Jesus gives us a daunting challenge: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Denying ourselves and taking up a cross sounds pretty tough. Coupled with Jeremiah’s lament “All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me” this really doesn’t sound like something we want to take on.
There is no doubt that the prophets had a rough time. It’s a common theme in scripture that they didn’t volunteer – the requirement to prophesy came from some deep urgency that couldn’t be escaped. Elijah ran away because of death threats to the mountain of Horeb and the Lord made him turn back: ‘A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah? He replied, “I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant. They have destroyed your altars and murdered your prophets by the sword. I alone remain, and they seek to take my life.” The Lord said to him: Go back!’
Jonah attempts to run off in the opposite direction from where he has been told to go, only to get thrown in the sea, swallowed by a whale and spat out – and still had to go where he was told.
Jeremiah gives us a less symbolic account that we can maybe relate to a bit more: “You duped (or deceived, or seduced) me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped”. He felt God was offering him something he wanted, and he allowed himself to be taken in, even though he knew in his heart what he was really getting into. And now the full extent of his mistake is apparent, he can’t escape: “I say I will not mention him, I will no longer speak in his name. But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding back, I cannot!”
This burning imperative to speak out is not only found in the Hebrew prophets. We see it everywhere in those that are compelled, often despite themselves, to speak out against injustice in many forms. We may well be grateful we are not called to be prophets (although we are called to acknowledge and heed them).
But if we are not called to suffer as Jeremiah did, what is Jesus expecting of us when he demands self-denial and carrying a cross. Coming right after his own prophecy of his suffering and death it may seem that he is asking us to go through the same. But I think that would be a mistake. He doesn’t ask us to take up his cross, and he didn’t ask even his disciples to die with him – in fact he accepted it when they ran away. He does ask us to take up our own crosses – and we do all have crosses. He isn’t magic’ing those away. In fact he tells us we shouldn’t attempt to escape them. Denying ourselves is not pointless doing without, but rather putting others ahead of ourselves, and particularly God – not being ego-centric is good advice that any psychologist would give to someone looking for a healthier lifestyle.
But in all this we risk ignoring or overlooking what is perhaps the most important part of Jesus’ message – accepting the situation in which we find ourselves is the precursor to following him. Just as he went through suffering and death and came out the other side, so we can follow him and come out the other side also. We need to accept and follow, otherwise we are stuck in a place we don’t want to be. Maybe we even get everything we want in the world – but we are left with a meaningless and pointless life.
So however God tries to get us to follow, whether by fooling us like Jeremiah, slapping us around the head like Jonah, or whispering in the silence of our hearts like Elijah, it is worth doing what he says. In fact it’s the only thing worth doing, if we want to have a life worth living.