eFollowingJesusMar2 - Take up your cross (Matthew 16:20-28)

   At this moment, the Gospel story swivels into a new phase.  Jesus turns to Jerusalem; instead of acting powerfully, he will be acted upon.  He will suffer.  Not what Peter had in mind for Jesus.

   Or for himself!  Jesus says "Take up your cross."  In the ancient world, that is what criminals on death row did!  How is being a Christian like being on death row?  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, condemned to the gulag under Stalin, wrote, "From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you.  At the threshold, you must say to yourself: ?My former life is over, I shall never return.  I no longer have property.  Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious to me.'"  To follow Jesus, we leave an old, cozy life behind.  We learn self-denial, which paradoxically is the only true self-fulfillment.

   Notice that the way to be the Church is tied to the way Jesus was the Messiah!  It's not about success, or big numbers, but humbly suffering, renouncing all security, becoming vulnerable, totally obedient to God. 

   Lord, I leave my cozy past behind.  I deny my self.  My richest gain I count but loss for the chance to be near You.

James

james@mpumc.org

Here is the full text of Matthew 16:20-28 -  20: Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 21: From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22: And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." 23: But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." 24: Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25: For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26: For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? 27: For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. 28: Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

The full eFollowingJesus series (thus far!) may be found on our web site.