Part of the Wizard of Oz in Lent series. A worship video of this sermon appears at the bottom of the post.
Peter is not on board with this new revelation from Jesus. For the first time in his ministry Jesus is telling his disciples what he knows is the inevitable end he will meet. The miracles he has performed, the people he has touched, and even more importantly the good news he has proclaimed and the authority with which he has proclaimed it, is disturbing the usual order of things and that is only going to intensify. Those who are comfortable with their position in the community are finding their comfort and power challenged. Those who are used to setting the rules are finding their rules critiqued. Those who are used to interpreting the law of God are hearing new interpretations. And they don’t really like it.
Jesus is preaching a good news about a new kingdom and those who are doing just fine in the current kingdom aren’t too enamored with this idea. Jesus knows it, and he knows how far they will go to get him to stop – all the way to death on a cross.
Peter can’t imagine it! Just moments before he had told Jesus that he believed Jesus is the Messiah, and Messiahs do not die on Roman crosses. Messiahs defeat oppressors, not die at their hands. He rebukes Jesus’ understanding that is clearly missing the point. But Jesus, in turn, shuts him down because the destination isn’t as important as the journey right now, except in the way that the destination shapes the journey.
The movie we’re in conversation with this Lent, The Wizard of Oz, has a little something to say about journeys. It is, at its core, one of the great epic journey movies. (Entertainment Weekly lists it as #2 on a top 30 list, in fact – sandwiched right between National Lampoon’s Vacation and Smokey and the Bandit. Feel free to debate that at coffee hour this morning.)
Let’s watch a clip of the start of Dorothy’s journey.
“It’s always best to start at the beginning,” Glinda tells Dorothy. (Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music might add, “It’s a very good place to start.”)
“Start at the beginning,” sounds like pretty basic advice. In the wrong tone of voice it might be even be condescending, but figuring out what the beginning is, what the right first step should be, is pretty important. Dorothy had a yellow brick road to follow, but our guide isn’t laid in technicolor beneath our fee.
Last week we talked about how what drives a spiritual journey is a longing – longing for a different world, longing for a better world, longing for a place that feels like we belong, that feels like home. (We have treat during the offertory this morning when we will hear the longing for home sung beautifully by our guest, Qiana McNary.)
For Peter that longing includes a life with Jesus who is the Messiah he’s been waiting for expectantly, but now Jesus is here telling Peter that he is not long for this earth. Instead his journey leads to the cross.
So in some ways for Christians, the beginning of our journey with Jesus begins at the cross. If we’re going to walk with Jesus, if we’re going to be a part of his spiritual journey, we need to face the reality of the cross. We need to grapple with the idea that the cross is where Jesus’s journey leads. The cross is what guides our journey; it is our beginning.
“If any want to become my followers,” Jesus says, “let them… take up their cross and follow me.”
This and related passages throughout the gospels have led to the English idiom of “one’s cross to bear.” Usually when we hear this what is being talked about is some sort of burden or a perceived trial one must endure, usually with great suffering. Oftentimes it is said to give meaning to something otherwise awful, as if to say some future glory or divine reward will come from bearing this difficult thing. (Just a heads up – this has the potential to be a really offensive way to talk about someone else’s reality – as if God has given them something that the speaker considers deficient. It’s usually a good idea to steer clear of identifying other people’s crosses to bear.)
But the cross as Jesus speaks about it here isn’t a burden to bear. It isn’t a punishment to be handed down, but instead it’s more like a guide for our journey with him. It’s the road map to carry with us to show us the way to that which will fulfill our deepest longing – the longing for communion with God. And it’s also a bit of a warning about that journey, a warning Dorothy didn’t get about the apple-throwing trees and fire-wielding Wicked Witch she met on her journey.
The spiritual journey we take walking with Jesus, it isn’t always a journey of skipping and singing. Instead, when we look at the cross of Jesus it’s an opportunity to consider that what Jesus did, the way he lived his life, the gospel he proclaimed, it enraged the authorities so much that a cross became the instrument of his death. Our own journeys with him might upset the people around us as well.
Taking up a cross and following Jesus means living a life that is often counter-cultural. Patterning our life after his, means setting our minds on divine things, not on human things, and divine things can take us out of sorts with some humans. It can mean standing with people that others would rather turn their backs on. It can mean letting some of our own desires go unmet, letting our own resources be used for purposes beyond our interests, all so that others can have their basic needs met. It can mean advocating for justice rather than settling for fairness.
A journey with the cross as our guide is one that is shaped by God’s priorities, not our own human instincts or desires. On this journey we are called to lay down the unnecessary and perhaps even sinful worries of trying to save face, save our possessions, save our prestige, save our privilege. It is one that will lead us outside of the walls and barriers that keep our lives self-contained and self-centered. It is a journey to the kingdom of God where the good news is that those who have been left out are brought into community, those who have been made to feel unimportant will be valued, those who are hungry will be fed, those who have been puffed up will be made humble, those who have gathered much will share with those in need.
Carrying the cross on our journey of faith is a reminder that faith is not passive. It doesn’t just live in our head or warm our hearts or sound good on our lips. Faith inspires action. Faith calls us to live for others in the manner demonstrated for us in the cross upon which Jesus died. In submitting himself to the cross, Jesus showed us that a journey with God is one of humility. In sharing the crucifixion of criminals, Jesus showed us that our walk with him must be marked by solidarity with those on the fringes. In loving others, in loving us, before we knew him, before we followed him, before we loved him back, Jesus showed us we are to love others indiscriminately. In reconciling the world to God, Jesus showed us it is our life’s work to be agents of peace.
This is what it means to let the cross guide our journey. It isn’t forced on us. And although there can be risk to our physical lives and the lives we have crafted for comfort when we are called to a way of life that centers self-sacrifice and standing against the norms, it still is not a burden under which we suffer, but a blessing to share with the world.
“Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus invites, and with the invitation comes a promise. We will never be alone when we walk as Jesus’ disciples. He goes before us and our fellow travelers are with us. “Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus invites. Follow the way of the cross.
For Some Reason 