The Way of The Cross

--- The Way Of The Cross ---

What comes to mind when you first see a “CROSS”

What do these words mean to you “THE WAY OF THE CROSS?”

Feb 22, 2015 Readings:  2 Corinthians 4: 3-6   Psalm 50, Mark 9: 2-9

The people of the Corinthian church were complaining that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was just too difficult to understand and follow.  Some theologians and denominations within the modern church today still claim that this is one of those passages that can be used as a litmus test to determine the saved from the non-saved.   Paul states that if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.   Well, if you interpreted this passage literally, I guess that would label most of the disciples Peter, Thomas, Andrew, James, and a lot of other good church going folk including myself as the unsaved.  Paul says nothing here about the saved or the unsaved, he is talking about a perishing people meaning people who are destroying or ruining their lives.  Is there one among us, who could boldly boast that there is no innocent parasite of wrongdoing slowly eating away at your goodness.  I would challenge anyone who would be so arrogant, to suggest that they completely understood the Gospel of Christ.   In fact be weary of the one who teaches such arrogance.  Our Gospel teaches that we are saved by grace not by works, words, actions, or by any other means.  Our Gospel also teaches us that God saving grace if sufficient for all.  That would include the “Good” the “Bad,” the “Ugly” and all parts in between.    In fact if there were such a person, that understood and could teach us the complete truth of our Gospel, wouldn’t everyone be following him or her?  Would that not be the person you could trust with your life?    Are you with me church?  

Even the closest of Jesus’ companions as they walk with him towards the cross failed when it came to understanding the truth about the way of the cross, about his mission and about who Jesus really was.  Peter the rock, denied even knowing Him when the going got tough.   You know the old proverb “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”     Their ignorance and betrayal still did not keep them from coming back to him over and over again, asking for forgiveness, of which he never denied any of them.  Aren’t we all veiled from the truth when the world pushes us into a corner?  Haven’t we all fallen victim to ignorance and arrogance at one time or another?    How did Jesus stop arrogance in its tracks?  Anyone remember?  “You who are without sin may cast the first stone”.  In other words we have no right to assume we are privileged to know who has or has not been graced.  I remember  a great preacher once saying to his congregation “If I were to make it to heaven, I would probably be surprised at who was there, In fact I would imagine there would be a lot more surprised that I was there.   So then, may I suggest that it is a waste of good time even to ask your neighbor the question?  Our time might be better spent on understanding how and why “WE” are veiled from the Gospel.   Let me try a metaphor using light to help us see. 

I believe it is because of too much light.  Let me explain by giving you this example.  My grandchildren live in the city.  When they come to our cottage on the River Philip in summer, they are always amazed at the number of stars in the night sky.  You see in the city, there is so much night light, that only the biggest stars are visible, all else is veiled from their sight. 

May I suggest that one of the biggest blinding light bulbs that keeps us veiled from the Gospel of Christ is our reasoning?    Everyone is looking for evidence these days, and data is presumed to be more persuasive than faith.  Case in point, people are more interested in discussing how Jesus feed the crowd of 5000, rather than why he did it.  Yet for those of us who have tried to answer this question with human reasoning, end up dancing with idolatry.   As followers of Jesus we are only permitted to think it through as far as we can, then, we must be willing to take a leap of faith.   Not everything is explainable folks.   Quantum physics is just beginning to understand that the smallest particles they have been able to reach are not yet the smallest ones.  And they seem to have some sort of intelligence.  Apparently our Creator is not yet ready to give up that mystery of creation.    

There are other sources of blinding light from the gods of this world and I’m sure as you begin to talk, you will come up with some of your own.  Advertising is one.  Did you know that the writers of diet programs know that best ones fail?  Think about it folks, these guys and gals would go broke if their diet programs really worked not strings attached. 

So then how do we begin to take the blinders off?  The reason we too find the Gospel hard to follow and understand is that we are often afraid to speak the truth.  If there is an injustice happening and we do not speak out, “FEAR” veils us and this is not the way of the cross.  If we cannot ask for and then offer help or forgiveness to our worst enemy, then our “PRIDE” veils us from the way of the cross.  If we continue to do things that causes others to fall into sin, our “SELFISH SELF-CENTEREDNESS’ veils us from the way of the cross.  It is not easy to follow Christ folks, we are not called to be perfect, but God calls us to do our best to lift the veil.    Let us pray.

Solomon Burke puts it all together in this song take a listen: