The Way Of The Cross

Last week we heard about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness right after his Baptism. That’s the way it feels sometimes – you just make a decision and then things happen that immediately bring your decision into question.

This wilderness, of course, is metaphorical and now we find ourselves in this metaphorical wilderness of Lent. The forty days of Lent serve as a reminder of the forty days Jesus spent being tested in the wilderness.

In today’s Gospel reading, Peter responds to Jesus’ announcement that the Messiah will have to suffer and die by denying the cross. Peter is in essence denying the truth of this teaching – that the Messiah must suffer and by extension, his disciples.

This is a hard thing for Peter to hear and it is also a hard thing for us to grasp. Our God calls us not to success, but to suffering. Jesus, as our Savior, did not get a pass on the suffering either – in fact he suffered the most. So, as we follow him, we also must pass through suffering.

After this denial of the coming trials, Jesus tells Peter, “You are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do” (Mark 8:33).

So, maybe we need to learn to think more like God.

Peter, by his denial, is surrendering to temptation. This is one way we surrender to temptation – that is, to take the easy way through the wilderness. Peter couldn’t stand to think that his teacher, his hero - who was supposed to be the savior of the world - would suffer. Maybe he was also thinking about himself a little too – he didn’t want to think about the trouble that this would bring to his life.

This isn’t the last time Jesus will mention his impending suffering, rejection and death - in fact, he repeats this teaching twice more in Mark’s gospel (9:30-37; 10:32-45) hoping that by repetition the disciples might finally understand.

There is no denying that life is hard - we are beset by temptations every day. St. Anthony the Great, an early Christian monk from Egypt writes, “This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.” [pause]

But even in the midst of temptation, we are reminded to keep to the narrow path (Matthew 7:13-14) – the hard road - the road that leads to the cross. Walking the path that Jesus walked through the wilderness; he showed us the way and even now he is walking with us.

Perseverance is essential on this journey – not just this journey through Lent but on our Christian walk through life. Through the trials, the testing, the temptation you will grow stronger in your faith. You will be transformed.

One of my heroes is Teddy Roosevelt. I think I was first enamored by him when I learned that he was very interested in conservation and the outdoors. During his presidency he established 5 national parks, 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, and 18 national monuments - adding 230 million acres to the list of protected public lands. He also created the American Antiquities Act, giving future presidents the right to establish national monuments.

He was a big hunter and outdoorsman and became concerned when he started noticing the decimation of the bison, elk, bighorn sheep and other game animals that he loved to hunt. Writing, “We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation.”

And that was over 100 years ago! He was truly a visionary.

Then I read a biography of his life and discovered that he was a sickly child who suffered from asthma and other illnesses and that he basically cured himself by establishing a stringent exercise routine - by hard work, by perseverance. He preached the benefits of the strenuous life and lived his life full of adventure, rising to the highest office in the land and accomplishing great things that we still remember today.

I think people who lived in the past understood this idea of suffering much more than we do here in 21st century America. For them it was an ever-present part of their lives. Life expectancy was short and people had to do a lot of manual labor just to survive. Some of you even know what it was like without running water in your house, or heating with only wood – the endless chopping and carrying. Medicine wasn’t as advanced as it is today and so many people died of terrible diseases, like the plague, or tuberculosis. “For most of human history, around one half of all children died before reaching the age of 15. By 1950, that figure had declined to around one-quarter globally. By 2020, it had fallen to 4%” (ourworldindata.com). Today, we want success in every endeavor, a cure for every illness and never a tear to shed, but there is value in suffering. There is wisdom to be gained when we accept our weakness and allow ourselves to be vulnerable.