Glenn Tinder, Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, has written a book titled, The Political Meaning of Christianity. While the author acknowledges that what he offers is an interpretation, he also believes that he represents a view that could be common to many Christians. He unabashedly confesses that he is beholden to a unique point of view. What he sees as different is that his stance is less optimistic than some Christian perspectives. This is not to say that the Christian operates without hope. However, the hope must be placed in God and not in people.

Pointedly, Tinder says that Christianity is consistently skeptical about political ideals and plans, because of what people are. Christianity must employ language and ideas that are not attractive to the world either. That could not be more explicit than it is stated by our Lord in the Holy Gospel for today. In this reading we hear Jesus predict his own passion. Peter tries to reject that notion. Jesus then not only rebukes him for that, but goes on to say that all his followers should be willing to take up their crosses. The language does not appear to be attractive when Jesus talks about self-denial, losing one's life, and being able to turn one's back on an "adulterous and sinful generation." If this is the nitty-gritty of our faith, where are we going to find people to make that kind of commitment? Jesus would reply that we had better do so, if we do not want to lose everything.

The Hard Facts

The reason that the disciples had a difficult time accepting the prediction of our Lord's passion is that they were basically selfish. That is the universal problem in the world. It should not be difficult in our day and age to point that out. Wars are waged in the world as the result of basic selfishness. The world economy is in tough straits because of human selfishness. The budget problems of our own nation are enormous in a land of unparalleled resources, because greed dictated policies and practices that are now a threat to our comfortable manner of living.

All nations are living in a profound state of confusion today. Economies everywhere are threatened, and everyone knows that the difficulties are linked to governing and political philosophies and practices. The evidence of human selfishness comes in massive doses. Tinder suggests that what the Holy Gospel for today suggests is something that all people have to take seriously. Whether they are Christian or not, or do not even want to consider becoming Christian, they should listen to what Christianity has to say. If we are to learn from political scientists and behaviorists, then certainly they should be open-minded to hear what Christianity has to say about human selfishness.

Deny Yourself

When you peel apart the saying of Jesus in the Holy Gospel for today you realize how devastating Jesus is in his evaluation of what we are and what humanity is. Jesus refused to be tempted by Peter to avoid the path to the cross. As Jesus had refused the temptations of Satan in the wilderness, he now dubs the protest of Peter as equally satanic, and tells him, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God but of men." Jesus does not hesitate to use the occasion to teach others. He gathers the people around him along with his disciples and says, "If any would come after me, let them deny themselves." Things are so bad that Jesus finds it necessary to tell us that we must cancel out ourselves. That is not difficult to substantiate. History is not kind to the human enterprise.

When we get down to analyzing it all, with all of the best in human achievement, we realize that in the final analysis we cannot rely on humanity. The most idealistic revolutions carry in them the seeds of destruction. The finest of technological discovery and invention can be used against us. It is for this reason that Jesus calls us to deny ourselves lest we be caught up in our own weaknesses. It is a natural trait for us to try to overcome our own weaknesses, justify our own failures, and rationalize our behavior. Jesus calls us from all of that. That is what it means to deny ourselves. It is the call to give up on trying to make something of ourselves on our own. It is not that Jesus does not count us important or disdains us. The point is that Jesus wants to show us not only a better way, but the only way to genuinely affirm ourselves.

Take Up Your Cross

Jesus pushes the invitation to deny ourselves further. He encourages us to take up our cross and follow him. Jesus had informed the disciples what was ahead for him. He sensed that a cross awaited him. He knew that was a necessity. It was necessary, because God wanted to deal with what was creating havoc in all relationships, both human and divine. In Jesus, God came to the human situation that had been all fouled up. The humans whom God had created did not trust God and brought disaster in the form of death upon themselves, because to live outside God is to live outside the source of life.

God came on the scene to take that matter into his own hands. That meant death to God in order not only to bridge death, but to build the bridge to people. In dying upon the cross God demonstrated God's willingness to live in solidarity with the human race. Jesus took up the cross and in the resurrection made his cross a bridge to God and God's bridge to people. It is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, then, that we find that we are a part of eternity. It is in our willingness to suffer whatever cross is laid on us with faith in the God who created us that we discover life. In dying we live. In suffering we make great gain. All of that, however, is implicit in our faith in God. Suffering or dying simply for the sake of suffering or dying nets us nothing. It is by faith in this gracious God that we transcend history, the problems of humanity, our own suffering, and our own death.

What Profit?

On the surface of it, the sayings of Jesus appear harsh and impossible to follow. A common complaint against Christianity is that it is altogether too pessimistic about humanity, and all the talk about coping with suffering or being willing to suffer is just so much palaver. Jesus, however, actually puts it all into proper perspective. We are to follow Christ in the way of the cross, Jesus says, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for life?" In reality Jesus puts it right on the line. Jesus is the most pessimistic one can be about people trying to save their own situation. "What can they give in return for their life?" The answer is absolutely nothing! The case for humanity on its own is utterly hopeless.

On the other hand, Jesus also places the highest value on life. Jesus exalts life more than people can exalt it. Jesus pits the value of human beings against the wealth of the whole wide world. In the wilderness he had been tempted to use his powers to gain the whole world. However, that would have netted him nothing. All of that would have passed. The fate of humanity and of this world is to die. Jesus came to elevate humanity above the fate it deserved and earned and apparently courts and wants in its frantic efforts to save itself. But no matter how hard people try on their own they are bound to forfeit life. What Jesus announces and offers is that people do not have to suffer this fate. In him they can achieve a destiny that links them with eternity.

Guaranteed -- No Loss

It is most obvious that what Jesus says is true when he says, "Those who want to save their life will lose it." We can all see that in many ways. The person who is the most industrious about trying to amass wealth has to leave it behind. The person who lives frantically, trying to get all of the pleasures out of life, may finally discover that he dies from just plain dissipation. The person who is the most diligent about health care must also finally surrender even after the most exotic surgery and most sophisticated electronic medicine have done their parts.

However, the person who comes to understand that life is something other than all of what we can do with our physical existence discovers that in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ we become a part of eternity. We discover life when we find our lives wrapped in the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In him our lives reach beyond the limitations of space and time. We are no longer fated for death. We are destined for eternity. Thus, when we lose the old life, we are losing our dependence upon ourselves to come up with a solution to the death that dogs us. We gain the life that is hidden in Christ, the life that exalts us beyond all human expectation and places an immeasurable value upon us.

Don't Misunderstand

The great difficulty with these sayings of Jesus is that they are so apt to be misunderstood, precisely, because people think they should use them to save themselves. Some people may shrug them off because they think they are too hard. Others are apt to think that they have to work hard to do them. They turn them into a morality play. They think they should deny themselves by giving up something. Or they think they should go out of their way to suffer or that they can use their suffering as a good work. All of that puts people in the same bind. On those terms they are once again trying to save themselves. What Jesus sees is just the opposite.

To put it in the most crass way -- you know how often we have to say, "Don't just stand there. Do something!" However, in essence what Jesus says in the Gospel is, "Don't do anything. Just stand there!" That is what it means to deny ourselves rightly. The basic sin in the world is that the greatest inclination to evil is that we want to exalt ourselves rather than to let God exalt us. This is what Tinder says so well. No matter what sin you are talking about it is the effort of the individual trying to control things and people around the self. To go the way of the cross with our Lord Jesus Christ is to discover that we do not have to do that. We are able to lose our lives and gain them in this Christ, because we do not have to earn, beg, borrow, or steal our self-worth. It is the given that comes from the God who proves that he loves us so much that he was willing to go to the cross for us.

No Shame

Jesus concludes his generous offer for us to find our lives by following him to the cross with an important observation. He says, "Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." This is not sour grapes. Jesus simply states the facts that should be most plain. Most surely international events of any given year should make it perfectly plain that we live in an adulterous and sinful generation. If you do not want to admit to that, then listen to the national news on your television tonight and judge whether you live in a sinful and adulterous generation or not. If that does not do it, watch the local news.

What Jesus is saying is that anyone who is foolish enough to take one's chances with a world that is so obviously fouled up and cannot learn from its own history deserves to fall with it. Why should we be ashamed of God's own Son who comes into the world to assure us of his Father's love and then lives it out by suffering and dying for us? That just does not make sense. The one sure thing you know about the world is that this Christ who died in this world and rose again will come again in all his glory with his holy angels. If we do not want to identify with that, then we will be stuck. He and the whole host of heaven will have to count it a shame that we ignored him. Far better for us to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow him to glory. "