Year A
Season after Pentecost
Proper 17 (22)
Contextual Background:
After Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah, Jesus predicts his suffering and death. Peter resists; Jesus rebukes him. He then calls the disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow.
The cross was a tool and symbol of state sponsored terror. It evoked the fear of vulnerability and mortality that is, along with our power and life, an central part of being human. You can read more about the cross in my book, Go and Do Likewise.
Within the Jewish Tradition:
Suffering servant imagery (Isaiah 53) portrayed God’s chosen one as rejected yet redemptive. Crucifixion was Rome’s tool of terror, inflicted on thousands yearly.
The Challenge Then:
The challenge was to accept that discipleship meant embracing vulnerability and practicing nonviolent resistance, even in the face of empire’s terror. Jesus’ went to experience the cross and empty it of some of its power so that his people could live covenant faithfulness.
The Challenge Now:
We are tempted to avoid the cross — to seek a faith of comfort and success. Jesus calls us instead to baptismal awareness: embracing our humanity, mortality, and responsible power in service of God’s healing mission.
In this practice of practice of baptismal awareness, God offers a bit of freedom to lead in the public square with love and fierceness and humility.
Implications for Leaders & Communities:
- Leaders: teach the cross as God’s confrontation with domination, not divine cruelty.
- Communities: practice courageous, nonviolent witness that seeks justice and even transformation for oppressors.
What I Am Learning:
The cross is not about suffering for suffering’s sake but about faithful love that confronts domination with God’s life-giving power.
The Question I’m Sitting With:
Where am I being invited to take up the cross — embracing vulnerability and courage for the sake of God’s healing work?
