Troubling Questions

On this Christ the King Sunday what I have to offer is a series of, what for me are, troubling questions.  These questions are triggered by today’s gospel from Luke 23.  It is not my purpose to provide simple answers to these questions, for I do not have any simple answers.  I really believe faith should raise as many questions as provide answers because asking the right questions is critical in discerning truth.   What I share with you today reflects my own wrestling with these troubling questions, so in a sense what I am doing is publicly baring my soul and allowing you to overhear my internal musings.  

Our gospel on this Christ the King Sunday says, “When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing.”  - Luke 23:33-34

The cross of Christ is the central, core truth of our faith.  Without the cross there is no Christianity.  The cross was the price Jesus paid for his obedience to God in the middle of a rebellious and violent world.  Jesus’ suffering was suffering for having done right by love; suffering for loving where others hated; suffering for manifesting in the flesh the forgiveness and grace of God among a hateful humanity.  The cross of Christ was God's confronting evil with the ultimate good - love.

In Mark 8 we hear Jesus tell the crowd that if any would be his followers then they must take up their cross and follow (Mark 8:34).  I must ask myself, and this is my first troubling question: “If that is what it means to be a follower of Jesus, then is my cross any different from Jesus’ cross?  Is the cross that I am called to pick up the price of my obedience to live out God's love toward all others in a world ruled by hate?”  

Jesus taught his disciples, simply and clearly, to not to resist evil with retaliatory evil. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Jesus says, "Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer him the left. If someone sues you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well ... Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”  Such unflinching love for my friends and my enemies alike will for sure mean hostility and suffering for me, as it did for Jesus. 

I do not believe that Jesus was a foolish dreamer, spinning out futile hopes for a better world, thinking that if only we keep smiling everything will turn out great, with all our adversaries turning into friends and our sacrifices all repaid.  Jesus knew full well the cost of such unlimited love. He foresaw clearly the suffering it would mean.  He predicted his own suffering and he predicted suffering for his followers.  But there was simply no other way for him to take; there was no other way worthy of God. Jesus' teaching is not a collection of noble human ideals; it is Jesus living out the intention and will of God.

Of course, since the time of Jesus the world has not grown more loving. The example of Cain (Genesis 4), who exerted violence against his brother Abel, still sets the basic human pattern for dealing with conflicts, whether they be conflicts within the family, community or in the world of nations. And, among the nations it seems to matter little whether they are religious or not; the choice of weapons and the readiness to retaliate appear to be similar.  How few people there seems to be within Christianity who seek to conform to Jesus Christ and his cross as a way to address violence and evil in the world.

That takes me to my next troubling question, “Does my faith in a crucified Jesus put me out of step with a world where I am encouraged in a million little ways to love only my friends and hate my enemies?”

It seems to me that Jesus’ imperative to love my enemies has nothing to do with thinking my enemies are wonderful people or because I believe that love will surely conquer and transform them.  The call of Jesus for me to love my enemies is because that’s what God in Jesus does, and he commands his followers to do and be like him.  That is the only reason – period!  God in Jesus Christ is a reconciling and forgiving God and is willing to allow his only Son to go to the cross to fulfill that purpose,  If God is willing to direct his Son to make such a sacrifice then he is surely willing to direct me to do likewise.    

I believe one of the most difficult things to understand in the history of Christianity is the haste with which many believers have identified their selfish interests of  class, race, community or nation with the cause of Christ and hence have justified the oppression and even destruction of others in the process – others for whom Christ also died.

That takes me to my next troubling question, “Can I really consider any human being created in God's image and for whom Christ died, in the final analysis, to be my enemy whose life I am willing to threaten or even take?”   In the name of Jesus Christ I find it difficult to declare anyone an enemy because Jesus treated no one as his enemy; he died for every human being that has and will ever live.  The only way I can declare another person an adversary or enemy is when I become more devoted to something else other than Jesus Christ—to my own personal welfare, to the defense of certain privileges or power, to a political theory, to a nation, to whatever.  And there are so many things that wish to undermine my commitment to God's loving invasion of this world in Jesus Christ.

In any kind of conflict, from a war of words, to a playground scuffle, to a fist fight, to a labor dispute, to a family quarrel, to the threat of a nation the Christian is called to see the world and its conflicts from the viewpoint of the cross, as Paul said in Romans, "Even while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of God's Son" (Romans 5:10).

These are such troublesome questions for me, troublesome precisely for the reason that I know that the way in which I live my life provides a pathetic and shallow answer to them.  When I look at Jesus’ life and death for the sake of God’s love, I see what a coward I really am when it comes to loving others the way Jesus did.  I see how shallow and narrow and small I can be.  I confess that all too often I conveniently use my faith to prop up my personal agenda of power, self-indulgence, condescension, prejudice and fear.

However, I believe it is good thing that I am troubled by these questions and so many more similar to them.  I pray that it means that God is not done with me; and that God is still working on me to see the world and others through the eyes of Jesus and not merely my own limited, sinful, myopic eyes.  

I know one thing for sure, that instead of exacting revenge for the injustice done against his very own Son, through that same crucified Son God forgives our hideous offenses and reconciles a rebellious us and hateful world to himself.  Our sins have been taken care of on his cross; salvation is secure; by grace through faith you have been saved. 

But God’s love didn’t end at that cross.  It began there and continues on as I (and I pray you) follow the crucified King, take up his cross and make his cross my own, above everything else, for his sake and the sake of his kingdom; knowing full well there will be times I will chicken out, surrender to my own interests and indulgences, fall short, fail to love as he loved, become wounded, hurt and confused by a sometimes brutal world.   But take it up I will; every day anew; every day forgiven by it; every day empowered by it; every day finding my ultimate purpose by carrying it. It is a burden worth bearing, for it is the will of God.