WHAT TAKING UP YOUR CROSS MEANS

Matthew 16: 21-28

The traditional folktale of the three trees begins this gospel message of the cross. It was through the hard wood of one tall tree that, as folklore tells it, a wooden manger was crafted, and when Joseph, a carpenter, was thinking of the tools in his shop with which to make a lovely cradle for his newborn son Jesus, he settled for a beautifully crafted object—a manger—that was being used for a more lowly purpose—to feed animals. Although animals are God’s creatures as well, few of us would want to set our newborn child or grandchild on a dirty dinner plate or a used dog bowl. A manger was, in the words of the hymn “a mean estate.” Yet the wood from that first tree would foreshadow the way the world would treat this child. While he live on earth, he had few belongings and nothing that was fit for a king. But in eternity’s eyes, the manger actually held a treasure—the Savior of the World. The second tree hoped to be made into a fine sailing vessel that would carry a king across the waters. What happened was the tree, as the story goes, was made into a small sailing vessel and slipped into a lake known as the Sea of Galilee. The small craft would just haul dead fish to shore. But one day, in a storm perhaps not unlike the storm that hit our eastern seaboard this week, a man in this fishing boat appeared to be a miracle man: he commanded the wind to become still, and it became still. Perhaps the second tree had become a sailing vessel for a king. It was the third tree that was cut into beams and thrown into a lumber yard. That third tree, as the story goes, had two beams from its towering height bound together to make a device of death that, by the grace and power of God, became the cross of Christ, and later the symbol of life beyond death. Even before he faced the cross, Jesus knew what Romans did with them.

Last week in the earlier verses of Matthew 16, we heard Simon Peter declare that Jesus was the Christ. Jesus affirmed it, and then went in a strange direction: strange for them and strange for us; he told them that the Messiah would die. Peter said “No!” and Jesus said “Yes!” get out of the way of God’s plan! By further explanation we got today’s lesson from Jesus about taking up our own crosses. Such an act has been known through the years as “martyrdom,” that is, suffering for others or with others without regard for one’s own self. New Testament scholar Stanley Saunders says: “Martyrdom is very hard to understand or embrace for people who live in a culture where the self is the biggest truth, or the only truth, they can imagine. Not many of us in North American culture will feel called to suffered and die for the sake of Jesus Christ, in large part because our experience of Christian faith has become so deeply commingled with and compromised by the individualistic perspectives and self-serving values of the larger society. Where the pursuit of ‘personal salvation’ replaces the community of discipleship, the call to deny self, take up the cross, and lose one’s life for Jesus’ sake will seem, at best, little more than an unpleasant means to an ultimately self-serving end, or perhaps no more than an abstract ideal” [Gospel of Matthew, Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2010, p. 166.] But can we not argue back a bit with Dr. Saunders as we have heard of heroic deeds done over the years, and even over the last week? Are not some of humanity’s best times when a firefighter runs into a building to save another; or a famous actress like Kate Winslet runs into a burning room to save the mother of her host? How about soldiers who have fallen on a grenade to save those around them; or a mother who gives a vital organ to save the life of another; or a motorist who reaches into a car teetering on the edge of a cliff to save the life of a person trapped inside: aren’t these acts worth mentioning? Aren’t they worth noting and honoring? Yet martyrdom is something beyond these; to do what Jesus asks of us is not just heroism, it is to take a stand for a greater justice; it is to suffer through unspeakable torture, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer did in World War II, in order to keep God as the one to receive his first allegiance, even before the Furor named Hitler. He never would switch the order as the Third Reich ordered and he died for it. Would people do that today for God? In his letters from prison, listen to these words that Bonhoeffer wrote: “Daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you; valiantly grasping occasions, not cravenly doubting—freedom comes only through deeds, not through thoughts taking wing. Faint not nor fear, but go out to the storm and the action, trusting in God whose commandment you faithfully follow;

freedom, exultant, will welcome your spirit with joy.” [LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM PRISON, The Macmillan Company, 1967, p. 194-195] For one running into rough surf or a burning building or a plane at a crash, such action might be called heroic. But to take a stand for God in a way that could change the course of human events is taking up your cross. When Jesus went to the Roman Cross of death in the first century, it wasn’t just one man dying; it was an event that changed the world forever. Who are the Christians who have changed the world because of their stand or their action? They took their place on symbolic crosses through the ages. It was C.S. Lewis, for example, who gave weekly Christian radio addresses during World War II that kept the Allied spirits buoyed and gave them spiritual food for martyrdom thought. But there are more examples than that.

“If any want to follow me, let them deny themselves” Jesus said. I think in Volusia County of people like Momma and Pappa Duval, in Glenwood, who had a child with special needs, and in an act of sacrifice, opened their doors to others who had children or adults with special needs when families could not care for them alone. It is a Christian home. I think of people like Rose Marie Bryon in Daytona Beach who sacrificially setup a children’s home and school with a Christian environment where she could save and guide youngsters who were surrounded with godless crime and violence. I think of Christian missionaries in Thailand and Taiwan, in Iraq and Iran, in Honduras and Haiti, giving up comfort, means, and safety to bring medicine, hope, and Christian action to those in harm’s way. Those are people who have taken up their cross. Some do it in a literal way; I have seen, even going through our town twice in the last twenty years, a man who got media attention by carrying a large cross behind him, dragging it on the ground as he wore a muslin robe and leather sandals. Is that carrying his cross? What are the ways that you can bring Christ to even a corner of the world? It is sacrificial in nature. A child may share a lunch with another child who has little; a mom may open her home to be a safe place of Christian play for one or two other children who seem unattended by neighboring parents. Any one of us may choose to—when we buy a can of soup, or a box of macaroni and cheese, or a jar of peanut butter—buy a second one to put in our Halifax Urban Ministries boxes.

Some of you will remember the tragic and senseless shooting of many students at Colombine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999. An East Tennessee University student several years ago, Leslie Boughers, wrote about Cassie Bernall, the one who lost her life when she answered “yes” to the question asked of her by one of the gunmen.did Leslie wrote:

Cassie stayed underneath her table and continued to pray as she heard the gunshot that killed Kyle Velasquez. She looked up and saw [the shooters] set their bags down and reload their guns. Many thoughts were running through Cassie’s head. She was hoping they would leave, hoping and praying her life would be spared. She was probably thinking of the passage she underlined just weeks earlier in the book “Discipleship: Living for Christ in the Daily Grind” that she had been reading, “All of us should live life so as to be able to face eternity at any time.”

She looked up and saw [one gunman kneel] down right in front of her.

“Do you believe in God?” he said.

She paused for just a second, just long enough for her to realize that this was her chance to stand up for what she so strongly believed in. Although she was scared, her voice remained strong.

“Yes,” was all she said. [His 12-guage shotgun killed her instantly.]

Our lives are filled with times of decision: guns, war, storms, fires, domestic violence, and lost children all give us a choice, maybe not today, but who knows? Maybe not tomorrow, but who knows? Today, “this is your time” as Michael W. Smith put it in his song that honored Cassie Bernall. This is your time when you can consider what you may do, or what you may say, when confronted with the question: “Will I take up my Christian cross and make my Christian witness today?” Or will I leave my cross at church, or tucked away in my backpack, or in my purse, or my briefcase? If Jesus says that to follow him means to take up your cross, when and how will you honor God with your actions?

Jeffrey A. Sumner August 28, 2011