By the time Jesus sets his mind to go to Jerusalem, he has been in much trouble with the local religious authorities. He has stirred up enough scandals anyway. (e.g. breaking the Sabbath observance, criticizing the hypocrisy of religious authorities, performing miracles, teaching and living the kingdom of God, etc.) One doesn’t have to be gifted with psychic power to know there would be a trap set for him. It is then no surprise what kind of ending Jesus would eventually face in Jerusalem. That is, a religio-political persecution leading to death.
Most importantly, Jesus knows all these. He isn’t at all being prophetic about his death but realistic. His friends, the disciples, on the other hand, aren’t ready to hear what Jesus has to say. They cannot yet face the consequence of Jesus’ life committed to the kingdom of God that he would face suffering and they might as well face their suffering for being closely associated with him. They signed up for a better future, not for suffering. Their unreadiness seems to be highlighted when Jesus c instructs them how to be his followers, how to live out the kingdom of God in their lives: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Let’s acknowledge that his instruction on how to be his follower isn’t appealing but discouraging. Far from a “Buy 1, Get 1 FREE” sales promotion. One cannot follow him like following a GPS navigation system. There’s a prerequisite, which is to take up one’s cross. One has to take up one’s own cross to follow Jesus. What does this taking up the cross look like? In Jesus’ time, the cross has a significant meaning of public humiliation and death sentence. For us, it’s something one sees on the altar or the top of a church building or still a popular necklace pendant. It’s a decoration in our time. Yet, underneath that societal symbol, it entails a reality of suffering one undergoes. This issue of suffering is the common cross Jesus invites his friends and all of us to carry. Imagine you’re walking on the Camino de Santiago, the way of St. James in northwestern Spain. Your backpack is heavy, and your shoulders are sore. You’re tired and hungry, starting to question why you had decided to do this, uttering “It’s all because of that Paul Yoon who gave me this silly idea! I thought I was going to be better, happier, and holier!” You’ve always been a worrier. You’ve always been afraid of making mistakes, and have always tried to control everything in your life. But you’ve also been unhappy. You felt like you were always living in fear, and you never felt like you were truly free. This was your reason to walk the Camino de Santiago in search of peace and freedom (though you still want to blame Paul because you’re exhausted). Paul told you about how the Camino could help people to let go of their baggage and start over. As you walk, you begin to think about all the things you are carrying with you. You have your backpack full of clothes and supplies, but you also have a lot of emotional baggage. You’re carrying the weight of fears, regrets, and doubts. You suddenly realize that you’ve been carrying this baggage for a long time, and it is time to let go. You stop walking and sit down on a rock. You open your backpack and take out everything you’ve been carrying. You hold each item in your hand for a moment, and then you let it fall to the ground. You watch as the wind blows the items away. You feel a sense of release and unbinding. You stand up and start walking again. You’re lighter now, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Now, we don’t have to go to Spain to follow Jesus. We already have our own cross and have been carrying it all along. It’s just that we don’t want to face it and acknowledge it. The essence of the pilgrimage or the way of the cross is to comprehend your suffering, issues, problems, and emotional and spiritual baggage. Without comprehension, there’s no way out. This process of comprehending what we suffer from and how we create suffering and stress is a tough one and it may add to the suffering we’re dealing with. This is why we cannot just face our suffering without first experiencing the presence of God in our hearts. We need a refuge or a spiritual gas station for spiritual fuels to move on. Jesus has been consistent in his teaching. The kingdom of God or the presence of God within you comes first, and then he invites his friends to take up their cross and follow him. There’s a cure but for one to be persuaded that one needs it, one must first comprehend what’s gone wrong. That cure eventually sets one free of the cross. We look at two kinds of the cross in a church. One is the cross with Jesus hung on, and the other is the cross without Jesus. The former type can be a reminder for us to comprehend our own suffering, issues, problems, and stresses. The latter type is the version of us freed from the cross of suffering. That sacred glimpse of the resurrection. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
|