Pentecost 17
Jesu
Juva
“Crosses of Love”
Text: Mark 8:27-35 (James 2:1-5, 8-10, 14-18)
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love God. Love your
neighbor.
Very simply, that is what God asks of you. It isn’t very complicated. It isn’t too hard to understand. But it is what we all fail to do. Because, quite frankly, we
would rather love ourselves instead.
Does that sound a bit harsh? Perhaps. That’s why
we don’t say it, but tend instead to make excuses; to claim extenuating
circumstances; to compare ourselves with
others; and even focus on how unlovable our
neighbors are! But all of those things
do not change the fact of our failure to love.
And our failure to love God and our neighbor is to direct our
love at ourselves. What we do not give
to others we keep for ourselves. What we
do not do for others we do for ourselves.
What we think others do not deserve we think we do.
The Epistle reading from James spoke of this failure to love when it
spoke of our failure to act; to perform deeds and works of love; to back up
what we say with what we do. You should
have felt uncomfortable when you heard those verses read. And, in fact, not only do we not have the deeds
to match our words, we often times don’t even have the
words! Instead turning our heads,
averting our eyes, ignoring our neighbor need, or even thinking ill of him or
her in our hearts!
Love God. Love your neighbor. Is that asking too much? . . .
The truth is that we are so twisted by sin that we do not even know what
love is.
And that is why Peter, the great Apostle, answered Jesus the way he did
in the Holy Gospel that we heard today. He had faith – it was love that he didn’t
understand and that he didn’t recognize.
And so when Jesus asked His disciples “ who do
you say that I am?” Peter had
the faith to answer “You are the Christ.” He
knew, and he believed! But then when
Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be
rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and
after three days rise again,” Peter was confused. Peter didn’t understand. He believed, but because Peter was so
twisted by sin, he couldn’t recognize the love of God in what Jesus was beginning
to teach and explain that He was going to do for them.
But when Jesus speaks of the cross, and speaks of His death and
resurrection, it is the love of God
that He is speaking of. The perfect love of God.
The self-sacrificing love of God. The love of God that would rather He die, than we die.
The love of God that rather than seek excuses or
explanations, sought a solution, and sent a Saviour. A Saviour to deal with our
sin, with our failure to love. .
. . And so the cross shows us not just
the seriousness of our sin and its dreadful consequences – it also shows us the
love of God. Of the God who would go there
in our place, as our substitute. The God who loves not only in words, but also in deeds.
And so when Peter then rejects the cross and rebukes Jesus for speaking
that way, He is, in reality, although unknowingly, rejecting God’s love.
And we too! If we reject the
cross, we reject God’s love.
But what Jesus wanted His disciples to understand, and what He wants
you and I today to understand, is that the cross is not something to be
avoided, but that the cross is good. The sin that required Jesus to suffer and die
there in our place is not good, but hearing of and seeing Christ on the cross
tells us in no uncertain terms that God is love. And that when we approach God, we do not
approach an angry, demanding judge who is dissatisfied with us and intent on
meting out upon us the punishment which
our sins deserve – no, we approach a God who is love, and who gave Himself for
us. Who meted out our punishment upon
His Son, that not only would our sins be forgiven, but that we might once again
know love. And
knowing love, also then give that love to others.
That is what Jesus would have us see when we look at His cross.
But that is not the only cross Jesus speaks of to His disciples – there
is another cross. Another cross which, no
less than His own cross, shows the love of God for you. And that is the cross that God places upon
you. For as Jesus says – right after
speaking of His own cross – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And if we reject this cross, we are
also rejecting God’s love.
Now this is something that is hard for many to understand – even long
time, seasoned, faithful Christians. For
it is one thing to accept the fact that we see God’s love in the cross of
Christ – it is quite another to see God’s love in the crosses that He gives to us,
that we have to bear. . . . For it doesn’t seem to make sense that God
shows His love for you through the crosses that He gives to you. Crosses of hardship, or
persecution, or even suffering or pain.
Those things seem to us to be the very opposite of love! Those things seem to us to be showing us
God’s anger and vengeance, not His love!
. . . But remember the truth that
I stated earlier: that we are so twisted
by sin that we do not know what love is.
Peter didn’t understand it or recognize it, and neither do we.
Now, its true that many people today think
they know what love is. And for many
people today love is permissiveness and acceptance. Love is never making anyone feel bad. Love is indulging and fulfilling desires, or making people feel good about themselves. And if that’s what love is then that’s what a
God of love should do for us! . . . But that’s not love. Those things are selfishness disguised as love. . . .
But God, in true and perfect love, does love. In His cross, and in
our crosses. It is love
that wants the best for us. And so God
loves enough to do what is hard. To discipline us, to teach us, to correct and rebuke us, to direct
us, to guide us, and to keep us in Him.
To give us crosses to kill the sin and the selfishness in us – to “set
our minds on the things of God, and not the things of man.” . . . If
God didn’t love us, He wouldn’t care. He
would simply let us go off and do whatever we want and He wouldn’t bother being
involved in our lives. . . . But He does care, and loves us enough to give
us crosses to bear. And not a cross of
your own choosing, but one of His choosing. And what that means is different for each of
you. But it is a perfect cross, and
given in perfect love, that hardship, or suffering, or pain, or loss now,
would lead to faith and love and life with God forever in Heaven.
And once Christ teaches that, through His cross and Spirit, then
faith grows and love begins. For not
only do we then recognize our own sin more and more, and rely more and more on
the love of Christ and His forgiveness – earned on the cross, and now given in
His Word, and in His water, and in His Supper – we also begin to love as He has
loved us. And we begin to see in others,
in our neighbors, not burdens, but opportunities. Opportunities to love as we have been loved. To forgive as we have been forgiven. To give as we have received. To love our neighbors as ourselves and to lay
down our lives, as Christ laid down His life for us. And to do these things not because we have
to, but precisely because we don’t have to! Because Christ has done it all for us,
freeing us therefore to do these things for others.
And so just as we can rejoice in the cross of Christ and all that that
means for us, so too can we rejoice in our own crosses, and the suffering and
hardship that come with them. If we try
to consider and understand these crosses apart from Christ’s cross, we will
never understand them and even hate them, and hate God for them. But seen in the light of Christ’s cross, and
the love of God shown to us there, we can see our own crosses for what they
truly are – not the anger of God unleashed upon us, but the love of God being
applied to us. . . . And so when we hear the words that we heard
in the Gospel today, and that we sung right before the sermon, to “take
up our cross,” our first thoughts should not be ones of dread or sorrow
– that we have to do such an awful thing!
Our first thought should be that we are unworthy. Unworthy of God’s attention. Unworthy of His love. Unworthy of His personal care and involvement
in our lives. Unworthy of the high honor
of bearing a cross placed by Him. . . . And then thank Him for it! For this cross, no less than the cross of
Christ, is a good thing. For the cross
is God for us. It is
God loving us. It is God forgiving
us. It is God saving us.
In
the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now
the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Amen.