There is a moral to be learned from the cross, whether you prefer the story as told in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian or the more traditional telling of it. In neither case was the person who was about to be crucified thrilled by the prospect. Brian yelled “Get me down!” Christ was a little more profound when he — knowing what lay before him — said “My Father, if it possible, let this cup pass me by. Still, let it be as you would have it, not as I.” (Matthew 26:39) You see, being an enlightened human being (for human HE was, though He was also God), Jesus appreciated the miracle and gift that is life, and really didn’t want to trade it in for pain and death. And yet I suppose he knew that a life that was not in accordance with higher principles was no life at all.
It takes an incredibly enlightened person to realize that. To realize that life is sweetest only when one lives uncompromisingly. That it is better to live a short existence as one with the universe than to live a long life out of tune with it.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Enlightened ones do not necessarily have to face crucifixion. If the burdens of an unjust world are not placed upon them, people of conscience do not have to choose between sacrificing their lives or their values. It is only when the evils of the world become great that those with integrity and courage are forced to rise up in order to defend their moral convictions.
That’s why enlightened people become teachers. Not only because they wish to share a great joy with others (the good news, as Christians would call it), but also because if they are able to awaken enough other people, they won’t have to bear the burden of acting morally on their own. Unfortunately for Jesus, the instruction he was sharing with his disciples and the world at large was a bit heavy for them at that stage of human development. I’m sure it must have been frustrating to know that those he chose to be his apostles were so uncomprehending as to his true teaching. His frustration is demonstrated when he returns from praying to God that the burden of martyrdom might be lifted from him, only to see that his followers couldn’t even stay awake for him for an hour.
The truth is, the burden COULD have been lifted from Jesus, if those around him had only bothered to share it. What is heavy work for one is lessened by the help of another, halved again by the help of two others, and so on. So that a burden, if lifted by enough hands, is no longer a burden at all but a joy. If some follower of Christ had had the ear of Pontius Pilate, or had the ear of the wife of Pontius Pilate, or of someone who had some sway with Pilate, he — by having the courage to speak up — could perhaps have changed the verdict placed upon Jesus.
A million different scenarios could be written where a person courageous enough to act upon Christ’s teachings might have prevented His crucifixion. A thousand people — each of them lifting in some tiny part the cross which Jesus was forced to carry — would almost surely have changed the outcome. Christ speaks to this when he says “Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:29–30) He’s not asking anybody to undertake some tremendous burden, he’s asking everybody to partake of some small part of it. Many hands make light work. Ask any cook, and they’d most likely to tell you that a little help clearing the table would be more helpful than praise from those sitting on the couch watching the game.
Now there will be some Christians who will object to this notion. They will say Jesus had to suffer and die that his role might be played out. But if people had been capable of taking up their cross and following in Jesus’ example, even if only slightly, such a sacrifice would not have been necessary. Jesus’ message would have gotten through to the masses without him having to sacrifice his life. It was they, his own followers, who demanded that sacrifice. Through their lack of willingness to stand up and share the burden, they placed it entirely upon His shoulders.
I see this playing out in all aspects of society today. I see it on Veteran’s Day. People are quick to utter their appreciation for those who served, without lifting a finger to help them in any meaningful way. They offer them their gratitude in the same way they offer their god praise and prayers. They venerate veterans so that they do not have to do anything to lessen their burdens. They worship the warrior so that they do not have to work to prevent war.
I see it too on election day, where they performatively vote for their candidates and feel as if they have done some great task, wearing their “I Voted” sticker like a medal. They behave as though the politicians they vote for are more than mortal men so that they can place the burdens of running the country entirely on their shoulders. Voters need only vote, and to hate those who vote against them, those people who worship other gods. Voters want to believe their politicians will work miracles so that they won’t have to work at all. In this way, they do nothing and yet can consider themselves God’s chosen.
Martin Luther King would have been of little value were it not for the fact that the people themselves had risen up and were willing to participate in the movement. Even then, Dr. King was made to pay the ultimate sacrifice. Too many of us abandoned the cause after that, permitting King’s dream to be too long deferred, too imperfectly realized. Because it was easier to worship him than emulate him.
How much could be accomplished if the masses realized that in lifting a small part of the cross they might lighten the burden upon those willing to carry it, if necessary, alone. Thus we have people like Julian Assange, who was imprisoned for years for the burdens of witnessing the truth and protecting journalistic integrity. We have people like Aaron Bushnell, who are willing to die a most painful death in order to bring attention to those being burned alive and in other ways slaughtered with the help of each and every taxpaying U.S. citizen.
And yet there are those who would not move a finger to lighten the load of those with a greater compulsion to act upon their values. They could not perform the meagerest performative action, refusing to vote for those who were aiding in genocide. Even worse, they scolded those whose consciences would not permit them to do so.
The burden you lay upon people of conscience by doing absolutely nothing to prevent perhaps the worst of all imaginable crimes is not a light one. The refusal to vote for a political party in its abetting of genocide was merely the most obvious action people of conscience would take. That we could not stop a genocide with our vote — as if we were given any real hope of that — makes us ask ourselves what actions our consciences now prompt us to take.
This is not a light question which we ask ourselves. The cost now demanded of people of conscience will take them from the comfortable lives they had hoped would be their lot. But the cost of doing nothing in the face of great evil, they know, would be greater still. And so each of us must ask how far we feel comfortable in carrying the cross. It is a burden that would be light and easy if others realized how just a little courage and effort might help change the situation. It would be far preferable to saying afterwards what brave and selfless heroes were those willing to bear a burden that was everyone’s to share.
Maybe those you claim to worship don’t want to be worshipped. Maybe they just want a helping hand. Maybe they just want you to do a bit of the lifting. So that the cross is no longer a burden to them but a joy for all. If I may repeat the words of Gil Scott Heron:
“You alone have the wisdom to take this world and make it what it
Needs to be, wants to be, will be. Someday,
The day you understand
That there ain’t no such thing as a Superman.”
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