Jesus began to teach
them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, be rejected, and killed
so that He could rise again, but Peter took Him aside and rebuked Him.
Every parent of a small
child knows this scenario, or one like it. The child is engaged in some kind of risky play… perhaps
riding a bike or playing vigorously on a swing set. One moment everything is fine, the next, disaster
strikes. A fall, a cut, a bump, a
bruise… and tears, lots and lots of tears. You rush to the child, hug, clean the wound, apply a
band-aid, more hugs, and then… what?
What do you do next? What
wisdom, what counsel, do you give to the child?
Some parents caution: “Try
to be more careful now.” Some encourage: “Go on back to
having fun.” Some say, “Mommy (or Daddy) is going
to be right here with you to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.” Some
try to protect: “Let’s not get back on the bike (or the swing set or
whatever it was). It is too dangerous for you.”
Each response sends a
distinct and powerful message. “Try
to be more careful,” tells the child
that it is safe to engage the world again as long as you learn from the past. “Go back to having fun,” suggests that bumps and bruises are all a part of
life’s natural ebb and flow. “Mommy
is with you,” conveys the message
that the presence of a caring adult can and will keep you safe. It is a promise that can be difficult
to deliver, unless you become over-protective. “Let’s not get back on the bike” sends a message that suffering and pain must be
avoided at all costs. Which
message would you want to give to a child?
Here is another way to
think about it… if God came to you and said, “I will give you either the
ability to keep your child safe from all harm or the ability to comfort and
heal your child,” which would you
choose? Based on today’s Gospel
reading, I think it is safe to say the Peter would choose safety while Jesus
would choose comfort and healing.
What is wrong with Peter’s approach? Who doesn’t want to avoid pain and
suffering and heartache and rejection and (ultimately) death itself? Why shouldn’t Jesus get out of Dodge,
head for the hills, hideout, and not be crucified? What is wrong with that? It seems smart.
It seems prudent. It seems
logical. It feels right. But, it comes with a huge, hidden cost:
the price you pay for shrinking back from life.
Think about that child with
the bruised knee or the bloody elbow.
What price does the child pay if he never gets back on the bike or if
she never again climbs on the swing set?
Over time the child will become tentative, fearful, and withdrawn. What happens if parent makes the
child’s total safety his or her responsibility and never leaves the child’s
side? Over time it will diminish
the child’s natural ability to engage challenges and to recover from setbacks;
experiences every child faces on a daily basis.
It is also a struggle we in
the adult world engage time and time again in many varied forms and
fashions. Think about what happens
in life if you give your heart to another and somewhere down the road that
person disappoints or rejects you?
You may regret ever opening up and trusting yourself to that person and
you may vow never again to be vulnerable.
That is playing it safe, but it comes at a terrible price, doesn’t
it. You may be safe, but you will
also be alone.
What if you take a risk to
pursue your passion in life by starting your own business and it goes belly
up? You can chastise yourself for
being so foolish and vow never to take another risk. But which is worse: having your dream turn sour, or going
through life with no dream or hope to guide you?
When Jesus tells His
followers that He must suffer, be rejected, and be crucified, he is showing us
through his own life the most basic pattern of what human life is all
about. How could Jesus be our
model if he led a life of privilege free of pain, suffering, risk, and
death? That was fine for the
mythical gods on Mt. Olympus, but it cannot be the way of God incarnate in the
fullness of our humanity.
But notice this about the
pattern of living that Jesus himself engages. It does not end with suffering, rejection, pain, and
death. At the end of this pattern
there is always an experience of resurrection, of new life. New life never looks like the child
mopping fearfully with head in hands sitting on the porch step. New life looks like the bruised, but
bandaged child running and climbing and riding and swinging and going after
life because he or she knows first hand the power of comfort and healing.
Jesus says, “Take up
your cross and follow me because those who want to save their life will lose it
and those who lose it will save it.” In this I hear him say that you can’t
walk well in life if you are fearful of all that might befall you. You can’t always walk around the experience of suffering, you can’t always walk above it, and you can’t always walk away from it, if you want to walk in the fullness of
life. If you want to walk in the
fullness of life then there are times that you must walk in suffering, with suffering, and even toward
suffering.
Walking this path, which
Jesus names ‘picking up your cross,’ will be difficult at times, but it always
leads to life… new, abundant, and whole.
Walking away from this life, leaving your cross and shrinking back,
leads to fear, to regret, and to a gradual diminishment of what it means to be
human. When Peter suggests that
this ‘safe’ path is the one our Lord should take, Jesus responds with the
sharpest rebuke in all of scripture: “Get behind me, Satan! I'll hear none of that!”
So in the end we are always
faced with a choice. The first is
this: We can engage life to the fullest extent possible. This path, which has many, many rich
blessings, is the life Jesus shows us in his life, but it comes at a cost. It means you will have to know
suffering, rejection, hurt, pain, betrayal, and death, but the promise of Jesus
is the Easter promise of God’s comfort and healing. That is one possible choice. The other is to shrink back by limiting your exposure to
hurt and pain. While this path
looks safer, it too comes at a cost.
The price you pay is the dulling of life, the diminishment of the human
experience. And, if Jesus is right,
if it is Satan who encourages us to walk this road, then the path of caution
leads to something usually not associated with it: it is a choice to experience
hell on earth.
Jesus said, “Take up
your cross and follow me.”
