31 August 2014 - dupe-lication

Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised. 

This isn't supposed to be part of the bargain, the disciples surely think when they hear this.  Healings, teachings, glory, the voice of the Father?  Sure.  Maybe even the restoration of the earthly kingdom of Israel?  Here's hoping.  But this?  Suffering?  Where did this come from?

Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” 

Peter no doubt sympathizes with Jeremiah when he says

You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.

We all need to surrender our human ways of looking at God's plan.  We need to hear Jesus say "Get behind me Satan!" to all inside of us that would choose the easy over the true and the right.

Jesus calls us to follow him, even to the cross. We often try to put ourselves first, to save our own life, to shut up the message of the cross inside of ourselves.  But when we do that, it "becomes like fire burning" in our hearts. Holding it in tires us out.  If we try to save this life we end up losing it, and trying to hold onto the whole world gradually wears us down before it forfeits our who lives.

It is out of love that Jesus invites us to follow him to his cross.  It is out of love that we are invited to share in the great responsibility of redemption.  He gives us talents toward this end. At first we prefer to bury them because that seems easier. But eventually we realize, hopefully, that the gift of sharing in the cross is a gift of mercy.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.

He allows us to offer our lives for something meaningful, something pleasing to God: true worship. All that we are takes on meaning. Everything we experience is taken up in the love of Jesus in which we now participate. He allows suffering because of the greater good he alone can bring from it. The shock when we first hear it is because we can't imagine how anything good can come from it. That is why we try to talk him out of it.  But it is not just a lesser good he brings from it.  It is not just a consolation prize for suffering.  It is so great a good that he brings from suffering that it dwarfs the evil of suffering itself. Part of that mystery is how it becomes for us an invitation to love and to live no longer for ourselves but for God and for others. This is what it means to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We all bring our piece. Note that "living sacrifice" is singular. We don't have to be so great as to bring a whole sacrificial lamb ourselves. We can go in on one offering with our brothers and sisters.

That is, we can do all that if the world doesn't talk us out of it. The world really wants Jeremiah to shut up.  It really doesn't want to hear about the cross of Jesus.  Distracting itself from suffering as best it can is "good enough" for the world and it sees no reason to hope for more. As we see how the world around us handles suffering, even though we know better, we often feel like we have been duped by God, as though there is an easier way that he tricks us into ignoring.

Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.

But the way of the world is headed toward a dead end. It is gradually being worn out as it runs headlong toward forfeiting its life.  We are called to something more.

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.”

He will repay us with the banquet of life eternal.  So let us praise him.

Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.