Matthew 10:37-39:
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
When I was growing up in the church I often heard the statement, “that’s my cross to bear” relating to a trial, suffering, a physical infirmity, or sometimes even a person. Every morning you were expected to get up, pick up that burden and carry it, trudging along behind Jesus. And of course no matter how heavy the cross it wasn’t as defeating as the cross Jesus was carrying.
Is this what Jesus meant? What was the cross Jesus was carrying? It was the instrument of His death and He knew that. So what does it mean for us to carry our cross? It means death; death to anything that threatens to take precedence over our love and obedience to God.
This passage flows out of the sending of the 12 disciples into the towns and countryside to proclaim the Good News, heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Jesus was sending His disciples into dangerous territory – they could be arrested, beaten, ridiculed – it cost them something to follow Him. It costs us as well. Sometimes following Jesus means death to relationships, attitudes, habits, and desires.
These are the truths we often want to ignore. We want to bask in the favor of men and women. We want to hold onto our anger, our resentment, our hurt feelings. We want to feed our habits. We want to have our hearts desires.
However, while we’re out striving to “keep” our lives, we are really in the midst of “losing” our lives.
“The permissive society is a phantom utopia which promises perfect freedom and yet has all its adherents in chains on Death Row” --from the novel, Absolute Truths, by Susan Howatch.
Father, show us what is keeping us from truly following Your Son. Give us the courage to nail it to the cross. --Amen
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