The Way of the Cross
One of the meanings of holy is “set apart.” Let us set apart an entire week – Holy Week – to recall the events surrounding the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Let us also set ourselves apart for this week as well.
During the very week of our Lord’s Passion, James and John made a special request of Jesus:
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
“We can,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” (Mark 10″35-40)
What strange baptism is Jesus discussing in His response to James and John? He is speaking about the “way of the cross.”
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. (Luke 12:49-51)
During this Holy Week, let us reflect upon what this baptism means for us. The Apostle Paul wrote:
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6:4-7)
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
We look forward to the resurrection and the celebration of Easter. But have we died with Him? Are we a living sacrifice unto the LORD? Have we entered the way of the cross? If we have not, we do not fully understand the meaning of our baptism. We must die and our life must be hidden in Him. Otherwise, we may ask the same inappropriate question of James and John. Many in the church still do, even to this day. We will soon be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, but there would have been no resurrection without the crucifixion.
Let us declare as did the Apostle Paul:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19-20)
Preaching the Lectionary 