Earlier this week, we marked the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday service. As a part of that service, we were reminded of Christ’s call to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ. This difficult call to discipleship comes just after Jesus predicts his own rejection and suffering, and it comes as Jesus and his disciples are making their way to Jerusalem and his inevitable death.
Lent is the season of preparation leading up to Easter. It is a time when followers of Christ seek to acknowledge their own frailty and grow in their relationship with God. This is a time when we make intentional decisions to set aside the distractions of this life so that we can focus on our life with Christ. So today, and in the coming weeks of Lent, we will travel with Jesus to Jerusalem. We will pause with Jesus as he preaches and teaches, heals and performs miracles. We will make efforts to focus our energies on the journey Christ calls us to walk with him; to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses. And yet always remembering the promise of Easter is that this is a journey to hope.
So today we set off, and our first stop is in the region of Judea. We pause here for a moment to listen to Jesus teach as he lifts some children into his arms. And of course, we can hardly talk about a trip and children without that inevitable question popping into our minds, “Are we there yet?” As annoying as that question can be on road trips, it’s a good question to ask here. Unlike the disciples who travelled with Jesus, we have the benefit of perspective. We know how the journey to Jerusalem ultimately ends. We have heard the accounts of the empty grave. We know that Jesus rose to new life. But sometimes I think that knowledge is as much of a detriment as it is a benefit. We get focused on the resurrection, and we forget about the hard road that leads there. We start thinking about eternal life with God, and we lose sight of the way we are called to live now. It’s so easy to feel like we have arrived, to think that we are “there,” but as a wise person once said, “you’re never ‘there,’ you’re always ‘here.’” And “here” is where we all walk with Jesus, where we deny ourselves day-in and day-out, we take up our cross, and we follow Christ.
So today we are going to take some time to think about what keeps us from journeying with Christ, from growing in our relationship with God. We are all God’s children, and as adults and children alike seeking to journey with Christ, we all have to consider who and what gets in the way of our relationship with Christ.
When the little children began making their way towards Jesus, who was it that tried to keep them away? It was the disciples. We have to remember that Jesus was on his way to the cross, and he knew it. That cruel shadow could never have been too far from his mind. And yet, still, Jesus had time for the children. Even with such a tension as his mind, he had time to take the children in his arms, and he had the heart to smile into their faces and maybe to play with them for a while. But the disciples wanted to keep the children away. It’s not that they were mean party-poopers or anything like that. The disciples wanted to protect Jesus. They did not know exactly what was going on, but they knew quite clearly that tragedy lay ahead, and they could see the “burden” that Jesus carried. They did not want Jesus to be bothered, and they could not imagine that Jesus actually wanted all these children around him at such a time as this. But even still, Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.”
And Jesus’ lesson about children and the kingdom of God is a good way to answer a question for ourselves. Who or what is hindering us from journeying with Christ? Jesus is always ready to welcome us into his presence, but sometimes people get in our way, just like the disciples who tried to stop the children running into Jesus’ arms. If we have trouble journeying with Christ, consider not only the people in our lives, but also the way we live our own lives that might be getting in the way of our relationship with Christ.
Think about the traits of children that would make Jesus lift them up as the ideal example of kingdom-people. There is the child’s humility. With few exceptions, most children are embarrassed when they become the center of attention. Children don’t know how to think in terms of pride and prestige; they have not learned to discover the importance of themselves. Children are also obedient. (Ha.) Now, certainly, a child is often disobedient, but a child’s natural instinct is to obey. A child is also trusting. Instinctively, children recognize their own ignorance and helplessness, and they trust the one who knows better than them. A child’s trust is seen in the child’s confidence in other people. It is a unique trait of children that they do not expect any person to be a bad person. The child will make friends with a perfect stranger.
Ken and I enjoy watching the TV show, “Big Bang Theory.” There’s one episode where the main character, Sheldon, a brilliant theoretical physicist with absolutely no social skills, is trying to learn how to make friends. His efforts land him in a bookstore where he has gone to find a book about how to make friends. The salesperson in the bookstore directs Sheldon to the children’s section, where Sheldon picks out an appropriate book, “Stew the Cockatoo is New at the Zoo,” sits down in one of the child-sized chairs, and proceeds to pick up a conversation with a young girl sitting across the table. The girl talks openly with Sheldon, clearly thinking nothing about the fact that this adult is sitting here reading a child’s book, nor about the fact that Sheldon wants to be the girl’s friend. The child has not yet learned to suspect the world. She still believes the best about others.
Children also have short memories. They have not yet learned to bear grudges and nourish bitterness. Even when a child has been treated unjustly – and who among us is not sometimes unjust to our children? – the child forgets, and forgets so completely that she does not even need to forgive. These are the traits of kingdom-people, people who journey with Christ and grow has his disciples.
When we find that our relationship with Christ seems to be waning; when we find that it is difficult to journey with Christ, it’s probably because we have lost these traits. Instead of being humble we are egotistical. Instead of being obedient, we are stubborn and disobedient. Rather than having faith in God and trusting the authority of Christ in our lives, we lack faith, we try to be self-sufficient. And then we hold grudges. When Christ calls us down the path of forgiveness, we hold on to hatred and cast judgment on others. Friends, we cannot experience the kingdom if we do not live the ideals of the kingdom. We cannot walk with Christ if we are not willing to follow his ways. Christ told the disciples that they must deny themselves and take up the cross. He knew his way was no easy way, but he also knew that it was the only way into the fullness of God’s kingdom. And it is the way we must go.
To journey with Christ is to follow a different path, a path that requires us put aside those character flaws that keep us from Christ, and a path that sometimes may take us in a different direction from people in our lives who hinder our relationship with Christ. It’s difficult to hear, but sometimes married couples get in the way of one another’s relationship with Christ, especially if one is not a believer. Parents can get in the way if they are skeptical of the church and religion. Friends who don’t go to church can encourage us to use our time differently, ultimately getting in the way of the most important friendship of all – with Christ. Perhaps colleagues would rather see us work all the time, rather than taking time for devotion and worship. The list could go on and on and on. Teens aren’t the only ones who deal with peer pressure. The influences of many of the people around us can block the road to hope. Within us, and all around us are forces that pull us away from full commitment to Christ.
I learned something interesting this week about fruit trees. Sometimes, fruit trees put so much energy into growing up that little or no energy is invested in bearing fruit. Do you know the solution to this problem? The farmers will take an ax, and they make a deep cut in the trunk of the tree near the ground. While severe, this wound always produces change, and the next year the tree bears more fruit than ever before. I don’t think any of us would deny the fact that when it comes to our relationship with Christ, we could all bear more fruit. None of us are “there” yet. There are all places where we could make a few good cuts in our own lives so that we might grow in our life with Christ. Indeed, it is an act of denial, it requires a change of life, and it is sometimes even painful. But it is the call of Christ to all people, “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”
Still the call to follow Christ is a call to abundance life. The Lenten journey is ultimately a “Journey to Hope.” Even with all the trials and difficulties we go through as we journey with Jesus, we have before us not only the hope, but the promise of resurrection life. So this Lenten season, our greatest task to examine our lives. We need to determine where there are roadblocks that hinder our journey with Christ. We have to humbly acknowledge our weaknesses and shortcomings, and then we have to change our ways. Like the children, we must be less egotistical and more humble. We have to recognize our need for God and we have to put our lives in God’s hands. Difficult as it may be, we have to become more trusting, more obedient, and more faithful; bit by bit, piece by piece. And we can always trust that just as with those little children so long ago, Christ is waiting to welcome us into his arms.
Praise be to God. Amen.
