Pick Up Your Cross

Reflection…. Pick Up Your Cross

Isaiah 50:4-9

New International Version (NIV)

The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,

to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
 I have not been rebellious,
 I have not turned away.

I offered my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
from mocking and spitting.

 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,

 I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
 and I know I will not be put to shame.

He who vindicates me is near.
Who then will bring charges against me?
Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
Let him confront me!

It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.
Who will condemn me?
They will all wear out like a garment;
the moths will eat them up.

Mark 8:27-35

New International Version (NIV)

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 

Good Afternoon Gentle Readers

It’s Good Friday once again, a bit of a different experience for me this year but the same themes still hover close to my heart….

I will share them in my next post but for the moment I want to repost this one from a long time ago…

Take Care and God Bless

Good Enough

In Isaiah we see a man who has been giving the people the word he was given, and a lot of the time they didn’t like it much and Isaiah finds himself being ridiculed, accused and over all treated very poorly…..such is the life of a prophet anyways. His reaction to all of this is a powerful statement of his calling, and his trust in God, he has gone to “I set my face like flint” to his enemies, but still his message is there “to know the word that sustains the weary” and to proclaim Gods message.

In Mark we are asked “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” This can be a big question for us, is Jesus the promised messiah, a great leader, a philosopher, just who is this guy? When Peter comes up with “You are the Messiah.” It’s pretty amazing, Peter is showing that he has gotten it, but the next second he is telling Jesus not to go through with what he has to do…. That’s so Peter, one minute saying and doing the right things and then the next, like all of us, he’s falling on his face….

Jesus then does what he does when people are more than a bit confused, he lays it all out for those who are really listening. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

Now this is must not have gone over so well with the people who heard it, the cross was a literal symbol of pain and fear, a symbol of shame. The only people who were crucified by the Roman’s were criminals and traitors; it was one of the worst ways to die. It must have been so hard for the disciples to hear, and for us it still is.

Jesus does something… he does what God has done in the past; he takes that symbol of horror and changes it into something else. Frequent readers of my blog have heard me talk about the topsy turvy way of God, the weak are powerful, the poor rich, Jesus takes the cross and turns it into a symbol of his love, of sacrifice, his choice is the cross, and his choice is love.
I think when Jesus says take up your cross he is telling us to take up our love and give it to a world that so desperately needs it. I think he is asking us to take our place with him in love, it’s not harsh, it’s not painful, its love. When we give of ourselves to our brothers and sisters in this world we build the Kingdom that Christ was always talking about and wouldn’t it be great to live there. When we build instead of destroying, when we save instead of condemning we give of our energy, our love and things change.

We are all called to something, all called by God to be his children, all called to be priest and prophet, all called to heal and as Isaiah put it, all called to give the weary rest……

We are all called to love like Jesus in our day to day lives

Are you ready to pick up your cross; are you ready to pick up love?

Take Care and God Bless
Good Enough