Jeremy L. Berg

The Gospel reading for this week gets to the heart of everything. This is it. Choose the scandalous Way of the Cross and be a disciple of Jesus, or keep stamping Jesus’ name on the Ways of the World and be Satan’s sucker. There’s no neutral ground beneath the cross: you’re either mocking or marveling. Here’s the text:

“Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” … If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:31-34, 38).

In our day, where many have been given a Jesus of polite manners, a timeless message of love, and a Mister Rogers like innocence, one can hardly imagine “being ashamed of” Jesus and his message.

But put Jesus outside an abortion clinic or at an NRA convention, or show him in opposition to the MAGA movement, or questioning Israel’s response in Gaza, or critiquing capitalism, or upholding a traditional view of marriage and sexuality, or refusing to pledge allegiance to a flag, or asking Christians to give up their guns as he called his disciples to put away the sword, and I guarantee you’ll start raising eyebrows and finding some people are indeed “ashamed of [Jesus] and [his] message” (v. 38).

In every generation, the majority of society will be “seeing things merely from a human point of view,” and disinterested in or scandalized by God’s cruciform point of view. Since the Enlightenment, the modern view of reality has kicked God upstairs into the realm of religious ideas and personal morality (Kingdom of Heaven), and worked hard to keep Jesus of Nazareth and the Hebrew prophets silenced when it comes to earthly politics and economics (kingdoms of earth).

Those who take the Wisdom and Power of the Cross seriously in this present age, will always be running up against those who see it as pure folly and weakness, or worse (see 1 Cor 1:18ff). Lent is a good time for Christians to fast from the various human point of views propagated on cable news and social media, saying: “Okay, I know what Republicans think on the issues, and I know what Democrats think on the issues. Now what saith you, Jesus of Nazareth?

Moreover, dare we ask if there is anything the church is up to these days that would cause Jesus to look us in the eyes and, heaven forbid, say, “Get behind me Satan! Your church is seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s?”

The last word today goes to Thomas a Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ, published anonymously around  1418–1427, one of the most popular and best known Christian devotional books. I wonder why he published it anonymously? Hmmm…

Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast. Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake. There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere his morality, few that follow him in the indignity of his cross; many that love Jesus as long as nothing runs counter to them; many that praise and bless him, as long as they receive comfort from him; but should Jesus hide from them and leave them for a while, they fall to complaining or become deeply depressed.

Those who love Jesus for his own sake, not for the sake of their own comfort, bless him in time of trouble and heartache as much as when they are full of consolation.