Following Jesus in the 21st century

“…If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’’ (Matt 16:24)

Matthew 16:21-27 (Year A: Twelfth Sunday after Trinity 3^rd September 2017)

There is a small irony in this Sunday’s reading. Last Sunday, we heard about the ‘conferring of the keys’ on Peter the rock of the Church (‘the first Pope’ as some might try to argue). This Sunday, directly following on from that discourse, we hear about Peter being  called a  ‘stumbling block’ (ironically, because he was already named by Jesus as ‘rock’ or Cephas in Aramaic).

Jesus did not mince his words when he said to Peter: ‘Get behind me, Satan’.  Of course, later on in the Gospels, we learn that Peter would betray the Lord three times and that, following this, he would be forgiven and strengthened by Him. 

Like Peter, we can also be stumbling blocks for others on life’s journey. By our attitude, assumptions and ways of thinking we can become, not instruments of peace, healing and unity, but instruments of discord, damage and animosity. 

Being a stumbling block is one thing. Failing to recognise it and do something about it is quite another matter.  We can be stumbling blocks by our attachment to self or others while ignoring the demands of love and inclusion.  Many are those deterred, scandalised and alienated because they cannot see the light of Christ in our lives including our conversation, our attitude, actions and ways of living. 

To follow Jesus in the 21^st century calls for radical rethinking. We must remained anchored to scripture and, indeed, to tradition where tradition is necessary and still relevant. However, the call to unity in a diverse and often divided world is a call to embrace the freedom of the cross.

There are presentations of spirituality and indeed Christianity that sanitises the larger story into one of two ‘heresies’:

• The road to heaven is all blood, sweat and tears – the more suffering the better this side of death (the resurrection barely gets a mention if at all).
• The road to heaven is all sweetness and light where souls peacefully and gracefully move along to the final destination with the minimum of discomfort and challenge.

In a way both ‘heresies’ are two sides of the same coin. They effectively deny the death-resurrection of Jesus as something life-changing and world-changing both then and now. There is a failure to see the larger picture and draw the necessary conclusions. To carry our cross, daily, is to really share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what 21^st century Christian discipleship calls for – nothing more or nothing less.

Self-denial in the taking up of our crosses is not about running from the world or our responsibility for change. Neither is it a denial of our very own humanity with all its complexity, fragility and need. It is about being open to our real selves re-discovered in a new relationship.  Such is the price of freedom and in denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus wherever he leads us is the royal road to true human freedom and fulfilment.

This passage of the gospel is well reflected in the words of a great Christian mystic, theologian and martyr of the last century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), shortly before his execution by the Nazi regime in 1945:

Stations on the Road to Freedom

Discipline  

If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses,
for fear that your passions and longings may lead you away from the path you should follow.
Chaste be your mind and your body, and both in subjection, obediently, steadfastly seeking the aim set before them;
only through discipline may a man learn to be free.

Action  

Daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you,
valiantly grasping occasions, not cravenly doubting –
freedom comes only through deeds, not through thoughts taking wing.
Faint not nor fear, but go out to the storm and the action,
trusting in God whose commandment you faithfully follow;
freedom, exultant, will welcome your spirit with joy.

Suffering 

A change has come indeed.
Your hands, so strong and active, are bound; in helplessness now you see your action is ended;
you sigh in relief, your cause committing to stronger hands; so now you may rest contented.
Only for one blissful moment could you draw near to touch freedom;
then, that it might be perfected in glory, you gave it to God.

Death 

Come now, thou greatest of feasts on the journey to freedom eternal;
death, cast aside all the burdensome chains, and demolish the walls of our temporal body, the walls of our souls that are blinded,
so that at last we may see that which here remains hidden.
Freedom, how long we have sought thee in discipline, action, and suffering;
dying, we now may behold thee revealed in the Lord.