feel even underneath something that heavy and how it can take your breath away to get hold of your one true necessity. Even suffering pales next to what God is doing through it, through you, because you are willing to put yourself in the way. Discipleship is not for everyone. That is clearly what Jesus is telling us. There aren’t a lot of people who have what it takes to shoulder the cross – but I don’t think that means the rest of us are lost. It is for the rest of us – the weak ones – that Jesus took the weight of the cross upon himself. If we can’t help him carry it, he will carry us too. I think he just wants us not to take it for granted. I think he just wants us to know what it costs.” (Bread of Angels).
Resources:
Bread of Angels by Barbara Brown Taylor. Chapter 9, “High Priced Discipleship.”
Christian Century, August 23, 2005. “Defining moment” by Deanne Langle. Christian Doctrine by Shirley Guthrie, p 260.
Episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/Pentecost-proper 17, “The paradox of faith” by Susan Butterworth.
Feasting on the Word, Proper 17, Matthew 16: 21-28.
Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, by D. A. Carson