The Wisdom of the Cross
3rd Sun. of Lent – Sunday of the Cross; Mark 8: 34 – 9:1, Mar. 27, 2022
Today we celebrate the 3rd Sunday of Lent – the Sunday of the Cross. This marks the halfway point through great Lent, and the Cross stands at the very center of our faith. Today, we are given the Cross to focus on and draw fresh resolve from.
We began by bringing out and venerating the cross that Ellen beautifully decorated, a little taste of Matins. If you really want to encounter the fullness of over 1000 years of worship experience passed down to us, especially at our feast days and Lenten and Pascha periods, come to Matins and Vespers whenever it is offered, and if not available, purchase the Festal Menaion and the Lenten Triodion and follow along. Last night at Vespers we heard this wonderful description of the most precious cross.
Rejoice, O Life-bearing Cross: The invincible weapon of godliness,
The gate of paradise, the protection of the faithful!
The cross is the might of the Church, through which corruption is abolished,
Through which the power of death is crushed.
The cross raises us up from earth to heaven.
The cross is the enemy of Satan. The cross is the glory of Martyrs.
The cross is the haven of salvation, And grants the world great mercy.
Today’s gospel passage is repeated in Mathew, Mark and Luke with very little variance. Christ says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Luke adds we are to do this DAILY! Pick up YOUR cross, not His cross – we would never be able to shoulder that, but specifically YOUR cross, the unique cross that Christ has given to you for working out your salvation right now. What is your cross? What is my cross?
What is it that we are presently most frustrated, upset, depressed, or just plain overwhelmed by. What is really driving us to distraction? That is our cross. That is what we are to “take up” and follow Christ with. Not run away from, complain bitterly about, or pretend doesn’t exist. Nor are we to simply pick up our particular cross and try to carry it on our own, for it will surely crush us if we are not bringing it to Christ and asking for His help. Taking up our cross starts with thanking God for giving it to us. Thanking Him for finding us worthy to take up the cross which He has given us, and asking Him to give us the strength and grace to actually bear it with thanksgiving.
We often have a tough time understanding the immense value of the cross, for it is (1st Cor. 1:18) “Foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved, it is the power and wisdom of God.” In the passage immediately before today’s gospel reading, Peter confesses that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ replies that He will suffer crucifixion and suffer many things. Peter immediately says; “No, not You Lord.” Peter wants a powerful leader and rebukes Christ for revealing his path is through death and suffering. “Get behind Me Satan!” Christ tells Peter, for there is no road to the kingdom of God that bypasses the cross. Peter goes from “most blessed of God” to agent of Satan in 2 minutes flat. I know that road well. We then immediately hear Christ explain in today’s gospel passage that we too must take up our cross and follow Him. This is His gift of salvation to us. Christ promises to keep us continually supplied with a new cross, graduating from cross to cross and suffering with Christ’s joy!
We don’t understand the cross, as it is not part of the world’s logic. In the world we seek for nice, wonderful rewards. The trappings of success are a nice car, a beautiful house, great clothes, good education for the kids. We love to hear the positive, of the miracles, the wisdom & power of the saints. But, the true power of God, that which terrorizes the demons and has defeated death is found in the cross. We are to seek the fruits of abstinence, not of comfort. To take up the cross is to deny our wants and passions, not work on self-fulfilment and indulgence. To practice self-denial and discipline and through suffering, we pursue joy rather than happiness. This is taking up our cross, and we hear in Matthew (10:38) “He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”
Christ clearly says we will suffer, and our blessings will be related to these sufferings. Suffering is part of the promise. The cross demands participation, all of the saints suffered. Every Sunday we sing the Beatitudes; “Blessed are those who mourn, who are meek, who are persecuted, reviled, and lied about.” Everything is counter-intuitive in the Kingdom. It is not at all about getting ahead as the world defines it. Today we hear; “if you find your life you will lose it, and if you lose your life for My names sake you will find it. The first will be last and the last will be first.” Orthodoxy is paradoxy. If our goals are all related to living a comfortable life, building up our earthly security, if we get angry and bewildered when things don’t go as we think they should; it is time to stop and do a deep look at how we differ as Christians from the world. Lent is the time to repent.
How are we to live this Paradoxal life? The only reason we have to exist as a Christian community is to follow Christ; to learn to trust Him and turn to Him in everything. To know that no matter what it is we are going through, that Christ is right here with us, everywhere and in all circumstances. The way of the cross is death. We must die to our self-centered striving, that Christ might live in and through us. We really have no being, no reality, and are completely nothing outside of Christ. We are not even real human beings apart from Christ. The stamp of divinity which God has placed within each one of us is completely dormant and of no value unless it is energized by God. We are like flashlights without batteries, we look the same from the outside, but a flashlight without batteries is quite useless and unable to illuminate anything. About all you can do with it is beat people about the head. Only life in Christ is real!
The cross is the ultimate expression of love. It is God’s demonstration of His completely unconditional, ever present, never changing love for us all. No matter how far we go in rebelling against Him and rejecting Him, He never wavers in His complete and unfathomable love for each of us. While dying on the cross Christ not only says “Father forgive them” but then takes all of the sin and corruption that we as a race and as individuals have polluted the entire world with, from the time of Adam and Eve up to the great and final judgement at the end of the age. He takes it all upon himself. He who knew no sin took all sin into Himself, and then descends into Hades itself in pursuit of Adam and Eve and all of us – the sons and daughters of God. He shatters the gates of Hades, binds the enemy, and destroys death, bestowing life on all who will follow Him.. Paving the road for us straight into the kingdom of God!
Christ then tells us that this is how we are to love each other – in this same way that He has loved us and as He demonstrated upon the cross. We are not merely to forgive all and to turn the other cheek when attacked and vilified. We are to weep and pray for those lost souls we encounter who would do such things…that they would somehow be brought out of their delusion and choose to experience the forgiveness and love of Christ…that they too would be found to be members of the eternal church of Christ.
Of course, we can never hope to be able to live like this by our own efforts and self will. All we can do is to continually turn to Christ, asking that His love might flow through us to our difficult and wounded brothers and sisters, and to all those whom He brings into our lives. All we can do is to be willing to take up our cross. To be co-crucified and co-suffer with Him, as we can do nothing on our own. And that is all that is asked of us.
Pray for each other my brothers and sisters and for the whole world.