Thursday after Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Luke 9, 22-25

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly.”  These are not the words a follower hopes to hear his leader say.  To the follower, the leader who says this is preparing for defeat, and is only trying to buy time and more desperate support.  To the more worldly, these words sound like the beginning of a pitch for money.  But Jesus is not an ordinary leader.  He chooses to live a life of poverty and of ceaseless labor.  He makes no great claims for himself but refers his words and deeds back to the Father.  His words and deeds carry so much power that they cause people in sound mind, both men and women, to give up everything to follow him, and also to heal the sick, expel the demons, and raise the dead.  He also seeks no favor from either kings or high priests.  And when people object to his teachings because they seem too hard, he lets them go rather than soften his message.  

In truth, people — especially his Apostles — know that the Son of Man already led a life of suffering.  The words he speaks now — “The Son of Man must suffer greatly” — speak of even greater suffering to come.  It is noteworthy that the Lord says that he “must suffer greatly”, as opposed to “will suffer greatly”.  He is announcing that he is submitting himself to some overriding need that will result in his greater suffering.  He “must” do this, not just that this will happen.  His words here bring to mind what he says in Luke 12:49–5: “I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized. And how am I straitened until it be accomplished?”  He came to save us, and now he must undergo that which is necessary for him to do this.  He “must” suffer greatly.  But why would anyone submit himself to this?  Because the Lord Jesus is beside himself with love for us.  In Mark 3:21, we read of how he was unable to eat because of the crowd that pressed him on all sides: “And when his brethren had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him. For they said: He is become mad.”  His brethren were right, but they did not understand that this is what love does.

“And be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.”  Already it was clear that he was rejected by these authorities.  He speaks of them here so that later his followers will remember that he foretold this to them, and that they should not despair on this account.  He also seems to add this to what he has said of his greater suffering as though this rejection was particularly painful to him, that the very people who should have recognized him as the Son of God would punch, slap, and spit on him, and then have him out to a terrible death.

“And on the third day be raised.”  One wonders if anyone really heard these last words after hearing the previous ones.  And what did it mean that “on the third day be raised”?  He does not lay out a description for his disciples to bolster their spirits.  In this way too the Lord differs from other leaders.  These others might see trouble ahead (in this world, trouble is always ahead), but they would emphasize or even invent a silver lining that would result.  They would build this up so that the suffering would appear minimal.  The Lord does the opposite.  He nearly buries, as it were, the good news.  He emphasizes the suffering.  He wants people to know that he loves them and would do anything for them.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  If any leader wanted to drive away his following, a declaration of this kind would be the one to do it with.  To a modern reader an adaptation might be, Pick up the noose with which you will be hanged and follow me.  No one picks up their cross unless it is to bear it to the place of crucifixion.  And in order to do this, one must deny oneself — to know what it is, to accept it for what it means, and to willingly bear it for the sake of Christ.  For us, this means to live the life of a Christian, forsaking the world and its glittering promises of pleasure and self-indulgence, and to live humbly in service to the Lord, spreading his Gospel.

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”  Those who stumble over each other to avoid their crosses will perish utterly.  Those who consider others who enter the priesthood or religious life as throwing their lives away, will die shameful deaths.  Those who look at the Lord’s teachings and respond, “This saying is hard.  Who can accept it?” (John 6, 60), will walk away into the darkness where there is wailing and the gnashing of teeth in regret.

“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”  In all of human history, no one has gained the “whole world”, though some have tried.  This begs the question, Why do people still strive to do it?  Even if their idea of gaining “the whole world” only means obtaining all the things they desire, who really accomplishes even this?  Some may boast of it, but anyone can boast of things that cannot be proven.  Some may seem to us to have done this, but it is only because our imaginations are weak.  The truth is that there is nothing in this world that can make us as happy as we wished and for as long as we wished.  It is all deficient, it all falls apart.  Only Jesus lasts.  So let us shoulder our crosses and follow him wherever he goes so that one day we may hear the angels proclaim at the sight of us in heaven: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now . . . they may rest from their labors. For their works follow them” (Revelation 14, 13).