Latest revision as of 03:11, 2 April 2023

Theological Proposition/Focus: The demands of following Christ are incredible.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Bearing the cross requires that we look forward to eternity and not become too focussed on the short term.

Introduction:

Image: The phrase "it's my cross to bear."

Have you ever heard anyone use the phrase "It's my cross to bear?" There are times when I hear that phrase and I think, "really, do you even understand what you are saying?" Back in college I worked with some pretty rough guys in the shop I managed and there were many times where I was shocked at the decisions they made. People talk about their family "when I get home I am going to have to start dinner because my wife will be busy getting the kids from daycare, but I guess it is my cross to bear..." or someone else says "I just cannot sleep at night, I toss and turn and so I usually end up turning on the TV and just watching reruns all night "I guess it is my cross to bear." How about the person who complains about their poorly trained dog that tears up shoes every time they leave the house, "it is my cross to bear!."

No!!! let me say it again, No!!! this is not what it means to talk about bearing the cross! Today, as we celebrate Palm Sunday I want you to take some time to think about what it means to bear the cross. What exactly did Jesus do on the cross? What did it mean for Jesus to bear the cross?

Need: As Christians we need to realize the incredible burden that Christ carried for our sake.

Preview: Today as we look at Luke 9:21-27 we are going to see God's self-sacrificial love, his modeling of what it means to follow Him, and our responsibility in light of what Christ did for us.

Setting the Stage:

Pericopes come in a context.

Many of us here know a bunch of pericopes from the Bible. A pericope is an extract of Biblical text that fits together to paint a narrative. We would typically call it a story. However, stories also carry the idea of being less than factual so I prefer the word pericope. The pericope that I am going to discuss today is one you probably know but before I go into the text itself I want to start by setting the stage. I think this particular pericope is important in context. In other words, we can better understand the pericope if we understand what has happened directly preceding and following the text.

Luke 8 includes some amazing parables and miracles.

The parable of the sower and the lamp on a stand highlight the importance of the message of Christ.

The calming of the storm, casting out of demons, healing, and raising of the dead show the incredible power of Jesus.

Luke 9 begins by showing that Christ's followers have a role to play in His ministry.

When Peter says that Jesus is God's Messiah, he is on a Spiritual Mountain, what he has seen is nothing short of extraordinary.

What Jesus does in the rest of Luke chapter 9 is a reality check.

Life as a follower of Christ is extraordinary: extraordinarily rewarding and extraordinarily challenging, but all the time worth it.

Body (Begin by reading Luke 9:21-27)

The first point I want us to recognize is that

God incarnate modeled complete self-sacrificial love (21-22).

First, notice how Jesus refers to himself. Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. To understand this reference we need to understand that

The title Son of Man was a purposeful choice (v 22a).

The title Son of Man stems from Daniel 7:13-14

where the individual is granted the privileges of God which equated them with God.

and the title Son of Man avoids the politics associated with the Messiaih.

The phrase "Son of Man" was a phrase Jesus commonly used to talk about himself. The phrase likely comes out of Daniel 7:13-14. The context of Daniel 7 is a vision Daniel received and in verses 9-10 a picture of God is painted. In verses 13-14 we are introduced to one who is described as "like a son of man" and to this individual are granted privileges normally only reserved for God. These privileges include authority, glory, sovereign power, worship, and eternal dominion. The only reasonable conclusion is that this Son of Man must be God.

The entire picture of Daniel 7 is a picture of suffering and victory. The beasts of Daniel 7 dominate their subjects but their power is finite compared with the power of God. Victory is assured in God.

It is entirely possible that Jesus chose the title Son of Man to avoid the politics and preconceptions of terms like Messiah and Son of David. Remember, Peter just identified Jesus as the Messiah, now Jesus purposefully uses the title Son of Man. The truth that Jesus expressed in the title Son of Man was that he was God himself and that there would be great suffering but also great victory.

As God there are two characteristics of the Son of Man that we should talk about here.

The first characteristic we see is that

God is perfect (Dan. 7:9).

The picture we see in Daniel 7:9 is a picture of God dressed in white with white hair. The white is a picture of holiness, perfection, spotlessness. The description of the throne and wheels is a reminder of Eek. 1:4-28. God is perfect and unapproachable. As we reflect on Christ we need to remember that Christ is the image of the invisible God. Christ came as fully God, lived a perfect life as fully God.

God is omnipotent (Dan. 7:10).

The picture painted by the title Son of Man is also a picture of God's omnipotence. his power. Verse 10 paints the picture of one who is surrounded by thousands upon thousands of servants. But more than just commanding a massive army, this God of the universe has authority to judge. We are reminded that Jesus is God and has full power and authority.

However, Jesus reminds His followers that while he possesses all power and authority, He also has a very important task that He will complete.

The Son of Man was born to die (v 22b).

Notice that Jesus claims "The Son of Man Must" (δεῖ).

Here is what is really cool.

The title Son of Man conveys power but now we see that the one who possesses that power must do something (it is necessary for him to do something), die.

The reality of our sin is that God in his love chose to provide salvation no matter the cost. Jesus was born that he might die to pay the price for our sin!

Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Romans 6:23b, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

But he didn't just die. He also rose.

The Son of Man defeated death.

1 Cor. 15:20 "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

2 Timothy 1:10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

In order to know Jesus we must know his life, his death, and his resurrection. As we move into Easter we sometimes lost track of everything. Let's take time to remember well.

MTR: Double check: have you accepted God's self-sacrificial love?

God incarnate showed His followers what it means to bear the cross (23-26).

The first thing that we need to do as we take about verses 23-26 is understand what the people of the day would have interpreted from the command to "take up his cross." The romans were known for using the cross as the most horrific means of execution. Further, Romans were known for forcing the condemned to carry their own crossbar to their execution. I am sure that at this point the disciples don't understand how literally Jesus will do this but they must at least be able to recognize the strength of this language. In fact, I think they completely recognize the strength of the language because they really don't respond to what Jesus tells them. The disciples probably were baffled and assumed Jesus was speaking hyperbole.

Here is the point

Cross bearing is not normal for us and so it must be renewed regularly (23).

Cross bearing is most horrific.

Cross bearing is really a scandalous command

There are things that I could tell you and you would respond to me, yeah sure, okay, I can do that. I won't like it but I can do that. For example, if I challenged you to tell your spouse you appreciated them each day this week. You might say, yeah sure, fine, whatever. Or make a point of praying before your meals this week. But these are not the trivial easy tasks that Jesus commands. Jesus tells his followers to deny themselves and take up their cross. He then proceeds to tell them to do this daily as they follow Jesus. Why daily? Because this is not something natural. It is not normal for people to deny themselves. It is not normal for people to risk everything. This sort of behavior is not normal! So you must commit to daily taking up the cross and following Jesus. If you don't regularly commit yourself to Jesus I think you will find yourself slowly drifting away from Jesus.

The act of taking up one's cross is in fact so abnormal that Jesus presents it as the ultimate paradox.

Cross bearing presents the ultimate paradox (24).

In reality, there are several spiritual paradoxes that Jesus highlighted in his teaching.

Luke 6:22 tells us that ultimate blessing is paradoxically opposed with what we might consider normal blessing.

Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

Luke 18:29-30 teaches that giving up what you hold onto is the key to gaining what you hold onto.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

What we might call these are "the divine law of un-intended consequences."

That is, when we release our grip and turn life over to God, God gives us real life!

The issue is that this is not really a paradox but rather the wisdom of God.

Look at the world, it is full of people who are grasping onto life and losing it. There are people who have gained incredible wealth and power and lost everything so they have nothing on which to spend their wealth or exercise their power. God's way is only a paradox because we are fallen and cannot see far enough to understand what God is really doing.

The principle is simple, by relasing your grip you gain what you desired to hold onto.

Cross bearing requires you to look further than you may be used to looking (26).

The hope of the Christian, the satisfaction of the Christian comes not in this life, but in what is to come. That does not mean this life must be miserable. God can bless. It means that our hope is in the future. This hope leads to a state where the follower of Jesus is not ashamed of that which brings shame but rather embraces what would normally bring shame.

The cross, in the ancient world, was a symbol of shame.

The cross represented the ultimate shame being reserved almost exclusively for non-citizens, brutal and scorned. One article on the pathology of crucifixion states

In antiquity crucifixion was considered one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death. Probably originating with the Assyrians and Babylonians, it was used systematically by the Persians in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great brought it from there to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century BC. It was virtually never used in pre-Hellenic Greece. The Romans perfected crucifion for 500 years until it was abolished by Constantine I in the 4th century AD. Crucifixion in Roman times was applied mostly to slaves, disgraced soldiers, Christians and foreigners--only very rarely to Roman citizens. Death, usually after 6 hours--4 days, was due to multifactorial pathology: after-effects of compulsory scourging and maiming, haemorrhage and dehydration causing hypovolaemic shock and pain, but the most important factor was progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement. Resultant anoxaemia exaggerated hypovolaemic shock. Death was probably commonly precipitated by cardiac arrest, caused by vasovagal reflexes, initiated inter alia by severe anoxaemia, severe pain, body blows and breaking of the large bones. The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died, and were known to precipitate death by means of deliberate fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, spear stab wounds into the heart, sharp blows to the front of the chest, or a smoking fire built at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim. ^[1]

So, in light of all the shame associated with the cross. How can we make sure that we are not ashamed? The key is looking to the future.

You see, ultimately, the Gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

When we focus on the eternal we see the power of the Gospel. In fact, look at how verse 26 ends.

In the end of Luke 9:26 we see that "The Son of Man embraces all levels of reality, the human, the angelic, and that of God himself."^[2]

Image: When landing an airplane make sure to look at the end of the runway.

When you are learning to land an airplane one of the mistakes that young pilots make is focussing on the ground directly in front of them. it is nearly impossible to tell how high you are off the ground when you do this and inevitably this causes problem on landing. Instead, a trained pilot will look all the way down at the end of the runway. It seems counter-intuitive but it is reality. If you want to land an airplane you need to look at the end of the runway.

Similarly, in life we need to look to the end, eternity.

MTR: Check your eyes. Where are you looking?

What it really comes down to is that

The followers of God must look to the "not-yet" while embracing the "already" (27).

The exegetical question: to what was Jesus referring?

After reading verse 27 the question that may be on your mind is "what does it mean to see the kingdom of God?" After all, the apostles are dead now

Theologians generally hold one of a few interpretations

Jesus was talking about the beginning of the church at pentecost - problematic in terms of OT theology

The Old Testament expectation of the Kingdom of God has not been completely fulfilled.

2 Samuel 7:11-17 - promised David a descendent who would bring about an eternal kingdom.

Isaiah 9:6 - told of a future ruler who would have not just a spiritual kingdom but a political kingdom.

Isaiah 11:11-12 tells of Israel being fully restored.

We could go on an on, but the point is that the start of the church at Pentecost cannot be the full Kingdom of God.

Jesus was talking about his Second coming and the millennium Kingdom - but the apostles died

While this certainly fits the Kingdom of God, we also know that the disciples have since died.

Jesus was speaking of the transfiguration that immediately followed in verse 28.

I believe this is the view we need to hold. The problem is that the transfiguration does not fulfill all the Kingdom prophecies. My answer is that we need to look at the already-not-yet approach. You see there are elements of the Kingdom that are in place but much is still to happen.

The joy of the "already."

In the transfiguration the disciples were given a glimpse of Christ in His glory. I believe the purpose of this glimpse was to give the disciples assurance of the reality of the Kingdom while also allowing for the not-yet. My response is that we need to look at the glimpses that we are afforded.

Sin has been defeated!

Christ makes intercession!

The Holy Spirit indwells!

Yet, the Kingdom is not fully arrived.

The expectation of the "not-yet."

The flesh still battles

The curse remains

The world decays

MTR: Take a moment to thank God for the "already" while you dream of the "not-yet."

Image: An event hours in the making!

Have you ever worked hard to prepare an amazing meal? Maybe it is smoking a particular piece of meat. You spend a few hours planning your rub, then in the middle of the night you get up, fire up the smoker, set your temperature and bring out the meat. As you climb back into bed and tell your wife how good it is going to turn out she simply groans, rolls over, and says, go back to sleep. An hour later your alarm goes off telling you to go check your temperatures. By the time morning comes around you have slept just a little but you are excited. You continue to monitor the meat for a few hours in the morning and then it is back to work as your wrap the meat in foil for the next step of cooking. As afternoon progresses you begin working on the sides and setting the table. Finally, it is time to eat. You sit down, cut off a piece of meat, and savor the rich smoked flavor. The taste is amazing, the meat is moist but smokey, as you chew you can taste individual flavors. Everything is perfect, your work has paid off, then you proceeded to gobble down the rest of the meal and the joy of that first bite fades into oblivion. Hours of preparation were worth it but you really don't remember or appreciate it, you just know it was worth it!

I am afraid that sometimes this is how we see the Gospel. But instead of hours, the Gospel was millennia of preparation. Let's not let that work fade. Rather we need to savor the Gospel. We do so by sitting and enjoying the already-not-yet

1. ↑ Retief FP, Cilliers L. The history and pathology of crucifixion. S Afr Med J. 2003 Dec;93(12):938-41. PMID: 14750495.
2. ↑ Fletcher-Louis, Crispin HT. Luke-Acts: Angels, Christology and Soteriology. Vol. 94. Mohr Siebeck, 1997, 226-227