A JOURNEY TO STRUGGLE
Matthew 20:17-19

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
February 9, 2005 / Ash Wednesday

I am not so sure Jesus would have done very well at a church growth conference. So many such conferences whose brochures I have seen talk about wonderful positive things your church can provide to make people feel happier and more at ease than in other churches. Add to this all the positive thinkers out there who believe that as soon as you believe in Jesus you are on the road to material success - and we have a big crowd of people ready to say church is the way to success, happiness, and a life of ease.

Now I have nothing against success and happiness. They are good things to have and I wish them to you.

But I am not so sure that they are what Jesus promised.

Consider today's text.

These disciples of Jesus are this group to whom Jesus said, "follow me." We are told they left their boats and seemingly all their business, and collateral, and investment, and took up to follow him. And he told them he would make them fishers for people. It all seemed so valiant, so important, so hopeful.

Then Jesus pulls them aside and says, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised."

Does that sound like what they signed on for under "follow me?" Condemned to death, mocked, flogged, crucified? Were they ready to follow Jesus there? Had they before this day known that this is where they were going? Would they have signed on if they had known the destination? And how about us? We too say we have taken to following Jesus. But how about you? Are you signed up for all this condemnation to death, mocking, flogging and crucifixion stuff? How far does Jesus actually expect us to follow?

Now, of course, this remark of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem (our text) has this nice little ending "on the third day he will be raised." And we, who live in a post-resurrection era, are quite sure we know what that means, and are happy to sign on for that part of the journey. Raised to heaven? We'd like that. But the Easter narratives tell us that even though Jesus had said something about the third day rising before he died, the disciples did not understand it, had forgotten it, or worse. So while dutifully Matthew puts this last line in the text, ("on the third day he will be raised") remember it was not heard or not understood. All they heard was the condemnation, mocking, flogging, crucifixion and death stuff.

Do you want to follow Jesus?

And that is always a good question to ask at the start of Lent: do you want to follow Jesus? It might not be all that they told you when you first joined the church.

Now be careful to what Jesus says. The disciples are going to Jerusalem. That's where the chief priests and scribes hang out, that's where all this bad stuff will happen. So this is a journey to struggle and difficulty. But along the way it may be a very happy, even euphoric trip. They are going to struggle and difficulty, but they may not meet it along the way. Struggle and difficulty are not necessarily fellow travelers on the trip, nor are they necessarily waiting around the bend ready to wrench the joy out of every single day. This is not a universal declaration of trouble and difficulty all the time. Actually along this trip you may heal some sick, hear some Good News, and raise Lazarus from the dead.

It can be a great trip.

But part of the journey we take on when we follow Jesus will - sooner or later - arrive at the land of struggle and difficulty. It is certain. It is absolute. It is part of the package. Do you want to follow Jesus?

Actually, though, it seems to me that struggle and difficulty are endemic to human life. You may choose not to follow Jesus. That will not save you from struggle and difficulty. You may well meet them anyway. And if we are going to meet struggle and difficulty, I'd rather meet them with Jesus than without Jesus.

But let us not make Lent too easy.

The theologian Jurgen Moltmann looks ahead in the Lenten journey towards the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus will be arrested and all this handing over to death begins. There Jesus, the Gospels tell us, "began to be sorrowful and afraid." He prays "If it be possible remove this cup from me." Even Jesus would prefer some other journey than this journey to struggle. But Moltmann reminds us that "Christ's request was not granted." ¹ (Italics in original.) Somewhere in the inaccessible mind of God desire is rejected by necessity. It is possible that something urgently desired in the mind of God will not be granted. And the Lenten journey asks us if we are willing to travel to that place?

Luther's Bible heads the chapter about Gethsemane "The Struggle in Gethsemane." Moltmann asks "The struggle with whom? Christ's struggle with himself? His struggle with death? I think," says Moltmann, "it is more than that. It is Christ's struggle with God. This was his real agony. He overcame it through his self-surrender. That was his victory, and our hope." ²

The place that the Lenten journey may take us is not only to struggles of mocking, flogging, crucifixion, condemnation, and death, as austere and painful as they may seem. The true and final place of struggle is our struggle with God, or as some commentators might say, the struggle within God's very being: the struggle of love and order, of created and creator, of passion and sense.

When Jesus says to you, "Follow me," I want to encourage you to follow. It can be the most sublime journey ever. Walk this journey and you will see sinners redeemed, demons cast out, frightened lonely people warmly accepted, and you will hear the greatest stories ever told. Don't miss the opportunity to follow when Jesus offers the invitation. It can be incredible sparkling joy!

But the journey must lead to struggle, and it must lead to struggle with God. If you have walked along this disciple journey and remain in some light-hearted bliss, you are either a child-like angel, or someone not attentive to your surroundings and blind to human experience.

Jesus' request was not granted. And on what feeble platform do we claim that ours will? For all the joy, this is a struggle journey. We will anguish over tsunamis and wars and the oppression of the poor, and if we don't anguish we are surely far from the mind of Christ.

How will we do it? The only way I know how is because I believe that last little line, the one the first disciples forgot. And I remember not because I am any better, but merely because I have it in black and white printed before I was ever born. You know that last line, "on the third day he will be raised."

When Jesus said it they forgot it. They said they hadn't understood it. It may have actually been that they simply didn't believe it. And a goodly number of us standing on the Lenten threshold and some what realistic about life are not sure we believe it either, "on the third day he will be raised."

But that little line is our hope to keep up the journey, our star light on the other side of the struggle, our affirmation that even after our deepest wishes have not been granted that there is still hope.

So I invite you on this journey to struggle. Your wishes may not be granted. You may even fail.

But I still invite you. Come along!

Amen.
1 - Moltmann, Jurgen, "Prisoner of Hope", Bread and Wine, (Plough Publishing Co., Farmington, PA, 2003, pp. 146-152), p. 147.
2 - Ibid., p.148.