"Nearer, my God, to thee,
nearer to thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me."
Those lines give me chills almost every time I hear them. They stop me cold in my tracks and force me to really look with open eyes at passages like Mark 8:31-38.
Just a few verses prior, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And after hearing their lists, he asks them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, the ever outspoken one, pipes up and confesses Jesus as the Messiah.
I wonder if, perhaps, when Peter made this confession, he had a very particular view in mind of what “Messiah” meant. A view, perhaps, of majesty, and glory, and power. Good and true things about the Christ. And yet, it is still a narrow view.
I believe Jesus asks us as well, “Who do you say that I am?” And I wonder if, perhaps, we like Peter also narrow our view of who Jesus is. It’s easy to do, after all. We can so easily look for what we want to see and put blinders on our eyes to the rest.
But note that where the Gospel passage goes on is that Jesus brings the truth of his Messianic identity back into focus, not only for Peter and the disciples, but for us as well. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Yes! I am! I am the Messiah. I am the Human One. I am all that you mean when you say that. I am the majesty and the glory and the power. But I am also more.”
Jesus openly defies being made into a one-dimensional Messiah. Yes, Jesus is one who is glorified on a mountaintop and transfigured before his disciples’ eyes. But he is also one denied and abandoned by those same disciples. Yes, Jesus is one who rides triumphantly on a donkey into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!” But he is also one spat upon amid shouts of “Crucify!” Yes, Jesus is one full of love and acceptance. But he is also one full of righteous fury at money changers in the Temple. And yes, Jesus is one with power. But he is also one who is a victim of political injustices and religious abuses.
Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” He wants to know the views we have. Jesus hears out who we have come to believe that he is. And yet he calls us, just like he called Peter, to expand that view. Because Jesus isn’t just in our Love. Jesus is also in our Pain. Jesus isn’t just in our Healing. For Jesus himself wears scars. Jesus isn’t just in our Peace. Jesus enters into even our Chaos. And Jesus isn’t just a bearer of Joy and Gladness. He’s also a Cross-Bearer.
Jesus continues expanding our views. He goes on to ask more of us as followers and he describes a view of what it means to follow in his footsteps. He doesn’t just ask “Who do you say that I am?” As the story in Mark continues, it is as if he also asks us, “Who are you in me?”
If we want to be disciples of this Cross-Bearing Christ, we too are called to take up and bear crosses. I’m growing to believe that this means different things for different people, but one thing is consistent for all of us. And that is that we cannot see ourselves as one-dimensional followers.
We've all heard the Prosperity Gospel mentality that through Jesus we will be happy, healthy, and wealthy. We see Christ easily in our graces and blessings, but are we willing to look for Jesus when all is going wrong? Just as Jesus is not a one-dimensional Messiah, we are not one-dimensional disciples. If Jesus is capable of the fullness of emotion, the full spectrum of joy and sadness and anger, then we will find Christ in our own exploration of full emotion. If Jesus is every bit as present in heartache as he is in unbridled joy, then we can be present there too. If Jesus wept, so can we.
I am coming to believe that these questions “Who do you say I am” and “Who are you in me” are questions meant to be asked often. Our answers will constantly be growing and evolving. Our views will shift and expand to encapsulate more and more of who Christ is and who we are as Little-Cross-Bearers.
Perhaps the point of all this is the call to identify closely with Jesus. The call is to be nearer to God, even though it be a cross that raises us. We can take comfort that Jesus is there too... Even on a cross. Even in the depths of pain and despair and suffering, Jesus is there. And if Jesus is there, we are called to be there too. We are called to take up crosses too. And in our cross bearing, we begin to look a little more like the Image of the Divine that we were born to bear as well. In bearing our crosses, we stoop down and plunge out hands into the dust and dirt of this world. Perhaps we’ll find that in the dust of the world, new things are being made. Perhaps we’ll find that even in the dust of our own lives, new things are being made…
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