We walk the way of the Cross

Walking the Way of the Cross
Pentecost 2
Matthew 10:34-42
Vicar Darren Harbaugh

A little over 150 years ago, the Civil War began. It’s been referred to as the “Brother’s War,” in part because families were torn apart by differing loyalties.

At the battle of Shiloh, when two Kentucky regiments were fighting each other, one of the Union soldiers wounded his own brother and took him prisoner. After the soldier handed over his brother, he began firing at a man near a tree. The captured brother shouted, "Bill! Hold your fire! That's father!"

Loyalties in the Civil War ran deep, with the result that it set a man against his father. Families were divided, severed in two.

Imagine if the Union Soldiers had said, “This is too much! I can’t handle such family conflict.” Our country’s history would read a bit differently.

There have been times when millions of men have given up a comfortable, quiet life with friends and family, and have taken up arms in service to their nation. They were willing to suffer loss of life and limb for a greater cause.

In the Gospel reading today from Matthew 10, Jesus issues a similar call of duty to his disciples.

The disciples were enlisted men, commissioned by Jesus to proclaim the kingdom of God; sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Jesus gives the disciples their marching orders: This is not to be a peacekeeping mission. They will be right in the thick of it. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth,” Jesus says “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Jesus is saying that because of him, there will be conflict. And he draws a line in the sand, saying, “Are you with me?”

The disciples needed to know they were not entitled to a quiet life. Followers of Jesus have signed away all their rights to a comfortable self-determined existence.

The disciples found out that the message “Jesus is Lord” is a declaration of war against sin and selfishness often provoking a violent response from those threatened by it. This has always been the case. Sometimes this hostility comes from your own friends and family. Try talking about sin with someone who is proud of their ungodly behavior and see how far you get.

By saying that he came to bring a sword, Jesus was telling his disciples that loyalty to God and his mission comes first. The result may be that family ties are strained to the breaking point. A true disciple knows who to love more, putting the cause of Christ above all else.

As much as you love your children or grandchildren; As much as your love your parents and grandparents - Jesus demands a loyalty which transcends even the closest family tie.

Hear his word again: “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother, more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

Loyalty to Christ may mean that your family is no longer a place of refuge.

The world seeks peace – a truce, a ceasefire - achieved by overlooking or ignoring differences. There could be “peace” if Christians stopped sharing the good news of Christ – the forgiveness of sins that he offers to all.

Jesus doesn’t want any part of this false peace. It’s just avoiding conflict, allowing the world to go undisturbed in sin. God decided that it is better to have war and division, saving as many people as possible, rather than let everyone die in their sin. Christ came to remove sin, to offer His righteousness to all. Because of this, he did not shy from confrontation. His whole experience was the opposite of a peaceful, quiet way of life, impacting even His family. At one point, his family tried seizing him. Because of his teaching, they thought he was insane.

If you choose the comfortable path, if you fail to share Christ because you don’t want to deal with the shame and embarrassment that come along with it, you are not worthy to be called a Christian.

Sometimes religion is kept off-limits at family gatherings or other social events so that things stay pleasant. I can’t imagine that is what Jesus had in mind when he was dining with sinners.

But beyond some potentially awkward dinner conversation, Jesus addresses something even more demanding.

He says,“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

If you’re looking for a nice, comfy, convenient religion, this is not it. If you are not willing to forsake all that is important to you, friends, family, your very life, then you will have no part of eternal life with God.

Christ suffered and died for you and He expects you to follow him, even to death. You might as well consider yourself an enlisted soldier, under the command of another. Following Christ is like going to battle. It can be lethal.

“Take up your cross” had very specific, revolting, and terrifying connotations for the people of Gallilee in Jesus’ Day.

Not only was crucifixion the cruelest form of execution, but it was the ultimate shame if a member of your family was crucified. The public disgrace and physical suffering began not just when the condemned man was hung on the cross, but with the procession through the streets in which the victim was forced carry the heavy cross-piece while enduring the insults of the crowd on the way to execution.

Jesus himself would literally go through that experience of a savage death and public disgrace. In Matthew 10 this is the prospect that he holds before any “worthy” disciple.

The familiar language of discipleship – come follow after me – takes on the morbid sense of following Jesus on the march to execution.

Will you be called on to suffer physically for the sake of Christ? Not likely. But he cross is whatever Christians suffer for living their Christian faith in the world; confessing the gospel of Christ crucified. Whoever refuses or is unwilling to bear this cross, can no longer claim to be a Christian.

The cross is our life as Christians, and guess what, Jesus wants us to be happy about it. He says in Matthew 5 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

“Rejoice and be glad!”

This is just what the apostles in Acts 5. They were beaten and left “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus”

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and thrown into prison where their feet were put in stocks and at midnight hey “were praying and singing hymns to God”

What do you do after being attacked and imprisoned for being a Christian? You sing “A Mighty Fortress”, “And take they our life, Goods, fame, child ,and wife, Though these all be gone. Our vict’ry has been won. The Kingdom ours remaineth.”
“The Kingdom ours remaineth.” That’s why Christians throughout the ages have given up a comfortable, quiet life with friends and family in service to their Savior, willing to suffer loss of life and limb.

Jesus says ‘Rejoice and be glad,” - because your reward is great is heaven!

What is this reward? Eternal life. How do we receive the reward? We receive it because Christ has come to us and identified with us. Whoever receives Christ’s messengers and the Word they bring, receives Christ and also receives the reward of a righteous person as it says in verses 40-42.

By believing the word preached to you, Christ identifies with you though faith. As Paul says in Romans 10, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Christ unites with you with His Righteousness. His victory over sin, death and the devil that he won by his death on the cross is your victory. In Christ, you find your reward - eternal life.

But it’s tough. If we don’t love Christ more than family, if we don’t bear our cross enduring shame, suffering, and abuse for Christ then we are not worthy of him.

Well, we aren’t worthy. Like John the Baptist, we aren’t worthy to even unloose Jesus’ sandals. Like the Prodigal Son, we aren’t worthy to be called son by our Father in heaven.
What we are worthy of, is death, because we’re sinners.
But Jesus - whom Pilate confessed did nothing worthy of death - died on our behalf, so that we would be counted worthy in the Father’s eyes. And now because of Christ and the cross, we are counted worthy to bear our cross and to suffer for that name. But with Paul, we confess that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us.

That glory will be revealed on that great and final day when we sing “Worthy is Christ, the lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be the people of God, Power and riches wisdom and strength glory and honor and blessing are his.”

What a day.

Though we enter into the kingdom through much tribulation as it says in Acts 14, we do indeed enter into the kingdom. The assurance of eternal glory makes us able to bear the cross.

We look to the eternal unseen things, in spite of affliction, in spite of the worst the world has to throw at us. Eternal life is yours right now because of the cross of Christ our Lord. Amen.