Lectionary 24b - The Cross Before / not far behind

"Thy rod and staff my comfort still; the cross before to guide me." - Henry Baker (19th c.)

"(W)here God's Word is preached accepted, or believed, and bears fruit, there the holy and precious cross will also not be far behind." - Martin Luther (Large Catechism, 1529)

Peter's confession of Jesus as Messiah bears a direct relationship to Jesus' charge to crowd and disciples in Mark, ch. 8. The call for one to "take up his/her cross and follow" is the result of the confessing of Jesus as Messiah.

Jesus recognizes the two ways that a person, even a Messiah-type, can lose their lives. We can lose by our natural inclination as sponges of self-pleasure, self-centeredness, and self-hegemony, or we can lose through the courageous act of faith that trusts alone in the saving power of God's kingdom, renouncing the world's bid for ultimate evaluation of our lives. The first "loss" is doomed by its emptiness and insatiability; the second "loss" is doomed by the world's need to be in charge and in full use of its ultimate weapon, death.

Peter is annoyed at Jesus' plan to choose the second path of loss. There goes his chance for glory in the public sphere out of his job as messianic chief of staff. There goes the Mediterranean villa upon his retirement. Here comes the all-to-ordinary way of human life, a life of struggle with the people and beliefs that he has taken on, a life lived and a death endured as the Messiah he follows takes on himself the world's death-based economy.

Should we trust Jesus as Messiah, as God's godness in human form, and not our attempts to make ourselves the god of our own lives, we turn our lives over to the holy cross that stands with forgiveness and love overagainst the world's program of self-justification and violence. From the confession, "you are the Messiah," to the "losing of ones life for the sake of the gospel" is a very short time or space indeed! Gospel Word and Sacramental meal are necessities for negotiating this messianic path of carrying Jesus' cross through death into life.