Good Friday and Letting Go of Power

Where do our attachments to power hold us back from the Kingdom?

Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler

It’s Good Friday and we have to talk about power. Throughout his ministry, Jesus says that those who want to follow him must die to themselves and take up their cross. It is only in doing so that we find our life and come into the Kingdom of God.

But Jesus is fully aware that not everyone is up for this. Those who have power are unlikely to leave it. Those who have money are far more likely to protect it than to let it go. Those who have reputation have far more to lose. Jesus even calls out those with deep family attachments, knowing they will likely default to protecting their own. Those who have been in the winners column in this age are far less likely to surrender everything to come into the age to come.

And on the contrary, those who have been on the wrong side of power are the ones up for the revolution. There is a reason Jesus gathers up the poor, the disabled, the sex workers, and the social outcasts. And there is a reason that good religious folks walk away. There is a reason the power brokers reject Jesus, while the powerless draw near. There is a reason the women go to the cross while the men all scatter.

It’s easy to call out the billionaire. But the day I became a homeowner, my vested interest was for housing prices to go up. The day I started a retirement account, my vested interest was for the market to always improve, regardless of how we get there. And the day I had children, my self-interest is towards protecting what it mine. At some point, up and to the right becomes the only acceptable outcome. Which precludes me from the path of Christ.

And likewise, where am I blind to my own power? Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege to work with church leaders from diverse contexts. And it’s made me painfully aware that as a middle-aged white man, I am simply used to be given the floor and passed the microphone. I am 100% used to getting my way. I don’t know what it’s like to be overlooked, to be asked to listen, to have things not go my way. I don’t know what it’s like to experience injustice and not be able to rectify it. I don’t know how to walk through such things well because I’ve never had to. When any of this power is threatened, my gut reaction is to lash out. (Which I think is what is going on on a societal level right now, but I digress…)

And so on Good Friday, Jesus calls me to evaluate my relationship to power. What am I unwilling to lose? Where am I tied into the structures of this world, maybe even unconsciously? Jesus constantly burns his reputation. Where do I cling to my good standing in this world? Where do I need my voice to be heard? Where do I need to get my way? Where would I choose my own security over what is right in the Kingdom of God?

I don’t consider this an easy calling. Nor did Jesus. Which is why I have to come back to the promise of Jesus that he who is willing to lose his life will find it. Jesus doesn’t call us to the cross so we can suffer. Jesus calls us to set us free. Jesus calls us into the better way. Jesus calls us into the Kingdom of God.