Sunday 15 September 2024

The Cross of Christ: (inflection) point of history

Isaiah 50.4-9a I offered my back to those who struck me

James 3.1-12 Taming the tongue

Mark 8.27-38 The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously

 

 

‘If any want to become my followers,

let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’

Mark 8.34

 

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I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find that there is a word or a phrase that I haven’t heard for a long time, or haven’t ever heard, that suddenly I seem to be hearing, repeatedly, in different places and from different people.

 

One such example for me, just last week, was the phrase ‘inflection point’.

 

Someone said to me, now that I am Vicar of Croydon having been Priest in Charge, ‘this is an inflection point for you and the Minster’.

 

Similarly, at the Whitgift Foundation I was on an interview panel for a new Chief Executive, and someone said, reflecting on the significance of the appointment, ‘this is an inflection point for the Foundation’.

 

I heard the Donald Trump/Kamala Harris debate described as an ‘inflection point’ for the presidential campaign in the USA.

 

An ‘inflection point’ is a moment of noticeable change in a situation; it’s the moment after which things will never quite be the same again.

 

The general election was a major political inflection point; the emergence of the world wide web was an inflection point in technology and culture and so on.

 

Today we heard of an inflection point in the Gospel.

 

It happens at Caesarea Philippi.

 

It is a decisive moment when Jesus reveals something that the disciples had barely wanted to consider, and something that moved Peter to deep indignation.

 

Too often we focus on Peter’s words in this scene, as if it is about him and his ‘me and my big mouth’ moment.

 

That said, in the spirit of our second lesson from the letter of James, Peter’s tongue speaks wonderful truth ‘you are the Christ’, and then Peter’s tongue delivers a rebuke to Jesus.

 

As James says,

 

With [our tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. (James 3.9,10)

 

What insightful words, and let’s be honest, we all do it.

 

Each moment of the day, then, is an inflection point.

 

I can choose to speak with my tongue what is good and beautiful and true, or choose to wound others, sow dissension or even to deny Christ.

 

As the wonderful and ancient hymn of St Ephrem the Syrian says,

 

Lord, may the tongues which 'Holy' sang

keep free from all deceiving…

 

St Ephrem the Syrian (c306-373) New English Hymnal, 306

 

So, what we see at Caesarea Philippi is Peter recognising the inflection point and wanting to stop it.

 

He can cope with saying Jesus is the Christ, but can’t handle the recognition that the Messiah is vindicated through the cross and will not shy away from insult and spitting (cf Isaiah 50.6): he will not shy away from death.

 

Here’s the moment it becomes clear:

 

Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8.31)

 

Peter sees where all this is going and tries to stop Jesus by rebuking him, but Jesus is set on this path, declaring:

 

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Mark 8.34)

 

The cross is the inflection point of the Gospel.

 

It all hinges on this.

 

To be a disciple of Christ is not simply about following a great teacher, an inspired guru or an amazing wonder worker, it is so much more.

 

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to walk the way of renunciation; about finding abundant life by giving up superficial life; about salvation born in suffering; about love until death.

 

Thy will, not mine, be done.

 

Yesterday was the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross which asks us to ponder the invisible, but indelible, mark we bear as baptised Christians, as we take up Christ’s call to self-denial, as we face, and embrace, what the cross means and as we follow him day by day.

 

St John Chrysostom, who was celebrated last Friday, says that on the cross ‘we see him crucified, we call him king’.

 

The inflection point of history is Calvary; the cross of Jesus Christ, of which the hymn says:

 

When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

 

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) New English Hymnal, 95

 

St Paul reminds us that the cross is a red line for some and crazy to others but says, ‘to us who are being saved it is the power of God’ (cf 1 Corinthians 1.18, 22).

 

That’s what makes the cross the inflection point of history, it is the moment God declares, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12.9).

 

Jesus says: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’


So there it is, '…love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’.

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