The Power to Lay It Down

The Power to Lay It Down--March 27, 2018

[Jesus said:] "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay my life down in order to take it back up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have power to take it up again. I have receive this command from my Father." [John 10:17-18]

Everybody knows the cliché about the half glass of water, right?  The optimist sees the glass and calls it half-full, and the pessimist sees the same glass and calls it half-empty, right?  It's an old saw, but you get the point: the same object or event can be seen in two very different ways depending on one's perspective in looking at it. 

And while we are dusting off old illustrations, I'll bet you remember this one from your childhood book of brain-teasers:

That's the old "do-you-see-a-vase-or-two-faces?" optical illusion, and of course, it's the same as the glass of water: the same image, the same phenomenon in the world, can be "read" in different ways, depending on one's focus.  Does your mind center on the black shape?  Well, then it's going to look like a vase for sure.  Do you see the silhouettes in the negative space (the white space)?  Then you're looking at faces.   But either way, your brain is already doing some interpreting of the data in front of it.

Now in a lot of cases, it doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things which you pick to focus on.  Faces, vase, who cares?  For that matter, whether you call the glass half-full or half-empty is far less critical information than whether the glass contains water or arsenic.

But there are times when there is a right perspective, even if there are many competing theories out there for what is going on.  In the old poem, it may well be true that you can make the case for the elephant's trunk being like a spear, and the elephant's leg being like a tree trunk, or the elephant's tail being like a rope.... but you can't call it an apple pie or the Brooklyn Bridge.  

For the followers of Jesus, the cross is one of those events that calls for a truthful reading, even though there are many ways I suppose you could interpret it.  And we should be honest, too, that for two millennia now, Christians have been insisting on an interpretation of the cross that doesn't look like "common sense" to the rest of the world.  Christians have claimed now, lo these twenty centuries, that at the cross, Jesus willingly surrendered his own life, his own dignity, his own rights, and his own power, as his choice... and that this same Jesus has (and used!) the power to take his life back from the powers of death when he so chose.

The world looks at the execution of a criminal for being an enemy of the state and says, "This looks like... well, the execution of a criminal for being an enemy of the state."  The world further looks at the cross and says, "Poor fella--he was a helpless victim who got crushed beneath the wheels of the empire by making the wrong kind of enemies.  He never had a chance.  Rome had it in for him, and it sounds like the well-connected religious leaders had it in for him, too.  Poor schmuck."  The world looks at Jesus and says, "Whether he was innocent or guilty I can't say, but he clearly lost in his fight against the powers."  The world looks at the cross and says, "No offense, but he kinda had it coming.  This lunatic preacher actually told people to love their enemies, AND not to return evil for evil, AND to let the government force you to walk a mile carrying a soldier's gear--in fact, this crazy guy taught people to willingly give up fighting against that and instead to offer to carry all that stuff a second mile!  No wonder such a loser ends up getting killed--he gave up his rights and means of fightin' those bad guys off!"  

To the logic of the world, Jesus is a fool who got what he deserved because he wouldn't clench his fists and clutch onto what was his: his life, his rights, and his sword--and so it's no wonder that a bigger, more powerful threat came and took it from him.  He got what was comin' to him... right?

That's how the world has looked at the cross of Jesus for two thousand years.

And Jesus has spent the same last two thousand years trying to teach us to see the picture differently... his way.

As John's Gospel gives us Jesus' words, that way is diametrically opposed to the way "conventional wisdom" reads the cross of Christ.  "I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord," he says.  Notice that--it is powerful... and radical.  Jesus refuses to be regarded as a helpless victim.  Jesus does not allow us to see him as an unwitting country rube who didn't know he was making enemies.  Jesus doesn't even allow the interpretation that he was merely a social revolutionary or first-century militia leader (they called those "Zealots" back then) whose revolt went off too early and was crushed before it could build up steam.  Jesus doesn't give us the option of seeing the cross as anybody taking his life... or his rights... or his dignity... or his power... away from him.  Nobody intimidates Jesus.  "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," like the movie says, and certainly nobody can put Jesus on a cross he doesn't willingly go to.

And yet... (and here is the thing that, in all honestly, even bothers a lot of the church-going respectable religious folk I know) Jesus still goes to the cross.  He still gives up his life.  He still gives up everything else on the list--his right to resist the governor of Rome, his circle of friends and followers who want to start drawing their weapons in the garden against Jesus' orders, his reputation as a good, decent, law-abiding person, even the clothes off his back.  Jesus gives it all up, and as he emphasizes here in John's gospel, this is not something to pity or scorn him for.  This is precisely what he intends.  "I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again."

The "power to lay it down."  That is the thing that confounds the watching world, and for that matter even the church-going religious folks who have unwittingly swallowed the Kool-Aid the world has been peddling. The "common sense" way of looking at Jesus' crucifixion is that Jesus must not have had any power at all, since the Romans nailed him to a cross--they gloated in his torture and death! They must be the strong ones--and even if you think Jesus was a nice feller with good intentions, the world says you have to still reckon him a loser because he couldn't stop Rome from killing him.  But that is exactly the opposite of what John says here: that laying down his life is in fact the sine qua non of Jesus' power!  It is precisely because Jesus has true power that he can lay his life down and then take it back up again come Sunday--Rome doesn't really have power over him!  Jesus ain't afraid of what they can do to him!  And death and intimidation were the only big hitters on Rome's team.

We Christians have been given the challenging task of teaching ourselves, our children, and the watching world a different way of seeing the cross of Jesus.  Where the world has only seen the trophy vase of Rome's defeat over Jesus, we point to the shape in the negative space and see the face of God that has been there all along... the world has just lacked the eyes to see it.  Where the world sees foolishness and nonsense in Jesus' way of willingly surrendering what was "his" for the sake of others (us!), the gospel dares us to see differently that Jesus willingly chose to lay down his life, and that this is not a mark of weakness or idiocy on Jesus' part, but his greatest strength and wisdom.

And that will mean, too, that we dare to see our lives differently.  There are a million voices out there convinced that it's just plain stupid to lay your life down for someone else--"No, you gotta look out for Number 1!" they say.  There are countless voices who would have us believe it is foolish to willingly lay down our power and our privilege, our comforts and our security, our reputations and our rights, for the sake of the lives of others.  And if we listen long enough, we will buy into their logic--perhaps we already have in some ways.  But Jesus has been saying all along that true power is the power to lay down a life, to willingly surrender what we have in our hands, so that it may be used for the sake of all.  Whether we listen to Jesus or to the perspective of the world will affect greatly what we do with our lives, and whether our hands are open in self-giving, or clenched in petty fists in this life.

Nobody "makes" Jesus do it--it is his thoughtful, careful, well-reasoned out choice to give up what is his for the sake of others who do not know him and may never say thank you.  And nobody "makes" us or "cons" us or "fools" us or "cajoles" us into laying down our lives, either... or our privilege... or rights... or comforts... and all the rest.  We do it because we are Jesus' followers, and he has taught us that we do not have to be ruled by fear any longer--not of Rome, not of any other empire, not of death itself.  

Jesus is teaching us to see the cross his way--and it makes all the difference in the world.

Lord Christ, as we thank you for having laid down your life, give us the courage and love to lay ours down for others like you... because we are no longer afraid.