Yes

A cup to drink.
A baptism to be baptized with.
There is every reason to say no.
A reason to yes can be hard to find.
Will we share in Christ’s suffering for the world?
Will we enter into the suffering of others?
Glory.
That is what our Lord calls his Cross, his throne. Glory.
And those who have been prepared to sit on his right and left? Not James and John.
But rather those prepared for the honor of being by Jesus’ side are two bandits crucified on either side, two thieves, lawless ones, who taunt Jesus as he dies.
Jesus’ glory is surrounded by the praise of mockery.
This is a hard thing.
This is not a business model with which we are familiar.
This is not a glory that we recognize.
This is not the greatness for which we teach our children to aspire.
This is not the praise we long to hear.
Jesus is God’s drinking of the cup of our brokenness.
Jesus is God being baptized into the flood of our pain-filled scorn.
Jesus is God’s glory revealed in serving the broken and wounded animal of creation.
This is the mystery of the Cross, of the ransom that sets us free from that which torments and twists our souls.
How will we say yes to this gift? To this freedom?
There is every reason to say no, to choose the glory and the greatness with which we are familiar.
Slavery does promise a steady diet in the economy of the powerful.
But the freedom to enter into the suffering of the world?
A reason to say yes can be hard to come by.
Faith by definition surrenders certainty.
Faith by definition chooses the unknown and yet to be seen.
There is every reason to say no.
There is only one reason to say yes, which is that God says yes to drinking this cup.
Jesus is God’s yes.
A strange glory, an unknown greatness, a forgotten freedom, a single reason.
Be that reason.
Be that glory.
Be that greatness.
Be that freedom.
Be that yes.