Out Our Way: The Gospel According to Goliath: No other way

And Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come with me, they must deny themselves, pick their cross and follow me. For whoever tries to save their life will lose it, but whoever gives their life for my sake nd the sake of the gospel will gain it."

- Mark 8:35-36

Out our way, we know that appearances can be misleading. Goliath and I were pushing cows with Charlie over on Tiger Ridge a short time after a heavy rain, and most of the cows were on the other side of the ridge when we got there. To reach them we had to ride a ways along a dirt road and then cross over a few hills. We could see them and it looked like a short ride to get over there, but Charlie suddenly turned Jet and headed up a different ridge instead of following the clearly marked cattle trail that lead to the herd.

I seems Charlie knew this country a lot better than I did, and later he showed me why he had taken what seemed the harder trail, for the one I had planned to follow led to a low area where the creek tended to flood and wash over the trail. Had I gone that way, I would have been knee deep in muck - or Goliath would have been. now and then cattle got stuck in that morass and it took some difficulty to get then out. Sometimes what seems the easy way is the wrong way. Sometimes the hard way is the only way.

Many people, including the disciples, thought that when the Christ came everything would be easy. That the way would be obvious to all but the most wicked of people and the road the church would follow would be filled with flowers and the praises of the world.

To the contrary, the world did not welcome the Messiah and did not welcome his followers either. Even the religious people, the ones who talked about God and claimed to serve Him, tended to do everything in their power to block the way. Indeed, as some have noted, the greatest allies the devil has in this world are often to be found in the church, mosque and synagogue.

To follow Jesus is not easy, despite what some so-called "feel good" preachers had taught. To the contrary, the primary difference between a disciple and a nonbeliever is the disciple knows he or she is a sinner and is willing to do something about it. Christ will give us the tools, but we have to be willing to use them. Christ will offer us a hand, but we have to reach out to grasp it. But the journey o discipleship is not just about our own transformation but the transformation of the world as well. In out willingness to give ourselves to God, we are called to give ourselves for others.

I was just reading the story of a hermit named Telemachus. He was a man of prayer and faith and was highly admired for his holiness. But this time Rome was supposedly Christian, though the gladiatorial games were still being held. Telemachus had discovered in his meditations that God was calling him out of his hermitage in the desert to Rome, and that while prayer and worship was fine thing, service to neighbor was equally important. So he went to Rome.

When he realized that the gladiators were still fighting to the death for the amusement of the crowd, he was horrified. He suddenly knew that he was being called to do something, and he did. He rushed onto the arena grounds and stood between the two gladiators demanding they stop fighting. The supposedly Christian crowd booed and cursed this old man for interfering with their pleasure, but he would not stand aside and let the slaughter go on. They threw rocks at him and even called for the gladiators to kill him. One of them did jus that, and this frail little holy man of God crumpled in the sand and laid dead. And just as suddenly, the crowd went silent. Instead of blood lust, they felt a deep shame. History tells is that the gladiatorial games ended that day and were never resumed. By dying, Telemachus ended them forever.

The word "martyr" simply means "witness." Over the years the church has come to recognize martyrdom in various forms, but always it means giving your life for others and therefore for Christ. Sometimes it means literal death, the Christians in World War II who gave their lives to save Jews from the Nazis, the Roman Catholic priest who volunteered to take the place of a man the nazis picked at random to execute as an example to the other captives - these are very literal examples of believers following christ. But there are other examples as well.

There are those who willing sacrifice their personal privileges and advantages on behalf of others as an act of faith - people like Dr. David Livingstone, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Theresa. And then there are the countless others who willingly bear witness to Christ by showing compassion to others on a day to day basis.

Working in Walmart I often see tired and weary shoppers who are ready to go home, but they will allow an elderly person or a parent with crying children to go ahead of them in line. They, too, bear witness to the love of God, even if they never think of it that way.

"You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, mind and soul - and love your neighbor as yourself." In my experience, you can't do one without doing the other, even if you don't know it.

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John Bruington is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Havre.