Dear Faith Family,
There is no arguing that the most recognizable symbol of our faith is the cross, and rightfully so. For it was there that, in the words of the author of Hebrews, "Christ...offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins..." therefore "there is no longer an offering for sin...brothers and sisters...we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus..." (10:12,18-19). Yet, there is more to Jesus' cross than its gracious finished work.
Remember Jesus' invitation at the beginning of his Samaritan travels? Speaking to both the miraculously feed crowd, and his ever-stumbling yet maturing disciples, Jesus said,
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)
Jesus expects us to wind up in a similar spot to where he was always going (see Luke 9:21-22 & 18:31-33). But why? If our daily crosses are not about sacrifices for sin like Jesus', then what are they for?
We sang a song on Sunday called Scandal of Grace. The lyrics proclaim what is finished, and what more there is to Jesus' cross,
Death, where is your sting?
Your power is as dead as my sin
The cross has taught me to live
And mercy, my heart now to sing
Jesus, on his cross, teaches us how to live on our crosses.
On our crosses, like Jesus, we learn we live free in the agony of a world of broken relationships and evils, because we are not abandoned to them. On our daily crosses, we learn to speak and act upon that freedom by extending forgiveness and compassion to our crucifiers, and opening relationship, hope, and purpose to the guilty but listening. On our crosses, we learn who we truly are and for what we truly live. And we learn all this, through Jesus' words from his cross as we pray them with him.
So this week, as women and men who I know to be more than willing to take up your cross daily to follow Jesus, actively allow your cross to teach you to live. When led by the Spirit to deny self--your self-absorption, self-pity, self-fulfillment, self-entitlement, self-doubt, self-ambition--whether in the most intimate of relationships or the most common of office expectations--pray on your cross as Jesus taught you to pray from his cross. The exercise below will help you do so.
May we who "share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that...we may attain the resurrection from the dead."
Love you, faith family! God bless.
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PRAYING FROM YOUR CROSS
Preparation:
First, remember. Remember that, unlike Jesus, "your cross" is not payment for your sin. Jesus' cross was that. Remember that, like Jesus, we deny self for the salvation of another/others. Second, ask. Ask, "What am I denying?" Name what you are giving and ask, "Who am I giving this up for?"
Four Prayers:
Read the comments after the prayer, then slowly pray the prayer with Jesus. Repeat for all four prayers.
#1 My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Denying self for the sake of another, usually when being wronged by another, is not easy. It is also not something you do alone. Enter the real agony of self-denying, but not actual abandonment. Remember that Jesus' first prayer is Psalm 22. And while he only voices the first words of the psalm, the entire psalm is hidden in Jesus' heart.
"For he has NOT despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has NOT hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him...even the one who could not keep himself alive." (22:24,29)
Often we get stuck here. We only feel the agony of denying self, but never the community and kingdom that joins us, and into which we become a part in our suffering for something more than ourselves. While we must not deny the difficulty, we must also not deny the truth that our cross is for something more and something larger than us.
If you find yourself stuck here, maybe spend some time praying Psalm 22, the entire psalm, before moving on.
#2 "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
When you realize that you are not abandoned on your cross, but joined in and to something more than you, you recognize that you are willfully dying. You sacrifice in freedom, not as an unavoidable conclusion. Freely dying allows us to freely forgive "them" (whoever might be leading to your denying of self) and exercise empathy "for they know not what they do." On your cross, you see more clearly what "they" are caught up in and what binds them.
But it is not enough to feel compassion. Jesus' brother reminds us that we are called to do something with the compassion that our freely denied self allows us.
"So speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty...Mercy triumphs over judgment." (James 2:12-13)
When and how can you speak and act upon the compassion and mercy of a willing sacrifice?
#3 "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Remember that in denying self for the sake/salvation of another, you are joining in God's Kingdom coming. You are a participant in His good purposes and actions and a witness to life with Him. Praying with Jesus the truth of where you will be when death [even the mini-self deaths] is done, allows you to have ears to hear and eyes to see those who are looking and listening for that hope. And, to respond to them!
Who is positively responding to your self-denying, and how can you invite them into your life with God?
#4 "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"
Finally, you pray your conviction. Not abandonment by God, but abandonment to God's providence and grace even on the cross. In praying this prayer with Jesus, you realize that you were made for this dying so that another might live, and that you, in turn, are living for something more. A more in which you are known, loved, competent, and called--losing yourself, only to find who and whose you truly are (Lk. 9:24).