"[Jesus Christ] was not ashamed to be crucified for us as an evildoer. It is nothing but our fellowship with Jesus Christ that leads us to the ignominious dying that comes with confession, in order that we may in truth share in his Cross. The Cross of Jesus Christ destroys all pride. We cannot find the cross of Jesus if we shrink back from going to the place where it is to be found, namely the public death of a sinner. And we refuse to bear the cross when we are ashamed to take upon ourselves the shameful death of the sinner in confession. In the deep mental and physical pain of humiliation before a brother - which means, before God - we experience the cross of Jesus as our rescue and salvation. The old man dies, but it is God who has conquered him. Now we share in the resurrection of Christ and eternal life."I am easily distracted by shiny objects. Or bright colors. And sometimes furry animals. So I have been fairly excited over the course of the last few weeks about my neighbor's kitschy seasonal lawn decorations. But I also really have to be intentional if I am to focus on the meaning of Easter. How can I today share in an event from two thousand years ago?
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 114
Bonhoeffer answers by linking the cross to confession; where most of the teaching I've heard has exhorted Christ's followers to imitate the sacrifice or suffering of the cross, Bonhoeffer suggests that we share in the shame associated with it, through confessing sin. When I hear the phrase, "take up your cross" (cf. Mark 8:34), the images that come to mind are like those in The Passion, rife with suffering, and I begin to wonder what a call to suffer would look like. But as my pastor, Ray Ortlund, has pointed out, "Suffering is universal, it's inevitable; walking in the light is not." Confession is what distinguishes the Christian experience. Confessing my own (specific) weaknesses to someone else would be the ultimate fulfillment of Christ's command in the same verse to "deny oneself." Again, my first instinct is to try to follow this rule by being more sacrificial, giving up things for God. But we can't earn our salvation, and we can't pay it back. "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ, once for all" (Hebrews 10:16). The only sacrifice we are commanded to make is to "put to death the deeds of the flesh" (Romans 8:13), which is done most effectively by admitting to fellow believers what/where we have done wrong.
We truly experience Christ's resurrection when we share in his cross, which we do by reminding ourselves, in front of others, of our specific actions that made his sacrifice necessary - and make it our salvation.
