Power and the Cross
As the Gospel of John progress, the opposition to Jesus intensifies to the point that in 7:1 Jesus speaks of those who wish to kill him. It’s not the occupying Roman force who wants to put down this one who claims to be king. Nor is it the morally and socially outcast who are rising up against him in opposition to his call to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Surprisingly, it is the religious leaders of his day who want to have him killed. It is those who were the most moral. It is those who knew the Scriptures the best. They are the ones who want to kill Jesus.
Why? Why is Jesus an affront to the religious leaders? Why is this Son of God, the one who is the center of our faith, opposed by people who were the most religious of their day?
I suggest that the answer comes down to one word: power.
The religious leaders of Jesus’s day had come to use their faith as a means of power. It was about power to control their lives. It was about coming into positions of prominence to exercise power over others. Yet, Jesus comes, and he cannot be controlled. He comes as the sovereign Lord of the universe who is in control of all things. He comes and he challenges the way they’ve been using religious power for their own prestige rather than for the good of others.
It is so easy to see this same tendency in others—to see how they want to use religion and faith to gain and exercise power. We think of the celebrity religious personalities who promise financial prosperity if you would only send them a little money. We think of the politicians who pose as pious in order to garner a few votes. And we’re rightly disgusted by those who would take God’s name in vain in this way—who would use the things of God to advance their own power.
Yet, we so often fail to recognize these same tendencies in our own hearts. We can be tempted to use faith to exercise power over others—to be seen as the wise, spiritual person among our peers. We can attempt to use our faith to get our way with others. Who can disagree when start your claim with, “God told me. . .” How tempting it is to use faith to try to exercise control over our children’s behavior.
We also use our faith to try to have power over our lives. We can be tempted to think that faithfulness to God leads to a measure of control over our lives. We think that if we do the right things, we can control the results. We live as if our faithfulness in following the Lord should lead to the kind of life we expect. We don’t often express this or even acknowledge this, but when when difficulties come, we’re frustrated with God. We’re even angry with him that he doesn’t seem to be keeping up his end of the bargain.
How easily we become like the religious in Jesus’s day! This isn’t just about control over our lives: this is about power over Jesus. We’re angry with God when our religious performance doesn’t yield the blessings we desire. We’ve twisted the pursuit of God into a pursuit of power over him.
We need to remember that the way of Jesus is the way of the cross. It is way of weakness, not of power. Rather than grasping for power, it is about embracing weakness.
The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. It is the way of weakness, not of power.
Yes, the religious leaders want to kill Jesus, but it is ultimately Jesus who lays down his life. Later in this Gospel, Jesus speaks of how he lays downs his life, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father” (John 10:17-18). His path is one that embraces weakness even to the point of laying down his life for his people
Because he set aside his power and embraced weakness, he opened the path for us to have true life in him. Now, we can find true life in Christ by not by grasping for power but by following the way of the cross—by embracing weakness. Jesus calls to us,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:34-35).
This is the great gospel paradox: we find our lives by loosing them. We find true freedom through weakness.
