“The Cross”
SCRIPTURE
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. —Luke 9:23-27
DEVOTIONAL
The Christian tradition often describes how faithful disciples today must “take up their cross daily” referencing Jesus’s crucifixion and his foreshadowed command to the disciples in Luke’s Gospel. However, this expression has led many to see “taking up their cross” as proactively selecting a cause to champion their own interpretation of the Gospel. While this may ring true to many, “taking up your cross” can open a door to self-righteousness or what some may call the “Messiah complex” – believing that our chosen sacrifice will bring about the Kingdom of God. While only God has that power, what role do we have as followers of Jesus in a fearful and broken world? How can we faithfully “take up our cross” in service to God, as disciples of Jesus Christ? In his book “Following Jesus,” Henri Nouwen explains that,
To “take up the cross” does not mean to look for pain. It doesn’t mean to go after the cross. It does not mean to search for a problem. We have lots of problems. We don’t need more. Sometimes we think that to “take up the cross” means to be hard on ourselves. That is not what Jesus says. To “take up the cross” means first of all to acknowledge where we are suffering, to recognize it.
The spiritual life is a life in which we are more and more able to be led, to be guided to hard places, to places we would rather not go. For Jesus it was the cross. For Peter it was the cross. For Paul and all the disciples, it meant a lot of suffering. It is not masochism. It is not self-flagellation. It is not being hard on ourselves. It is being in love. It is being so fully and so totally in love that we go to places we would rather not go.1
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- In loving God and others, what crosses do you encounter? How do you faithfully bear those crosses?
- Some may argue that Jesus was sent for the purpose to die on a cross to appease an angry God. Some say that it was a natural consequence of his eternal love up and against a broken and sinful world. What do you believe?
- How does your understanding of the role of the crucifixion inform your role as a disciple of Jesus Christ?
And I saw the River over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of the River was “Suffering”… and I saw the Boat which carries souls across the River, and the name of that Boat was…Love. —St. John of the Cross
PRAYER
God, in this Lenten season, we pray that you sanctify the burdens that come with loving, that we might sacrifice our individuality and ego for the ones whom you want us to be for each other, for you, and for this world. Amen.
1 Nouwen, Henri. Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety. (New York: Image, 2024), 80-88.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.