I ran across a post on Facebook today that mentioned people carrying crosses down the road and concluded with a reflection on how different the world would be if we lived each day with awareness of what it was like for Jesus to carry the cross. This reflection made me think about what it in fact would have been like.
Jesus’ journey with the cross was an act of public humiliation in front of those he loved and those who respected him–in fact, in front of anyone who might be thinking of following him. Crucifixion was used by the Romans to keep peace by silencing dissidents. Jesus’ appearance on a cross made him an enemy of the Roman state.
It was not the Roman state who put him there. It was his own people who accused him. This is something we must understand when we think of what it means to live like Jesus. It is not something we talk about. We are too busy thinking about being in conflict with the government. Perhaps that is easier for us than thinking about what it would mean for our own fellow church members to be in so much conflict with each other that they might accuse us before the state.
That is what it would feel like to carry a cross like Jesus. In modern terms, we would be paraded into a courtroom with TV cameras on, and all of our church friends would be watching. Perhaps they wouldn’t mean to watch… But it’s hard to keep the attention off something negative when it keeps getting shared on Facebook. Eventually most would turn that TV on or load up the video feed online.
When our Sunday school class members were called up as witnesses, they would say, “I don’t go to that church.” And can you imagine the comments on the web page? We are a pretty brutal society when it comes to accused persons.
That is what it means to share in the suffering of Christ.
Are we ready for this? Or do we think that our churchianity somehow immunizes us from it? If being fellow church members, “family,” somehow makes us immune from what I have described above, then we have been hearing something other than what Jesus described to his own followers when he sat with them at the dinner table. If that is the case, then something very important has been lost in translation.
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