Basic Discipleship

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 63; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24

The cross!  It’s still, as it ever was, at the heart of our faith.  A crucifix is at the front of our churches.  It hangs at the end of our rosaries.  It’s the sign we make over ourselves before and after we pray, when we enter the church for Mass, and any time we are petitioning God for a blessing.  Some of our churches are in the shape of a cross.  Some of us wear one around our neck.  It’s everywhere.  But maybe that’s the problem.  We’ve become so used to seeing it that we have become inoculated to its meaning. 

Today’s Gospel calls us back to the cross.  It’s a reminder that this is a fundamental aspect of our faith.  I like to think of this passage as instructions for basic discipleship.  What does it mean?  What is Jesus talking about when He says that in order to follow Him we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him?

Let’s begin with the first part.  What does it mean to deny yourself?  Picture a courtroom.  Imagine that you are the key witness in a murder trial.  The defendant’s alibi rests on your testimony.  He states that he was with you at the time of the murder.  When you take the stand and you are sworn in the prosecutor asks you if you can corroborate the defendant’s testimony.  That’s when you look straight at the defendant as you say, “I’ve never seen this person before in my life.”  At this point, the defense’s case goes out the window, and the defendant is found guilty and sentenced to death.

Now picture the same scene, but this time you are not only the star witness, you are also the defendant.  That’s what it means to deny yourself.  It means you deny having anything to do with your old life and you walk away unfazed by the consequences of your testimony.  

Now imagine that this entire scene has taken place 2,000 years ago in a region of the Roman Empire.  Since you have been condemned to death you are sentenced to public execution by crucifixion.  You are given a rugged, wooden cross, and told you must carry it to the place of your execution.  Then you must follow your executioner out to the place where you will be crucified.  That’s the picture that would have been in anyone’s mind that was in Jesus’ original audience when they heard these words. 

Again, this is basic discipleship.  I think a lot of us look at this as a bonus level of discipleship for the people who are “really into it”.  But that’s not the case.  One doesn’t even begin to be a disciple until this has taken place.

Now here’s the problem.  We keep wanting to lay down our cross and call for a re-trial.  We want an opportunity to convince the star witness to change their testimony and agree with us.  And that’s where the trouble starts.

If you saw a man carrying a cross in ancient Rome or Jerusalem, you knew one thing: this man has no future plans.  There is nothing for him but suffering, humiliation, and death. 

How are we to live this out in our present time?  How do we live crucified?

Again, let us return to the analogy.  We are to completely turn our back on ourselves.  In doing so, we come face to face with Jesus.  We willingly lay down our lives in order to gain His.  “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  It is His life that is to be lived out through ours.  By dying to self we open ourselves up to a resurrection of new life; of divine life.  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” (Galatians 2:20).

Right now we are facing unique and challenging times.  Foremost, in my opinion, is the great division that is taking place in our nation, and even in our churches over the issues of the pandemic, racial injustice, and the upcoming presidential election.  I am not troubled by the fact that good Christian people- true disciples- have differing opinions.  Rather I find it disturbing that we are allowing ourselves to be divided over the issues.  To live crucified is to live separate from the world around us and to bear witness of the love of Christ.  It is to die to our own right to be right.  The true test of discipleship in our present context is not whether or not we wear a mask, or which side of the Black Lives Matter we are on, or who we will vote for in the upcoming election.  The true test is if, in spite of differences, we love our neighbor, our Christian brothers and sisters, and even our enemies.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is time, and well beyond time, that we would again be known by the fundamental badge of Christianity- love.  But this love is no mere sentiment.  It is born amidst the ravages of the crucified life and therefore loves radically, in ways inconceivable to the world around us.  This is the love that loves an enemy, turns the other cheek, and goes the extra mile.  This is the love that willingly lays down one’s life to serve others.  The disciple who has been fully trained in the way of the cross recognizes that he has no rights and, because he is dead, becomes a conduit for the living love of Christ!

No matter how far down the road we have gone, there’s an opportunity to retrace our steps and find the cross we left lying in the dust.  Go there.  Find it, and lift it up again.  You will feel its weight and you will want to recoil from it.  But be encouraged.  Our Lord is there to bear the weight with you.  He will be faithful to walk this way with you.  He has already walked it Himself.  You will lay down your life.  But as He says, in the end you will find it again.  Only the life you find will not be the same one you laid down.  It will be resurrection life!