Jesus said to his disciples and to the crowd following him, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (8:34).
It’s hard for us to hear those words in the same way that those following Jesus heard it. The context is that Peter has just recognised that Jesus is the Messiah – the anointed One (8:29), and Jesus has begun to teach that he “must suffer many things and be rejected …and that he must be killed and after three days rise again” (8:31).
Peter’s recognition of Jesus as Messiah hit the bull’s-eye; but his reaction to Jesus talking about suffering, rejection and death was a complete miss – way wide of the mark. Peter rebuked Jesus (8:32)! The gospel writer Matthew tells us that Peter said, “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (Matthew 16:22).
The problem here is that when Jesus teaches us - or when Jesus asks something of us – if we say, “No, Lord” then he is not actually ‘Lord’.
Jesus recognised the rebuke of Peter as a temptation to avoid the costly path of confrontation that was leading him to the cross. Peter meant well! He didn’t want suffering for Jesus, especially now that he had recognised him as the long-awaited Messiah, but Jesus knew that the smooth, safe and attractive way of self-preservation was not the way to go; and so he rebuked Peter.
Jesus then went on to say, “Get behind me Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (8:33). A: He acknowledged the temptation. B: He believed that God’s way is the right way, and C: he confronted the temptation by reminding himself and teaching the crowd what we must do if we want to be a disciple.
Knowing that a cross lay before – a cross he could avoid by not heading for Jerusalem – a cross he could avoid by not antagonising and challenging the religious leaders – Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (8:34).
But what does that actually mean for us? What does it mean for people who genuinely want to be 21st century disciples of Jesus? And what does it mean for a person who is enquiring about the Christian faith?
Although the context is very different I feel a bit like St. Paul who wrote to the Corinthian church, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor 9:16)! There were times when Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God and some people said, “This teaching is too hard” and they ceased to follow him (see John 6:66). How tempting it is to try to sweeten the message of Jesus, but how utterly wrong it is to do so!
The German spiritual writer Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) said this: ‘Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross’.
In answering the question, “How do I take up my cross?” I think it’s helpful to first of all say what it does not mean. It does not mean what British folk religion tells us! I was diagnosed with neck dystonia last year, my uncle Warner died aged 6 months, my uncle Warren died in his early 30’s due to Muscular dystrophy; some of you have recently experienced unemployment, some of you are dealing with difficult and upsetting family situations, and folk religion says, “Well, I guess we all have our crosses to bear.”
We considered last week the comfort God pours upon us. In particular, God comforts us not [just] to make us comfortable. He comforts us so we can be comforters; but trials and struggles are often not cross-bearing! Jesus did not mean that. Folk religion is wrong.
So, using me as an example, dystonia is not a ‘cross’ I have to bear. It’s a frustrating illness. Not a cross! The reason it’s not my cross is that it’s not voluntary. Jesus could have avoided His cross, but he chose to walk a path of obedience to His heavenly Father, and he says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Jesus never offered quick-fix solutions, and as we explain the Good News of Jesus it’s important to spell out both the implications of following him, and also the joy, the promises and the blessings that he gives!
Denying myself is saying “No” to me and “Yes” to Jesus; taking up my cross is voluntary. It’s considered, premeditated, - thought-out. 1st century cross-bearers were criminals on their way to execution, so choosing to take up and carry an instrument of execution is as shocking to us as it was to those who first heard Jesus.
It means we are identifying with Jesus – going where he has gone; and the beauty of going where Jesus has already gone is the promise of life everlasting with him, and with all who have loved him before us – The promise of heaven!
In practical terms taking up our cross by choice and following in Jesus’ footsteps means a daily choice to love those who are hard to love, forgiving those who treat us badly, choosing to use our resources and our time serving others instead of serving ourselves, and remaining resolute and determined to see through to a conclusion the things that God asks us to do, and to remain utterly loyal to the plans and purposes he has for us, regardless of what it may cost us financially, or even in terms of our worldly reputation.
And Jesus said, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (8:35).
In the 4th Century there was a Christian called Telemachus who decided that the only way to protect himself from the corruption of the world and to serve God was to become a hermit and live in the desert.
One day as he rose from his knees, it dawned on him that if he wanted to serve God he must serve people. By staying in the desert he was not serving God, and the cities were full of people who needed help. So he set out for Rome - the greatest city in the world.
By this time the terrible persecutions of the first 3 centuries were over. Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Emperor was a Christian, and so were most of the people. At least, in name they were Christians, if not in fact. As strange as it sounds, calling yourself a Christian in 4th century Rome was the politically correct thing to do, if you wanted to be in favour with the Emperor!
Anyway, Telemachus arrived in Rome at a time when Stilicho, the Roman general, had gained a mighty victory over the Goths. So to Stilicho there was granted a Roman "triumph" with processions & celebrations and games in the Coliseum, with the young Emperor Honorius by his side.
Remember, Rome was supposedly a Christian city, but one thing still lingered from its terrible past. There were still the bloody games in the Coliseum. Nowadays Christians were no longer thrown to the lions; but still those captured in war had to fight and kill each other in front of the Roman citizens who roared with blood-lust as the gladiators fought.
Telemachus went to the Coliseum. 80,000 people were there. The chariot races were ending. There was tension in the crowd as the gladiators prepared to fight. Into the arena they came with their greeting, "Hail, Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!"
The fight was on & Telemachus was appalled. Men for whom Christ had died were killing each other to amuse a supposedly Christian population. He leaped down into the arena, and stepped between the gladiators; and for a moment they stopped fighting.
"Let the games go on," roared the crowd. The gladiators pushed the old man in the hermit’s robe aside. Again he came between them. The crowd began to hurl stones at him. They urged the gladiators to kill him & get him out of the way and the commander of the games gave an order. A gladiator’s sword fell, and Telemachus lay dead. Suddenly the crowd was silent - shocked that a holy man should have been killed in such a way. Quite suddenly there was a mass realization of what the killing really was.
Historians tell us that the games in Rome ended abruptly that day - never to begin again. Telemachus, by dying, had ended them.
One historian (Gibbon) wrote of him, "His death was more useful to mankind than his life." By losing his life he had done more than he could have ever done by living a life of lonely devotion out in the desert. (With thanks to William Barclay for this illustration)
Cross-bearing is not an accident that happens to us, or something unavoidable that we must face. Cross-bearing is an act of love that we freely choose. It is a task we undertake, a price that we pay, out of love.
St Paul wrote this: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18).
The disciple of Jesus receives with a grateful heart the wonderful forgiveness of God - achieved through the death of Jesus on the cross – and the disciple of Jesus voluntarily takes up his or her cross. In doing so we find life in all its rich fullness, now and always!
Let’s pray.
