Take Up Your Cross

Scripture: Matthew 16:24-28  (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway)

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 28 And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.” (Matthew 16:24–28 NLT)

“Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower…” Jesus said this in the context of beginning to break the news to his disciples that he was going to die, soon, a horrible death at the hands of the Romans and the Jews. Jesus said this to people who had been following him for about three years!

Here’s how this hits me: It’s easy to make a commitment, pay the price, and then get reasonably comfortable in the new reality. Then when the commitment demands something we hadn’t been expecting, it’s scary, painful, seems unfair. Like, “Where did this come from? I signed up to be a leader in the new Kingdom, not a criminal hanging on a cross!” And so we get to face a new reality (again) and choose (again) if we want to follow Jesus!

“Give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.” OK, I get it, I must (again) give up my own way (How many times does this make)? But read this with me as it sounded to them, before 2000 years of Christian usage made “cross” a religious symbol. “Be willing to get arrested, brutally tortured, then executed in the most horrific way imaginable as a criminal and a traitor to your people!”

How much is your soul worth on the scale of everything that matters to you? That’s what’s at stake here. In the inside out, upside down, Kingdom of God, we lose by holding on, we gain by letting go. We die by saving ourselves, and we live by dying. We gain our eternal soul by letting go the desires of our temporary self.

Prayer:

Father, Forgive my surprise when Jesus asks me again, “Do you want to be my disciple?” I know the drill. And for the record, I do want to be Jesus’ disciple! This is me, signing up again! Amen!