Questions of the Cross: Strength or Surrender?

Matthew 21:1-11

When I was a junior in college I had my first real “church” job. I worked as the summer youth intern with First Baptist Church of Greensboro (where I worshiped all through college). The youth pastor, Steve, was loving called “Goober” by most of the staff. We got along swimmingly. We got tasked to come up with morning devotions for Unidiversity, a weeklong high-school retreat that rotated being hosted at different college campuses. That summer’s Unidiversity theme was “Mythbusters” and was looking the “You may have heard…but I am telling you…” sayings of Jesus. What did we come up with for our morning movies? You better believe we bought a bald wig, beret, and glue-on facial hair and decked ourselves out as the Mythbusters from the popular Discovery channel show.

That same summer was also at the end of the ever popular season of “Chuck Norris” jokes. I’m not sure if any of you remember those or not, but here’s the gist: “Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups like normal people, instead of pushing himself up, he pushes the earth down”; “Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep, he waits.”; “Superman goes to sleep in Chuck Norris pajamas.” And on and on…there was an entire website devoted to these Chuck-Norris-themed-one-liners, ChuckNorrisFacts.com. These were all modern tall-tales based on Chuck Norris’ round-house-kicking character from the T.V. show Walker Texas Ranger, and the gist behind each of the jokes was that Chuck Norris was the paradigm of “strength.”

One of our Mythbusters spoofs was devoted to busting Chuck Norris facts, busting the myth that round-house-kicking your enemies in the face is what makes you strong. As a part of this episode, we visited a “church” to speak with the pastor there about whether destroying your enemies made you strong. Here’s how that conversation went:

Jamie (Aaron): Hey, so we’re here to test the myth that beating up your enemies makes you powerful. Adam, here, thinks that Chuck Norris is all powerful and I was thinking that there seems something fishy about that. But we decided to come and ask you.

Pastor Ken: I see. Well, there’s a fellow named Jesus who once said that you’re supposed to love your enemies and turn the other cheek if someone strikes you.

Adam (Steve): Yeah, well I also read in the Bible that you can’t turn the other cheek if Chuck Norris has round-house-kicked his foot through your face.

Pastor Ken: I’m not really sure where that’s found…

Adam (Steve): Might be Second Condominiums or something…

Pastor Ken: Well…I’m remembering a verse that says you’re supposed to pray for those that persecute you. And if you think about the people who’ve followed Jesus throughout history—some of the most powerful people to change the planet in history. You think about people like Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa—people who didn’t use power the way the world thinks of power, but who certainly had the power to change lives. And of course there’s the cross, and Jesus’ death on the cross, which no one would think would be a powerful event…except that it changed the course of history.

Well…as Mythbusters we weren’t quite satisfied without running a few more tests. So we had Adam (played by Steve, the youth pastor) test out whether you had to be strong to throw punches, or to take them. We invited everyone who worked at the church to hit Steve in the face, and then had him turn the other cheek. We concluded that it takes a lot more strength to stand against worldly powers than to join them in their game of might-makes-right. Jesus, in going to the cross, stood against the culturally accepted definition of “power” to reveal God’s accepted definition of power.

So, to answer the question: does the cross symbolize strength or surrender? The answer depends on who you worship and serve. If you worship and serve the ways of the world, then the cross is weakness. But if you worship and serve God, then the cross is pure power, unmasking the fear and ferocity that fuels the worldly powers, and revealing the indomitable power of love, grace, and forgiveness.

But we still don’t buy it. The decision to send in an air-strike to Syria has been, mostly, accepted by people on both sides of party lines. “Finally, we’re showing that we aren’t weak.” Well, I, for one, cannot celebrate such behavior. Nor do I see missile strikes as a demonstration of power. They’re a demonstration of worldly power, for sure, but not a demonstration on which I ultimately want to hang my hat…or my life.

For the Roman Empire, the cross was a symbol of power, intimidation, and domination. What does it mean for us, as follower of Jesus, that he would hang his life on the paradigmatic demonstration of worldly power? I don’t think I can directly answer that for you…that’s the question at the center of our Christian faith: what does it mean for us that Jesus was, and did, and is, and does?

I’m pretty sure I’ve told you this before, but Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was a parody of the worldly powers of his time. Whereas Caesar might have made his triumphal entry into a city by commissioning a monumental arch through which he’d parade his army while riding in a multiple-horse-drawn chariot. Jesus builds no such arch, leads no such army, rides no such chariot. Jesus rides an ass. A word that still makes us blush. How embarrassing.

This worldly power paradigm still holds its ground in a world of missile tests and missile strikes. I agree that something needed to be done in Syria…but I have a really hard time commending adding more violence as the solution. Before the cross, I doubt that anyone would have thought that there was any other form of power possible to confront, condemn, and conquer the Roman Empire.

Beyond a symbol of true power, the cross is also a symbol of creative power. Creative power, of course, being the power of our God who spoke light and life into being. The power behind creation. The challenge we face, as follower of Christ, is to be creative in how we express power. Jesus was and is a reminder that God’s creative power hasn’t stopped. The understanding of creation as a “one-and-done” act is known by theologians as Deism, or the “Clockmaker” view of God...wherein creation is wound and then abandoned to tick its own course through the universe. That’s not what Presbyterians believe. God did not abandon us at creation. God did not abandon us at the cross. God does not abandon us now. God will never abandon us. This belief calls us to a heightened attentiveness to how God’s creative power is calling us to resist and respond to worldly powers.

Palm Sunday is a reminder of our initial sense of: “yeah that makes sense…these worldly powers aren’t all they’re cracked out to be.” Maundy Thursday is our reminder of: “yeah…but whatever they say goes, ‘cuz I’m scared to stand against those powers.” It takes a movement to stand against them. The cross is a symbol of this movement: we never stand alone against the powers that hurt, that kill, that intimidate, that fear-monger, that insult. If we are aware and alert enough to stand against those powers, we do not stand alone. May you be so strong, so powerful, so Christ-like. Amen.