Lenten Reflection from Mark 8:31-38

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34b

I recently visited a clergy friend in Georgia who is planning to write a sabbatical grant funded by the Lilly Endowment. To prepare for her application, they recommended she read, “Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest” by Ruth Haley Barton. As someone who leads a clergy care program, I immediately sent myself the book, which was waiting on my desk upon my return. I opened it to the first page and saw this: “There is a kind of hurry that is a form of violence exercised upon time that is detrimental to our heath, to our families, to our communities, and to our relationship with God.” It is the beginning of the foreword, penned by Ronald Rolheiser, a Catholic priest and theologian.

This concept of doing violence to time is intriguing in a world that measures our importance by our busyness. Never having enough time, trying to cram as much as possible into a day, being overworked and sacrificing sleep are all signs of success in today’s hustle culture. This easily spills over into our church life, especially these days when we are fearful of the future, often wondering if working harder is the only way to salvation. (Sometimes we mask this by saying working smarter instead of harder, as if our clever intellect will save us.) We have tuned our ears to hear this passage from Mark as a call to embrace our culture’s hustle mentality, but for the Gospel; to work even more, often to our own detriment. Rather than accept Jesus’ invitation into a totally different way of living than the one the world has to offer, we see this as a call to become overworked, stressed, and busy for the church, often taxing our mental, spiritual, and physical health, not to mention our relationships. We might have even been told that taking up our cross is a call to inflict or accept violence upon ourselves. Suffering has become an end in itself, even becoming an idol – a mark of our true faith, even when that suffering isn’t driven by the Gospel but is driven by our world’s values.

As we look to have a meaningful Lenten season, we are invited by Jesus to take up our cross and follow him, to lose our lives for his sake. Perhaps we can reclaim this passage from Mark to be less about sacrificing our well-being and more about being invited into a totally different way of living. Not a stressed-out, worked to the bone, suffering as proof of my faith way of living, but a way of living that is intentional, grounded, and communal; one that is less busy, less chaotic, more reflective, more purposeful than what our day-to-day lives have often become. May God bless you as we make our way to the cross and empty grave!