On the off chance that anyone at Trinity is still observing Lent, I thought I would ask a question: What do you think following the way of the cross means?
What interests me is that following part. I guess there is a part of Christianity that glories in suffering, but I don’t know those folks. Rational folks avoid suffering. We come up with ways that the suffering we witness in the world doesn’t involve us—why it is “their” fault, so we don’t have to get involved or sympathize. Christians often imagine their own suffering to be some injustice or some sort of test God has set up for God knows what reasons. However we do it, the Christian faith becomes a spectator sport—we watch Jesus on his way of the cross, but we don’t have to get into the game.
But what if instead of watching, we surrender? Jesus does. He puts up no fight at all. He lets himself be arrested, puts up no defense at trial. Of course, we’re not surprised. We’ve heard this story enough to know that this is the way Jesus will achieve his victory. But what if surrender is the way we achieve victory, too?
By surrender, I don’t mean give up. Jesus doesn’t quit. He surrenders to the authorities—the Romans, the priests—because they aren’t his real enemies. They are simply the powers of the moment, but Jesus’ battle is much bigger than that. He faces the strengths and powers of all the voices throughout the centuries that would have us believe that life is empty and meaningless. His real battle is fought on the cross, not in arguments with Pilate or the priests.
If we were to surrender, what we would be surrendering is our own rules and regulations that define reality. We set our own boundaries, and live within that self-created reality. But what is it that Jesus said about judging? How do we know we are so right? What if the worse thing that could possibly happen, be that the end of a job, a relationship or a life, wasn’t the worst thing, but instead a gateway—the place where Christ could meet us? This is redemption—those worst moments being turned into times of healing or strength or even blessing, not by our power but by Christ’s presence. It is when we surrender to the possibility of his grace that we recognize salvation.
This is why his path of downward mobility described in Philippians 2 is not a mistake but the essential path of salvation. It is why we have to follow him, and not just watch. And this is what makes the Christian hope into a way of life instead of simply wishful thinking.
So how about it? Have you walked this way of the cross and found it to be the way of life? Any stories to share?