September 3, 2017 - Take Up Your Cross

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?  Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct."

Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Matthew 16: 24-28

This passage has all the hallmarks of being a series of remembrances of things Jesus said at different times and in response to different circumstances combined into a single speech:

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Christians often use this passage to bemoan the “cross” of being Christian.  Certainly, historically, being a Christian was sometimes a real cross. But for nearly everyone reading this blog, being a Christian has never been the equivalent of brutal crucifixion. In fact, at worst, it is a wash.  So what was Jesus saying?

I am gradually coming to the conclusion that Jesus’s teachings* can be grouped into two categories that appear without distinction from one another throughout the Gospels. When these two types of teachings are conflated, misinterpretation is the inevitable result.  In most cases, Jesus described the morality of God. He says that God is not a cosmic judge, dispensing reward and punishment according to sin.  However, in some cases, Jesus is describing human virtue – not to avoid punishment, but to find the path to resilient human happiness.  In every wisdom tradition, virtue and the path to resilient happiness requires self-denial, self-discipline, the pursuit of wisdom, compassion, and focus on the divine and the eternal.  In this passage, Jesus is exhorting us to the virtue of self-denial.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

This appears to be a commentary on the counter-intuitive nature of virtue: we might expect that self-denial is the path to misery and dissatisfaction, but Jesus (along with every other guru) promises that it leads in the opposite way - to the most resilient, abiding happiness.  I wouldn’t know because I lack any modicum of the virtue of self-denial.

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? 

This is further commentary on virtue: If giving everything away would make you ten percent happier, would you do it?  The answer is embedded in the question.  Everyone’s goal is sustained, resilient happiness and if one could be assured that giving away every worldly possession would increase one’s happiness the only rational decision is clear.  Correspondingly, if a lifetime of acquisitiveness doesn’t lead to happiness, why would you do it?

For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.

This looks suspiciously like a subsequent edit.  It runs directly counter to the Beatitudes and almost every other saying of Jesus.  Like the last line of Ecclesiastes, it is discordant and likely the addition of a moralistic redactor.  

Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

This last line was omitted from this Sunday’s Gospel reading, but I have re-added it because it has such an interesting history.  This line inspired early Christians to believe the Second Coming would happen within a generation.  It also may have inspired the legend referred to in the enigmatic third-to-last verse of the Gospel of John (21:23) which indicated early Christians believed the apostle John would live an unnaturally long time until Jesus returned.

Unnatural longevity until the Second Coming was sometimes considered a blessing.  In Luke 2:25, the infant Jesus is presented to Simeon, who was blessed by God to live until he laid eyes on the Christ.  His exclamation is a closing passage of Night Prayer in the daily Liturgy of the Hours: “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace.  Your word has been fulfilled.  My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people…”

But unnatural longevity was also sometimes considered a curse. A thirteenth century legend told of a man named Cartaphilus – sometimes depicted as Pontius Pilate’s gatekeeper who struck Jesus as he entered the palace – who is cursed to wander the Earth until the Second Coming. This character, played as an ageless, murderous Catholic priest, was prominent in the 1988 apocalyptic movie, The Seventh Sign.   

* Of course, Christianity is principally concerned not with what Jesus taught or did but what he, as the Incarnation of the divine, represents or embodies.  

Whatever You Bind on Earth Shall be Bound in Heaven

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"  They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.  And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Matthew 16:13-20

This passage contains what appears to be a broad grant of power to the Church: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”   It seems strange that God would give us human beings, who are so prone to error, prejudice, and self-dealing, the ability to make decisions for Him.

Jesus routinely quotes the Old Testament prophets, and his actions regularly parallel action in the Old Testament.  For instance, Jesus’s overturning of the money changers tables in the Temple remind the apostles of Psalm 69 – “zeal for Thy house consumes me.”  The same Psalm includes, “I was thirsty and they gave me vinegar to drink,” just as Jesus was given vinegar on the Cross.  

Jesus’s statement to Peter in this Sunday’s Gospel mirrors a statement made by Isaiah in the Old Testament too, an excerpt of which is this Sunday’s first reading. In it, Isaiah informs Shebna (who held an office equivalent to Secretary of State of Judah under King Hezekiah) that he will be removed from office for pridefully building a grand tomb for himself.  And, in fact, his tomb was found in Siloam and its lintel, bearing Shebna’s name, currently resides in the British Museum. Isaiah prophesies that Shebna will be replaced by Eliakim:

I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot (Isaiah 22) 

The passage closes with a statement that the peg will someday give way and fall.

So, in quoting this passage, Jesus is doing something other than granting Peter authority to make decisions for God.  He is declaring that Peter has been chosen to lead the Church by God, thus removing those who exhibited too much pride, and he may even be predicting Peter’s eventual removal from office by execution. 

Walking on Water (Part 2)

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. "It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." 

Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, "Truly, you are the Son of God."

Matthew 14:22-33

We are often told that God demands faith - interpreted as belief in God or belief in Jesus’s status as the Incarnation.  But an easily overlooked detail of this story is that it is Peter who challenges his own faith -  Jesus does not.  Peter invites Jesus to command him to walk on the water.  Jesus merely complies and says, “come.”

That God would demand belief has always seemed unfair to me.  We believe things because the evidence that has been presented to us is compelling to us.  In a real sense, we cannot be commanded to believe something that we are not inclined to credit as true.  If you demand that I believe that the sky is purple in honor of some laudable social concern, I may act as though I believe it in order to mollify you, or to indicate my allegiance to that concern, but no amount of desire on my part will allow me to actually believe it.

Abraham Heschel wrote that in trying to understand God we have to apply ‘first principles’.  If God is anything like what we think of Him, He must be fair.  Fairness prohibits Him from rewarding behavior that cannot be chosen.  Whether we believe in God or believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God really isn’t something we choose.  A fair God cannot reward belief or punish non-belief.  In this story, there is an affirmation of that fact.  Human beings may demand belief from themselves and one another, but we can be reasonably sure God does not.

Insipid Faith

At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out," Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is tormented by a demon."  But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.  Jesus' disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us." He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me."  He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."  She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."  Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish."  And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.

Matthew 15:22-28

This story is one of a series of stories that is meant to illustrate that Jesus was accepted by Gentiles in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.  Others include the story of the three wise men from the East arriving in Jerusalem at Jesus’s birth and the Roman centurion at the foot of the cross who declares Jesus the son of God at his death.

But the story can serve another purpose besides its intended one:  Jesus is treating the Canaanite woman exceptionally badly.  She is a member of a hated Gentile minority; traditionally considered a descendent of Ham – Noah’s cursed son. Jesus all but calls her a dog and won’t help her epileptic daughter until she has subordinated herself completely.  One of the most often repeated commands in Scripture is to welcome the foreigner.  Jesus is in clear violation.  His disciples are no better – asking Jesus to help her only to get this pest off their backs.

Homilists around the world will try to gloss this story this weekend. They will say Jesus was just testing the woman’s faith.  They will say it shows Jesus’s willingness to change.  But the story is inescapably scandalous to anyone who believes Jesus’s purpose was to provide a moral example.  After all, we don’t consider someone who is moral some of the time a moral example.   

So the story may also serve to dissuade us that Jesus is supposed to be a moral example.  This is, of course, a hard pill to swallow. It may challenge the very foundations of our faith, if we think faith is about being a good person.  Or it may be the path to making faith more meaningful.   The first two lines of Abraham Heschel’s book, God in Search of Man, are as follows:

It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society.  It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats.  Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid.

The truth is, religious morality and secular morality are almost indistinguishable from one another.  But religion overwhelmingly defines itself in terms of the moral.  It renders itself insipid in the process.  Religion must be about something more - something that transcends morality.

Walking on Water (Part 1)

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. "It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." 

Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, "Truly, you are the Son of God."

Matthew 14:22-33

This story is often interpreted to mean that if we had perfect belief we would be able to perform miracles.  But, in fact, it is a rich allegory.

Bodies of water are often allegories for Chaos in Scripture.  In the first Creation story, God does not create something from nothing.  He merely distinguishes and separates.  First, He separates water from earth and confines water to basins. He brings order to welter and waste - Chaos.  In the story of the Flood, the floodwaters represent a return of Chaos -  an inevitability in every life – and the ability of people to ride it out if they have confidence that Chaos is nothing in the context of the eternal and sacred.  Moses splits the Red Sea.  Elijah and Elisha split the Jordan River.  And Jesus calms the storm and walks on water.

Like Noah, Peter is initially able to ride out Chaos.  He steps out of the boat into Chaos with the confidence that it is nothing in the context of the eternal and sacred.  But his faith fails him and he is almost overwhelmed.  It is really not an exhortation to faith.  Rather, it is the simple recognition that the comfort provided by faith simply doesn’t exist for those who lack it. This likely reveals the meaning of Jesus’s words, “the poor will become poorer and the rich will become richer.”  It is not a cynical economic prediction; it is recognition of the fact that those who are lucky enough to have an intuition of the divine will be comforted by it, while those who are not, will not.

Image: Stained glass window, St. Peter the Apostle Church, Provincetown, Massachusetts 

Be Still and Know that I Am God

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. 

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.

Matthew 17:1-9

Nestled in this story is some Scriptural humor:  In the presence of the divine, Peter is yammering on about building booths. God interrupts him mid-sentence and Peter throws himself to the ground.

This is not the first time in Scripture where God waves off the efforts of human beings.  In Exodus, as the Egyptians are closing in on the escaping Israelites, Moses counsels, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today.  The Lord will fight for you and you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13).  This mirrors Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”

If we do not have free will, as neuroscience suggests, then God cannot reward or punish us on the basis of our acts or beliefs.  This moves faith to existential ground – where faith does not require us to accomplish anything or believe anything.  We are not here to try to pass any tests or please an implacable god. This doesn’t come naturally to us and requires μετανοέω – a term that is so often misinterpreted in Scripture as “repentance," but is better understood as a wholesale change of mindset.