The price of freedom

 ‘…Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16:24)

Matthew 16:21-27 (Year A: Trinity+11)

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, 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.

Directly after the exchange between Peter and Jesus there is a tussle between the same Peter and Jesus about the way of the cross. – ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’’

Oh yes it will.

And if it is so for our Lord so it is for us too here and now in this life and in this world in spite of all our insurance policies, comforts and status.

A great Christian mystic, theologian and martyr of the 20th Century was by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) who wrote the following beautiful poem a few months 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.

**

Self-denial 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.