Luke 9:21-27 Bearing the Cross

Theological Proposition/Focus:

Homiletical Proposition/Application:

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 int he 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?

Setting the Stage:

Pericopes come in a context.

Many of us here know a bunch of pericopes from the Bible. A periscope is an extract of Biblical text that fits together to paint a narrative. We would typically cal 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.

Body

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

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 on 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.

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

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

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 ill 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.

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

The exegetical question: to what was Jesus referring?

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