Picture in your minds a person who is successful. What does this person look like? Is it a man or a woman? If it’s a man, perhaps he’s dressed in a fine Italian three-piece suit, wearing designer navigator sunglasses, standing next to his Ferrari sports car, which is parked in front of his chalet in southern France. Beside him may be a beautiful woman. The scenario radiates wealth, security, and the fulfillment of all desires.
Hubert Humphrey said, “Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.”
Or perhaps you imagined a woman who has a family with four school-age children, who works a full-time job because she enjoys the responsibility and social contacts, who never seems to have a problem in caring for the many household responsibilities, and who never gets frustrated, or angry, or depressed.
Maybe it’s this woman who can sing “I can rub & scrub this old house til it’s shining like a dime, feed the baby, grease the car, & powder my face at the same time. Get all dressed up, go out and swing til 4 a.m. and then Lay down at 5, jump up at 6, and start all over again ‘Cause I’m a woman! W-O-M-A-N, I’ll say it again.”
Who’s really successful in life? One definition of success might be a person who finds meaning and fulfillment in life. We’re all tempted to believe that we’d find fulfillment if only our desires were all met. If only we didn’t have to juggle that budget. If only our children would do what we want them to do. If only my friends at school would like me for who I am. Then I’d be a success.
The picture of success that we have in the passion gospel that we just participated in is much different. The picture Saint Luke paints for us is that Jesus is the epitome of success in his suffering, his humiliation, his crucifixion. How Jesus responded to every horrible thing that happened to him shows us how successful in life he really was. Jesus in the very moment of defeat is victorious.
Jesus’ success story does not lie merely in his suffering, but in the style of life that led him to his passion. Jesus suffered not because he felt the way to a successful life was the satisfaction of his own desires, but because he sought always to do the will of the Father, giving himself to others in love.
Doing what God wants us to do, rather than what we want to do, and loving others always makes us vulnerable, and because it makes us vulnerable we often choose not to love. We build barriers between ourselves and others so we can’t be hurt.
The passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ not only recalls the depth of the love of God for us and how our salvation was won, but, ironically, it also gives us the example of how to live a truly successful life. Only when we allow ourselves to risk loving others can we have a meaningful life. Sometimes we’ll be hurt, we may even suffer and die because of that love. Yet, because Jesus was “humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death, his death on the cross, God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any name.” Through the resurrection, God said that Jesus’ life was successful, that he had lived a life that was meaningful, even though it led him to the cross.
Mother Teresa said that we are not called to be successful, but faithful. When we lead lives of faithful obedience to God as we love others, in God’s eyes, that IS success.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
Palm Sunday
14 April 2019