Take up your cross - Pastor's Meditation

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; 

and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips (Ps 63:5).

 

Take Up Your Cross

Meditations on Matt. 20:17-34

Jason Farley

4/16/11

  

    It is a rare thing to meet people that know what it is live. There are plenty of people that have blood pumping through thier veins.  Plenty of people that are miraculously transforming oxygen into carbon dioxide for plants to harvest. But to live. Untold millions bump through life like billiard balls in other peoples game of pool.

    Jesus lived. He lived a life that was shaped by living. He lived from life to life. He came to live so that life would be known again in a world trapped by death, and defined by dying. As Jesus approached the end of his life, we learn that the shape of his death was going to be the same that his whole life had been. His death would be cruciform, cross shaped. He would be dying for other, just as he had always lived for other.

    Once, when Jesus had just finished a number of parables whose point was to teach the disciples that 'But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Matt. 19:30 and Matt. 20:16). After Jesus relates the parables, a rich and powerful young man learns that he has to give up if to follow Jesus. His wealth will mean nothing in the days to come, it all depends upon whether or not he follows Jesus.

This sparks a thought in Peter's mind. Peter realizes that he and the rest of the disciples had already given up everything. So Peter asks what he and the disciples will receive. 

    So Jesus is in the midst of talking greatness in the kingdom, and how the first shall be last and the last shall be first. This is the way of the kingdom. And Jesus tell his disciples that he isn't telling them to live and act this way so that he won't have to. Jesus has been telling them to be like that because he is like that. In fact he is about to be the ultimate example of the way of the kingdom. He is going to become the last on behalf of God's people.

 

    "And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,  (18)  Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,  (19)  And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again" (Matt. 20:17-19). 

 

       To be last in order to be first is to follow Jesus. He is going to Jerusalem to be made last of all on the cross and in the grave in order to be made first as King of kings and Lord of lords.

 

(20)  Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.  (21)  And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 

 

    Zebedee's wife Salome wants the best for her sons. She has been with Jesus, she has worshiped Jesus, and she knows that there is nothing better than being close to Jesus, and so that is what she wants for her sons. She believes Jesus when he talks about the coming kingdom, and so she wants her sons to be close to him when he comes into his kingdom, and so she humbly asks for Jesus to place her sons on his right and left.

    Jesus' response indicates that, though she was misguided and didn't understand, she did have faith and he honors her request. He turns to James and John and asks if they are prepared to do what it takes?

 

(22)  But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 

 

    Often this passage is read as Jesus being sarcastic, and though there are passages where I do think that Jesus is being sarcastic, I don't think that this is one of them. I believe that Jesus asks them a straight forward question. If you want to go where I am going then you have to get there the way that I am getting there. He has been talking about being great in the kingdom, and now here are two brothers who want to be great in the kingdom.

     Jesus doesn't scoff and tell them that they will never see greatness, he asks if they will follow him to the cross. He asks if they will drink of the cup of crucifixion that he is going to drink and they way say “we are.” Jesus says again what he has been saying for a number of chapters now. The way to greatness in the kingdom is to be the least. The way up in the kingdom of God is down. The way to be first is to be last. The way to exaltation is humility. The way to resurrection is death.

    Jesus says, “I am going to Jerusalem to be mocked scourged and and crucified.” because the way to be great in the kingdom is by being the least. Jesus is going to live what he has been teaching. He has been telling them what to be like because he is like that. He is telling them to follow him.

 

Cruciform Discipleship

 

    So when James and John are desiring greatness, Jesus doesn't tell them that they don't have a chance, he asks them if they willing to arrive at the destination of his throne room by traveling the same road that he is going to travel.

 

(23)  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 

 

    Who sits at the right hand and the left is given by God the Father and not by Jesus, but Jesus does grant their request to drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism that he is baptized. They both get to be persecuted and lined up for martyrdom. They both are going to be made great in the kingdom, so they will both be made the least.

 

(24)  And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 

 

    The ten are indignant with James and John. They are indignant that James and John asked for a promotion, especially since Jesus cryptically grants their request. But Jesus calls the ten disciples over and says that they don't get it. Their ambition is inside out.

 

(25)  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.  (26)  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;  (27)  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:  (28)  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.   

 

    Jesus says that they have the whole understanding of authority and power upside down like some kind of pagan. Jesus did not come to be served but to serve, and he doesn't give authority and greatness to someone because he wants them to be served, but because he wants them to serve. God says that our lives are like seeds, they are meant to be planted in the life of our neighbors.

    Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies it produces fruit. God made the world in such a way that without humility, without the giving of oneself, without death, without servanthood there is no glory. Jesus says, look around, you don't want to be like some greedy pagan demanding that everyone  below you serve you. You want to be more like me, and God impressed this truth into the world all around you. 

This is the way that God made plants. Without death there can be no glory. The peanut plant is the perfect example of this. As a peanut plant grows and gets ready to reproduce it begins to bud and grow a little yellow flower. If at this point it decides to stretch its hands towards the sky and show off its flowers, they all die and that is the end of the peanuts. Peanut flowers will only go to seed underground. The peanut plant will actually bend down and shove all of its flowers underground and then the flowers grow into seeds. Unless a peanut plant will bend over and bury all of its flowers it will never grow seeds, it will never produce peanuts.

    A peanut plant that will not bury its flowers and let them die will die and that is the end of the peanuts, but the plant that buries its flowers will bring life into the world. As Jesus says "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25).

 

    The more that we grasp after our life and our rights, the less life we will have to live. The more we lay down our life, the more life we will get. Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross, and he is explaining the purpose here. He will be last on the cross in order to be first. He is the servant of all, and the cross is the fundamental billboarding of the truth of Jesus statement that the true leader is the servant of his people. By giving His life away, by refusing to grasp after life, Jesus gains both life and glory.

 

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  (6)  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  (7)  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  (8)  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  (9)  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  (10)  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  (11)  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:5-11).

 

And according to Paul we are to do the same

"If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,  (2)  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  (3)  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  (4)  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  (5)  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Php 2:1-5).

 

    We are called to metaphorically apply Jesus’ life giving death to our interactions with each other. As Jesus says:

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor" (John 12:26).

 

    If you are going to follow Jesus, if you want the resurrection life of Jesus, then you must follow Jesus into death. You must give your life away. As Paul said,

 

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (Phil. 2:3).

 

    Paul and Jesus set up this pattern of death before life, death before resurrection, for our entire life. “Where I am, there my servant will be also.” Jesus' life was aimed at the cross because his whole life was shaped like the cross. When Jesus went to the cross and served us by dying on the cross and taking our curse upon himself, his death was not taking on a different shape than his life had. He had lived a life of servanthood. He had lived a life of submission and humility and now he was going to the cross to seal the shape of his life. He was going to the baptism of the cross to finally and fully break the curse that had been holding the world since Adam sinned.

    And our lives are to take on the same shape of death and resurrection. Jesus says, follow me, and he is calling you to come to him and die. To die to yourself, to die to the old man, to mortify the flesh and live for Christ, and love your neighbor.

    If God calls you to die as a martyr, giving your life away in persecution for the worship of Jesus, you will die as you lived. Unless your life is already shaped like Jesus' life, you will not have a death shaped like his. If you are not taking the opportunities to pick up your cross now, as you have them every day, then you won't be prepared when a big opportunity comes. Every time you have an opportunity to consider others as better than yourself, your spouse, your kids, your neighbors, other drivers, take it. Don't let bitterness, selfishness, or arrogance keep you from being a servant.

    Don't be conformed to the world that grasps and complains, and is self-centered and self-seeking. Instead, be conformed to your Lord, who set his course on the cross for us, who gave himself away for us, who suffered for us, and bled for us, and died for us. Be like Jesus because God vindicated Jesus' death and suffering by raising him from the dead by the power of the Spirit.