Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests
and the scribes,
and they will condemn him to death,
and hand him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked and scourged and crucified,
and he will be raised on the third day.
We are following Jesus on this journey to Jerusalem. He calls each of us to take up our own cross and come after him. Sacrifice is part of this journey. Even suffering is a part of this journey. We try to give ourselves the consolation prize of religious pride to lessen our experience of sacrifice and dampen any suffering we feel. We becoming increasingly concerned with who is doing things rightly, who isn't, and charting out everyone in between.
When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at the two brothers.
We can tell this is happening because of how well it deadens our empathy for others. Jesus tells his disciples that he himself is going to suffer and die for them but immediately the subject is changed. They don't want to think about him suffering and dying. They only want to think about glory. If they can't think about his glory then, well, they'll think of their own. But the truth is that there is no glory apart from the cross.
Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?"
We only enter the kingdom of Jesus and find our place in it by first passing through the cross, through pain and death, before finally coming to the resurrection. We must first be the servants of all if we truly wish to reign with Christ.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Let's not close our eyes to suffering this Lent. Even if there is nothing to be done about it at a human level we can bring it to Jesus and offer it to him. We can rely on him instead of on ourselves to change suffering into glory and pain into life.
When we don't ignore suffering we become more free to love as Jesus loves. We become able to love even our adversaries who try to dig a pit for our life. We no longer simply place them in our hierarchy of religious performance. We speak on their behalf before the LORD, to turn his wrath from them. And in showing mercy at last we find it for ourselves as well.
But my trust is in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.
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