Cross-filled living?

The other night, I rented a video. I don’t remember the name of the movie, but one scene in particular struck me. The main character, who was having Job-like experiences, losing everyone and everything in his life, ended up in church.

The preacher was dynamic and the crowd loved every word. The problem was that he was preaching a message of prosperity. He was telling the folks they had nothing to worry about because God was about to intervene in their lives and make them prosper. The audience was made up of poor folks who struggled for their daily bread. They loved the message. The promise was exactly what they were hoping for on a daily basis.

Now go back with me a couple of years to when our parish bible study covered the Gospel of Mark. We took most of a calendar year to slowly and painstakingly work our way through the Gospel. Of all the things that we covered in the Gospel and learned about Mark himself, one thing still keeps rolling around in my mind. Fr. O’Bryan, ST, the author of the bible study, says that in Mark “it is his life on earth and in particular the ending of his life on a cross that reveals all.” Father O’Bryan points that out after the Gospel ends abruptly with a long, passionate narrative.

He writes, “Mark leaves his readers with the taste of the cross in their mouths.” The essence of Mark’s Gospel can be summed up in the Pauline text, “I preach Christ and Him crucified.” (I Cor. 2:2) Mark wanted his audience, mainly Gentile converts facing unpopularity and persecution from the state, to understand that they could expect the same life as Jesus, their Master and Lord. Disciples will be treated no differently than their Lord. If they persevere in His sufferings, they one day will share in His glory.

Now back to the video. How do we reconcile the two messages, the promise of prosperity and the cross of Christ? The other day, as I was doing my morning walk and praying, my mind went to the tensions that have been created because of the soup kitchen and hiring area at St. Peter’s, in addition to several other tension points at the parish. I caught myself saying to the Lord, “Hey, Lord, it’s summer and I deserve a rest. How about giving me a break?” As the words formed in my mind, I realized how self-centered they were. I was telling the Lord that I didn’t want the cross in my life right now. I wanted prosperity. I wanted the good times to roll, and I was wrong.

For disciples, the “Cross of Christ” proclaims that we endure rejection, persecution, hardship and difficulty for His sake and the sake of the Gospel. For Paul, it meant beatings, shipwreck, imprisonment, hunger, cold, stoning and, ultimately, death! For Peter, it meant imprisonment, rejection and, ultimately, death!

As followers of Jesus, we can be sure of one thing: if we follow Jesus faithfully, there will be crosses. The crosses are inevitable; prosperity is not. If we are prosperous, great! If we are without a cross, shame on us! A disciple’s life is a cross-filled life. No way around it; the way of the Master is the way of His servants.

As we pray in the coming weeks, let us ask the Lord to help us be open to the cross and its power in our lives – its power to move us beyond our agenda and our ego to the Lord’s will. Let us pray in earnest, not for the “good times” but for the cross-filled life! No cross, no crown.