Today I remembered the sermon I gave several years back on a Good Friday about the cross and the life of the cross, and how priests and people rejected me. The cross has many dimensions. Most of us, in general, are stuck in an applied dimension. Most of us say that taking up the cross is accepting the illnesses, pains, and difficulties that come our way. Although it is completely meaningful and acceptable as an applied dimension of the cross, that is not the primary dimension of the cross. What I tried to say that day was that the cross that Jesus took up and carried daily was the cross on which he died.
In nature, all living things go through pain, suffering, and often illness. A strong wind blows and tears off a huge limb of a tree. That tree, and many other small trees and plants that get crushed beneath by that big limb, suffer pain. A lion is hunting. When it tries to catch a buffalo, the buffalo turns and slashes it with its powerful horn. Often, lions and other animals are injured during hunting. Many animals suffer severe injuries and loss of body parts in attacks by other animals. Many animals suffer from wounds and ulcers, and die of the same. Pain and suffering are everywhere in nature. All living things accept and endure it. If poverty, disease, and suffering were to be accepted and embraced as a cross, Christians would not have had to run so many hospitals and schools all over the world. We all try to avoid poverty, disease, and suffering as much as possible. Even after that, what still remains, we will accept and offer it up with the cross of Christ. Those who suffer from illnesses that cause great pain and suffering, such as cancer, find solace there because they submit to the cross of Christ and live with the spiritual thought that they too are carrying the cross with Christ. In difficult times such as natural disaster, financial bankruptcy, and the accidental death of loved ones, a Christian can accept it more positively and move forward with confidence.
However, one of the most central concepts of Christianity is the 'cross'. The meaning of this cross that is most central should not be lost sight of for this one reason.
The suffering parents undertake for their children, the suffering that siblings undertake for their siblings, and the suffering that children undertake for their parents are a slightly higher level of the 'cross'. Natural love is the driving force here. But that is also what other living beings in nature and other humans mostly do. Jesus himself asks, "If you love those who love you, what is special about it?". In that case, that cannot be considered the main dimension of the cross.
Doing good to those outside our family whom we do not know directly is a step higher form of the cross. Jesus did much good to thousands of people in that sense. He did so much good to his own kind and the Gentiles. He must have healed thousands; he must have fed them with the word and with bread. That is a higher level of the cross. Even here, I don't say that it is the primary level of the cross of Jesus. Because, instead of three years even if he had lived for thirty years, preaching, doing good to people, healing them, and performing miracles, the Jewish religious leaders or anyone else would not have thought about doing away with him or harming him. Some of Jesus' words and some of his actions, I would say became his cross. And all those were his choices.
It was the opposition from others that became his cross. The law was that lepers and those with a hemorrhage should be kept at a distance. One reason for the opposition from the religious leaders was that instead he compassionately touched and healed them -breaking the law. Another reason for the opposition was that he often performed healings on a Sabbath. Yet another reason for the opposition was that he did not say that though in a subtle way he denounced Caesar’s imperial designs as not ordained by God. The fourth was that he deliberately was liberal about the ritual washings and he ditched the distinctions between clean and unclean foods.
Yet another reason was that he did not observe the social distancing that should have been maintained with tax collectors and public sinners and Samaritans.
The Jewish people saw themselves as God’s own people, specially chosen by God. They also believed that Gentiles would not be saved. His debunking of communal superiority, saying that Gentiles were perhaps better and more beloved to God, was also a major reason for their opposition against him.
Within the religion, the Sadducees and Pharisees considered themselves the upper class. There were shepherds, fishermen, ordinary farmers, and daily-wage-earning laborers- the economically poor. Then the religiously poor such as the blind, the deaf, the mute, the mentally ill, the lepers, and the paralytics (all of whom were considered to be cursed by God). Not only did he engage in acts of spiritual emancipation with these socially and religiously down trodden ones, he also turned the image upside down. He accused those who considered themselves to be upper class as the real blind, cursed by God, and sinners. Not only that, but he also placed the aforementioned underclassmen at the center of religion and society, which was a major reason for opposition that gained momentum against him.
The center of their religion was the Jerusalem Temple and the blood sacrifices that took place there. Not only did he not follow them, but he tried to obstruct and eliminate them. This invited a huge amount of opposition against him.
More than that, he called God his Abba; said that he came from God; and made himself equal to God. According to their theology, this was blasphemy.
Thus, for at least these nine reasons, he built his own cross. In short, he overthrew the oppressive religious laws; he did not accept imperialism; he opposed discriminations and disempowered the powerful; he gave his friendship to the religious and social outcasts; he rejected the idea of superiority of some people; he tried to discard the fatty forms of religion; and he put forward a new God-relationship. In nutshell, he gave leadership to the transformation of religion and society. These are things that one undertakes oneself.
This sort of discipleship is not possible for everyone. That is why he tells the huge crowd that was following him, 'My disciples are those who take up their cross daily, just as I do.' Moreover, he also says that before deciding to take up a life of the cross, one should first sit down and think for oneself whether one can complete it.
Whenever we hear people talking about the cross, it seems that no one generally mentions these things. Only the first two levels are usually mentioned. If that's the case, the personal dimension of the cross - discipleship - would remain; but the communitarian dimension would be lost. If it does not bring people to the level of the cross, even the Holy Eucharist would become so shallow.
Individual salvation will be there. The salvation of the world may not be there.
