The Way of the Cross is Different
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025
Jesus had done many miracles before raising Lazarus from the dead, but that last one made him a rock star in Jerusalem. The crowds gathered for many other reasons, but the raising of Lazarus excited the crowds to a fever pitch. The prophecies about the coming Messiah in the prophets added fuel to the fire.
Still Jesus was not looking for adulation. He rode through Jerusalem's streets to die. One could say it was more of a funeral procession. He knew it. The people did not. Their perceptions were fueled by false ideas of the true nature of power. They were unable to see the true nature of his coming as a revelation of absolute humility and service. He rode on a lowly donkey, not luxuriating in earthly glory knowing that it is fleeting at best. Those who adored him that day would turn on him in a few days.
His path was the way of letting go. He demonstrated the difference between the worldly life and the spiritual life not just by speaking about it, but also by living it. This dichotomy is not spoken of very much. It should be. From the beginning of his earthly life when he, the Son of God, became the Servant of all, his path was the way of the Cross and not the way of the world. From Incarnation to the Cross he showed the way of letting go. And above the Cross in Orthodox Tradition the sign reads “The King of Glory.”
So, if we look beneath the surface of Palm Sunday, we can see the path we all must take. Letting go is the Christian life. Self-denial is our predominant theme. Selflessness as shown to us by our Lord and Savior is the true spiritual path. Not addition, but subtraction. All of us will experience betrayal, suffering, and death. His path is our path.
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his Cross and follow me." (Mt. 16:24-26)
This is the core prerequisite for true discipleship. And it is a universal, truth taught in most of the world's religions in one way or another. Selfishness blocks the flow of the Spirit. It dims our perception The lens of consciousness must be cleansed and our way of life must change so that we can perceive reality and stop resisting
The Gethsemane experience of Jesus is a template for letting go. There he let go of his fear, desire, and self will to make his way to the Cross. There he gave up his own human instincts for survival. He knew he was skating on thin ice and tried for a time to keep from falling through. Finally, he accepted the call and fell through the ice and into the water where both he and we are invited to drown..
Most of us experience this first in Holy Baptism where we are plunged three times into the fiery depths of God's will and rise newly created. There will be many such baptisms many occasions of letting go in our lives which are meant to prepare us for the Great and Final Letting Go that is death.
Thankfully, we are given many chances to let go. We will have many Gethsemanes in our lives. Every disappointment, failure, illness, job loss, aging and on and on are little Gethsemanes. Will we choose the way of gratitude and thanksgiving for all things, or just the things we like? Will we cling to the good things that happen and resist all the others? Clinging and resisting cause suffering. Paradoxically, the way of the Cross frees us from both.
In our Holy Tradition we are taught to give thanks for all things and to trust in the God who loves us, who lives in us, who surrounds us and infuses us, who is the very air we breathe, the food we eat, the warmth of summer and the cold of winter, who is everywhere and filling everything. So we neither cling nor resist. We accept everything as a gift from God. To escape the box of our own making, we accept the Way of Self-denial. Jesus is the perfect example. We must follow him. "Take up your own cross," he says, "and follow me."
Brother and Sisters, the Way of the Cross is diametrically different and opposed to the way of the world.