THE ARRIVAL OF CROSS AND CROWN

Today, we begin to draw the Lenten season to a close and turn our focus toward Holy Week and Easter. In a timely way, then, our lectionary reading from John directs our focus to the central event of our faith and the supreme act of love Jesus performed for each one of us: The Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord. I have constructed that sentence quite deliberately in order to reflect the evangelist John’s perspective. In John’s account of the gospel Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection cannot be separated. Whenever one is mentioned, the other is also involved.

From John’s perspective, it is one act: Crucifixion and resurrection are indivisible. We cannot separate one from other. Throughout his telling of the gospel John goes to great lengths to let us know that to truly grasp who Jesus Christ was and is for us, we must always hold Jesus’ crucifixion in view whenever we think of his resurrection. In this passage from chapter 12 before us this morning we see this characteristic of John’s gospel quite clearly. Within these 13 verses Jesus speaks of both his impending death and his impending resurrection.

In verse 24 Jesus makes an analogy between his impending death and the natural process of a seed dying in order to allow the birth of a new plant. If the seed is not planted, nothing will grow. In a single sentence Jesus confronts the reality of his crucifixion and the reality of the new life which will be borne through his death.

Nonetheless, holding cross and crown together has never been an easy task. The blunt truth is that throughout the centuries the church has tended to stress the resurrection. This is only natural and predictable human behavior. For it is certainly more pleasant to tell a message of new life and the defeat of the power of death, than to tell a message of suffering sacrifice. It is only human nature to accentuate the positive.

However, there is danger in this proclivity to tell only half the story. The danger is that the church will begin to speak triumphantly before the battle has even begun. Resurrection without crucifixion is a message without a context.

Moreover, when we emphasize the resurrection and downplay the cost of the crucifixion we stray from the witness of scripture. Such an approach to Christian discipleship is feel good Christianity. It is a daily diet of dessert without vegetables; it may taste good for a while, but ultimately it will destroy your health. The body requires a balance of foods.

A gospel message which too quickly looks past the cross to embrace the empty tomb is not one based in scripture, it is based in fantasy. It is a day dream, cut off from the reality of a suffering savior. The gospel message told without the crucifixion is just one more fanciful tale told to ease our human fear of dying.

In fact, it is not an overstatement to say that without the cross there could not have been a crown of glory. No crucifixion, no resurrection. If we want to tell the story of Jesus we cannot leave out half of it, and still claim it is a complete story. Without Good Friday, there can be no Easter morning!

As scripture tells the story, our Lord Jesus Christ preached a message of love and forgiveness for all who would accept it, verse 32 reads “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Jesus lived life in complete obedience to God’s will. He demonstrated his obedience by seeking ways to minister to others, even those who didn’t appear to deserve or even seek his help. This challenged the established religious attitudes and practices of his day. Ultimately this message drew him into conflict with the religious and civil authorities of his day. Rather than deviate from God’s will, Jesus willingly allowed himself to die.

The foundation for all of these actions and events is love. Jesus loved us. Jesus loved God. Jesus would do nothing to deny either his love for us, or his love for the father. Consequently, it was out of love that he walked to the cross and died. It was not that he wanted to die. It was not that he willingly wanted to suffer.

It is important to understand that it is not that God enjoys such suffering, or that there is something particularly redeeming about suffering, it is simply the case that when we follow God’s will and seek to be obedient to him in this life, we run against the ways of the world and this brings obstacles and suffering.

As disciples of Jesus Christ today, we are called to shape our lives after his. In verse 26 of this passage before us this morning Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Who ever serves me, the Father will honor.” The message is clear, we are called to model our actions, our thoughts, our priorities after the example he has set for us.

Part of that example is something we are reluctant to embrace. Jesus was willing to suffer crucifixion for each one of us in order that we might come to know of God’s boundless love for us as his children. In turn it is fair to ask ourselves, to what degree are we willing to go to share that good news of God’s amazing love? Jesus said quite clearly that those who follow him will be with him. Certainly that means that we are invited to share in his resurrection. Yet, it also quite clearly means that to follow him, we are also invited to share in his crucifixion.

In verse 27, we have something unusual for the NT; we are given a brief glimpse into the internal workings of Jesus’ mind. The internal dialogue which he shares in this verse reveals something of the struggle he must have faced as he faced the prospect of suffering a horrible death on a cross. Jesus no doubt wanted a different road, yet he would not disobey God’s will.

If loving us meant he had to sacrifice, then so be it. If remaining faithful to God’s will meant he had to suffer, then so be it. There was nothing which would lead him to betray his love for us, or for God. That is the question we face today. To what degree are we willing to sacrifice and suffer for our love for each other, for others who do not yet know of God’s love for them? Are we willing to embrace cross and crown? Or, are we so eager for the crown that we have lost sight of the fact that cross and crown confront us together, never apart.

We need to recognize that not everyone has the same degree of commitment to the cross. There are different levels of cross commitment in the world. When we are engaged in dialogue and debate with someone we sometimes may say about something trivial or insignificant, “Well, I wouldn’t go to the cross for it.” Meaning it is just not all that important to me.

Yet the question remains, do we have a commitment to share God’s love with others? There are so many ways to do it. We can practice unmerited and unsought forgiveness for others. We can seek to help those who have made bad decisions in life and now are trapped in addictions of all sorts. We can seek new ways to help the powerless and discarded people that live all around us. We can volunteer time and energy to work with adult literacy programs which grant new life to people long shut out of the world. We can make a commitment to treat everyone we interact with as a person worthy of respect ; worthy because each one of us are made in God’s image, regardless of the color of our skin, our balance at the bank, or our families pedigree.

All of these things and more are consistent with Christian discipleship, and all of these things will at one time or another bring us into conflict with the world around us. You see, all of these things lead us to the cross because they cost us something. Indeed, there is a real cost associated with Christian discipleship. The issue we face is whether we are as committed to the cross as we are to the crown?

Next week we will celebrate Palm Sunday, followed by Holy Week, culminating in the glorious celebration of the resurrection on Easter Morning. It is truly right that we rejoice in the victory of the resurrection. For in the empty tomb we see the victory of truth over deception; we see the victory of light over the darkness; we see the victory of life over death.

However, let us always be mindful that these victories came at a terrible cost; they were not free! For us today, they will continue to come only in so far as we are willing to admit that cross and crown are indivisible.

Let us then be mindful that while grace is freely given to you and to me, it remains incredibly costly to maintain. So may it be for us. Amen.

Reverend Marc V. Mason

April 2, 2006

Trinity Presbyterian Church

Travelers Rest, SC