The Serious Humility of the Cross

REFLECTION QUOTES

Who is more Christlike: the person who is strong in faith or the one who is weak, who is humiliated? “Humiliation: That’s the key,” Scorsese told me. “As Kichijiro says in the movie: ‘Where is the place for a weak person in the world we’re in? Why wasn’t I born when there wasn’t any persecution? I would have been a great Christian.’”

~The New York Times review of the new Martin Scorsese film “Silence”

"Every action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness, and thus achieve blessedness, is a true sacrifice."

~St. Augustine (354-430), early Christian theologian

"We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves."

~Albert Camus (1913-1960), French philosopher, author and journalist

"Human history has for the most part been a cycle of hatred and revenge and indifference and callousness to the weak and vulnerable…. I have never been all that impressed by smartness…. I say let the phones be smart. I want to be wise. I want the courage to love. I want the courage to sacrifice…. Hitler was smart. I’m not impressed with that, you see."

~Cornel West, activist and academic, on “60 Minutes” (March 2016)

"Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure."

~Adolf Hitler, as quoted in British Historian Sir Alan Bullock’s seminal biography, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952)

"God veiled the Cross in darkness—and in darkness much of its deeper meaning lies—not because God would not reveal it, but because we have not capacity enough to discern it all!"

~C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

SERMON PASSAGE

Mark 9:30-50 (ESV)

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”