READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 32:22-32
1 Thessalonians 4:1-7
St. Matthew 15:21-28
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Who speaks to us today, saying,
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”
In all three Lectionary readings today, we hear of the cross placed upon our backs and not even the atheists get to throw theirs down. For Jacob must wring a blessing out of God, St. Paul sets a high bar for purity of life, and the Canaanite woman has a really bad day. For the cross that Jesus tells us to pick up, in Matthew 16:24, is many things to the sinner and the Canaanite woman reveals this to us today.
The cross given to everyone is injury, humiliation, and suffering. It is atonement, glory, and salvation. But the primary example the cross gives us is the first one overlooked. That is that the cross is how God tells us Who He is and how He acts towards His creation.
In the creation of all things, the Ten Commandments, and other godly acts, we get to know the one, true God as He desires to be known. Dr. Luther says, “It does [a person] no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross.” (LW 31:52-53).
You can not be a true theologian if you do not comprehend what you see happening around you as acts of God through suffering and the cross. What this means is that if you are looking at the outside world for signs of God’s grace and blessing, you will end up in the wrong place. You will end up at Wall Street or DC, where the rich get richer. You will end up in tyrant’s and dictator’s houses. You will end up in places that seem to have all they could ever wish for or pray for.
You will climb the mountain of God, reach the heights, and when you peep in to catch God, you will find the devil laughing at you. Earthly greatness and blessings are not signs of God’s favor and grace. Though they can be, there is only the certain word from Jesus that His kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36).
As is the case of the Canaanite woman today, for though she is commended in the end, for her faith, she is seen carrying her cross. The cross of having to leave her child while she seeks help. The cross of God remaining silent through her afflictions. The cross of being rejected and the cross of humiliation.
Neither does Jacob does not get out of bearing his cross without physical injury. St. Paul, the author of our Epistle reading, likewise does not get out of bearing his cross without a thorn in his side. Is this suffering something they chose themselves to prove their loyalty to God? Did they brag about being willing to even die for God, if He would just give them a chance to prove themselves?
No. True “cross bearing” is not something we choose or even get a say in. In fact, it is usually the kind of suffering which, if it were possible, we would gladly be rid of, not accept as some kind of challenge. Competitions you can train for, study for, and prepare for. Bearing a cross you can not.
Even Jesus was made unaware of His future, in His humanity. As a man, He could not see into His future, but only knew that suffering was going to take place. So much so, that He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for it to passover Him. That God’s will of placing the cross upon His only Begotten Son would not take place.
As we know all too well, our Lord bears the cross. Not just suffering and shame, but gash and wound. Jesus does not only suffer the psychological onslaught of being kicked out of His own world through capitol punishment, but also had to endure that same onslaught in His flesh.
In the case of Jesus, for though He is commended on Easter and in the end, for His faith, He is seen carrying His cross. The cross of having to leave His heavenly home while He seeks His rebellious, possessed creation. The cross of God remaining silent through His afflictions. The cross of being rejected and the cross of humiliation, in His suffering and death.
All this He must bear, because He has our sins with Him and sin cannot stand in front of God. Jesus does not get out of bearing the cross without injury. Injured to death. Where St. Paul gets away with a stitch in his side and St. Jacob gets out with a limp, Jesus does not.
Where the Canaanite woman gains relief, on account of her faith, Jesus’s cup does not pass from Him. Who God is, as seen through the cross, is the God of lovingkindness and patience the Old Testament tried to tell us about. It took the cross to prove it to us, because He can be pretty omnipotent and far off.
In the cross, God is the God Who is selfless and Who cares. He accomplishes the regeneration of the world and the sinner at the loss of His own life. For it is only in the cross of Christ that there is the power of salvation (1 Cor. 1:18). This means that is it in Jesus dying for us, not His death, not His resurrection, that saves us. It is Jesus in the process of dying that He faces His final humiliation and pays all the debt we owe in full.
This is why the Church keeps Jesus on the cross. This is why we cross ourselves when faced with our own sin, danger, and every evil. This is why the sign of the cross is the first gift the Church gives us in Baptism. For if the God-man, Jesus, carried the cross and rose victorious, so shall we men likewise win in the end.
So the cross is laid upon us as we follow our Savior in faith and belief, for four reasons, Dr. Luther says.
First, that we be conformed to the image of his dear Son, Christ, so that we may become like him here in suffering and there in that life to come in honor and glory (LW 51:206). “For those whom he foreknew”, says Romans 8, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:29-30)
And
“…be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph 5:1)
Second, so that when the devil assaults and torments us because he can’t stand the Word, “we may learn from our own experience [from God] that the small, weak, miserable Word is stronger than the devil and the gates of hell (LW 51:207).
Third, “in order that when we are not in trouble and suffering, this excellent treasure which we have may not merely make us sleepy and secure” (LW 51:207). Meaning, now that we know the crafts and assaults of the devil, we can remember Christ’s great rescue and learn to stay vigilant, as Paul says, “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).
And finally, “Christian suffering (bearing the cross) is nobler and precious above all other human suffering because, since Christ himself suffered, He also hallowed the suffering of all His Christians” (LW 51:207). In fact, “when [non-Christians] run into affliction and suffering, they have nothing to comfort them, for they do not have the mighty promises and the confidence in God which Christians have. Therefore they cannot comfort themselves with the assurance that God will help them to bear the affliction, much less can they count on it that he will turn their affliction and suffering to good” (LW 51:201).
This is why there is no hope in an empty cross, because if the cross is empty then there is no promise of help. It is the crucifix that reminds us that Jesus was there and that He is here today, in His Body and Blood, bearing our cross with us and that He will finally remove it forever, just as His was removed.
It is not the cross, but the Body of Christ on the cross as our brother Who is like us in every way except without sin, and our God Who is strong enough to defeat sin, death, and the devil for us, even in death, that gives us hope and comfort. Sharing all the weaknesses and ailments of our body, Jesus shows us what God really thinks about His creation.
That is that He is going to make it worthy of His salvation at no expense to us, but at great expense to Himself. That He is a self-giving and self-donating God, Who does not wait for us to be perfect or worthy to be next to Him, but instead gives us His perfection and worthiness, in Christ. For it is in Christ that God and man are joined together for all eternity and not even death on a cross can tear that asunder.
Such is the revelation of the cross of Christ and bearing it as Christians.
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