Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You, no doubt have heard the expression, “That’s the cross that I must bear” or “That is the cross that you must bear.” This saying arises in those difficult situations in life that befall us, mostly out of no fault of our own. I hate to use this, but as an example we might think of a wife who dealing with her husband says. “That is the cross that I must bear.”

Such applications can be humorous, but they can also be very serious. For instance, Kathy is a very orderly person. I am not. I know that after thirty-five years of marriage when she looks at my office, she thinks, “This is a cross that I must bear.” But when a parent continually must deal with the dangerous and self-destructive behavior of a child, the words about “bearing a cross” take on an ominous tone.

Our use of this phrase, “take up one’s cross,” has become almost totally a passive understanding of the suffering and the heartache that we bear in life. The picture that results is usually very pathetic as we think of persons who are ruined by the fate that befalls them. Thus, it is “passive” suffering. We did not choose this.

But we know many people who find themselves in heart-breaking situations. They do not become tragic victims. Rather they become honorable and brave as they take on the challenges of life.

There are many in this room who said these or similar words when they married :

I take you . . . to have and to hold from this day forward, in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.

Granted if one understands marriage as something akin to the lottery, the consequences of making such a promise can feel like something that passively befalls us. But on the day that two persons make such a covenant together those persons become like gods as they rise to God’s own stature of being the God who promises and keeps the promise. Two partners who promise publicly to care for one another are set to take on life with all its threats, tragedies and evils.

Marriage, unions, friendships are conscious, deliberate relationships. They should be understood as an active understanding of suffering. Why do you think the marriage vow reads the way it does?

I always find it curious when we hold a wedding. The bride and the groom often arrive with the wedding industry’s view of a wedding. The wedding is, indeed, a happy occasion. There is much happiness that flows from the marriage bond and the children that result from it. But the Christian wedding really does not look like a musical production of “Queen for a Day.” No sooner do they arrive at the altar than does the pastor ask them the following question:

Will you have [name] to be your wife/husband, to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love her/him, comfort her/him, honor and keep her/him, in sickness and in health, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her/him as long as you both shall live?

This is serious business. Life is serious business. If there is any “cross to bear” in this circumstance, it is not a passive cross. It is a cross actively taken on in joy but not without some trepidation.

Now today’s sermon may sound like a wedding sermon, but the reason for this is to offer a very big pattern by which we may understand the challenge that Jesus throws out to his disciples.

Jesus says, “if any want to become by followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

The call to discipleship is a call to real life. It is not joining a club that offers all kinds of perks and advantages to its members like Costco or Sam’s Club. Jesus Christ comes into the world announcing that the kingdom of God is breaking into the world without our help. The kingdom of God is in direct opposition to the kingdoms of this world with its pressure, its threats, its violence. The life of Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the kingdom of God as it challenges the rulers of this world.

Jesus presents a peaceable kingdom not allowing for violence to meet the goal. The kingdom is not allowed to use force or violence to achieve its goals. But the kingdom encounters violence and forces everywhere. It is manifest in the life and ministry of Jesus and his precursor, John the Baptist. John served as the harbinger of Jesus’ own ministry and fate. He challenged the king and was eventually executed unjustly at the whim of the king’s wife and daughter.

The story of Jesus is the story of a human who takes on the Roman empire with all its violent means at hand by which the Romans conquered, subdued and exploited the Mediterranean world. Rome dominated the world through its execution of Roman justice. Any challenge to Rome or to the ways of Rome resulted in swift punishment. The worst form of punishment was crucifixion.

Martin Hengel describes crucifixion this way:

The chief reason for its use was its allegedly supreme efficacy as a deterrent; it was, of course, carried out publicly. As a rule the crucified man was regarded as a criminal who was receiving just and necessary punishment. . . .By the public display of a naked victim at a prominent place—at a crossroads, in the theatre, on high ground, at the place of his crime—crucifixion represented his uttermost humiliation. (Hengel, Crucifixion, p. 87f)

Jesus has just announced to his disciples that he will suffer at the hands of the officials in Jerusalem who hold office only by the benefaction of Rome. Jesus knows that by his refusal to allow Rome to rule his life he will become a prime candidate for public execution. Simon Peter rejects Jesus’ prediction and understanding of suffering. His is a triumphal view of faith. Jesus is the Messiah and as such will rule the world by defeating Rome on its own violent terms.

But Jesus understands the mystery of suffering and the role it plays in the kingdom of God. For God uses the foolishness of the cross as a stumbling block to those who tenaciously hold to the view that God’s will can be accomplished through pressure, force, and violence.

Dear congregation, in today’s world we cannot afford to trivialize Jesus’ call to take up the cross and follow him. For that call is a demand that we decide on whose side we are. To decide to follow Jesus means to die, just as it is so in many parts of the world where Christians risk their lives as they show mercy and refuse violence. They may become victims of that violence, but they also bear witness to the kingdom of God as we have come to understand it in the teachings, life, and death of Jesus.

In baptism we mark the person being baptized with the sign of the cross. Do we do that as some kind of magic talisman that protects the baptized from suffering? Of course not! We will suffer passively like all human beings. The question of the cross on our foreheads is whether we are willing to suffer actively. Are we willing to take up the cross and suffer the consequences of faithfully witnessing to the mercy of God and the demand of God that life be lived not out of violence but out of love of God and neighbor.

Are we ready for such a witness at Christ the King Church? Would we rather bear only the unavoidable, passive crosses of existence? Or would we be ready to take on any level of suffering that arises due to our faithfulness to the one

who suffered under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried. Who on the third day rose again.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.