Take Up Your Cross?

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | Lent Meditations

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? -Mark 8:31-36

If you want to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood. -Daniel Berrigan

Today, when someone talks about “the cross”, the first associations that enter our mind are Jesus and Christianity. When people hear the phrase, “take up your cross”, they often think about being called to bear something or do something difficult for Jesus. But to the people Jesus was addressing, his words would have meant something entirely different.

We don’t have the slightest idea how shocking, disturbing, and even dangerous these words were when Jesus uttered them. To the people of His time, the cross was a horrifying instrument of public execution. It was a constant reminder of Roman tyranny, and it was one of the most agonizing and shameful ways to die. Common criminals, thieves, and rebels against the Roman empire were killed by crucifixion. Before they were crucified, they were beaten and forced to carry their cross, their own instrument of execution, through the streets as a form of public humiliation.

Those are the things people would have thought when Jesus told them they would have to take up their cross daily if they wanted to follow Him. His words were a radical call to a different—and dangerous—way of life centered not on self, but on the Good News that Jesus is King.

Tags: Lent 2010