e-vo for week of March 4

Dearest e-votees-

I hope and pray your Lent is drawing you into the places you need to be in order to be prepared for the good news of Easter. Even if they are places you wouldn’t choose for yourself.

Peace,
Karl

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Then [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:31-38, NRSV

The reality of Easter is that it must pass through the dark shadows of Good Friday.

This is something that most of us would prefer were not the case. Most of us would agree that Peter has the right idea in resisting the looming darkness of the cross. We might not be bold enough to rebuke Jesus as Peter did but we would be cheering him on silently if we were participating in the scene.

Jesus rebukes Peter but he does it looking at the disciples. Peter is the stimulus for the rebuke but it seems to be for the sake of the others. It is for those watching from the fringes. It is for us who still watch from the fringes. Jesus speaks to us.

Jesus says that if we want to become his followers we must take up our crosses and follow him. For some of us we forget how grisly a statement that truly is.

If Jesus were dwelling in our modern times it might sound more like this:

“If any of you listening want to follow after me, deny yourself—strap yourself into an electric chair and follow after me.”

OR

“If you are real and want to become my follower in deed and not in name only then embrace your lethal injection and come the way I am going.”

This call to follow after Jesus through death is unnerving. It is lacking common sense. It is harsh and painful. It isn’t very appealing. But it is oh so real.

Jesus does not deny the need for a painful death which brings about resurrection and eternal hope.. Jesus calls us to embrace this painful reality—this Good Friday—that we might somehow be delivered from this sinful and adulterous generation. Will we draw near the cross or try to skip around it to the Easter-lite?

Jesus doesn’t mince words. Our deliverance is found through his cross. Our connection with him is found most intimately through embracing our cross.

If our minds are set on human things this makes no sense. If our minds are set on divine things perhaps we might see hope through the pain. We may not be able to give anything in return for our own lives. But, Jesus’ life, spent on our behalf on the cross, will bring us powerful returns. Jesus endured shame for our benefit. If we are ashamed about this truth we diminish his suffering.

Jesus, shape us into people who abide in your words—even the hard ones. Draw us into the crosses that you would have us bear—all to your glory. Amen.