Last Updated on July 27, 2022 by Brad
In Mark 8:34, part of today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Take up your cross. We are pretty familiar with the phrase. It is in the hymns we sing, sermons that are preached, prayers we’ve prayed, and we have probably used the phrase on various occasions to describe some undesirable or unpleasant task or situation. I don’t think we really grasp what it means, though.
For the disciples following Jesus on this particular day, this was a harsh and shocking statement to hear. I can almost imagine hearing their thoughts: “What is he saying?! He wants us to willingly take on a cross? That’s gruesome; grotesque; and definitely not what I signed up for on this trip. Is he going to purposely try to get us killed? This guy is nuts!”
We have to remember what the word cross would have meant for these people. I think for us, we too often hear “the cross” and imagine the little necklace some people wear or the one that adorns the steeple of our church building. Those are beautiful signs of hope and peace. For those following Jesus, it wasn’t even close to what we think about. It was torture, death, and humiliation. It wasn’t just an end of their earthly life, but it was the worst possible way to go – and you were pretty much begging to die before you even got to the point of being placed on the cross. Imagine having your clothes ripped from you, possibly being beaten by some pretty terrible instruments that burned and tore at the flesh, being forced to labor under the weight of this massive wooden beam as you were made to carry it – weak, naked, and fully exposed to the jeers and embarrassment of walking by your family and friends in the public street, only to make it to the destination and have your body further abused by metal spikes to hold you to this erected device meant to be your demise. I think the Romans, in fact, almost hoped you didn’t make it that far; it was probably preferable and most likely that many people died en route to the place they would hang upon a cross. It would be less work and hassle for them if you died in the street. Of course, the morbid and wicked ones also probably looked forward to the excruciatingly awful and profane way for you to die – you would either suffocate hanging there or drown in your own fluids. You would have to cause yourself no small amount of agony to raise your body enough that your lungs would function to breathe and expel the build-up of what was no doubt a mixture of natural and unnatural substances flooding them. And, just in case you didn’t die fast enough, after they let you hang there for as long as they could possibly wait – days, maybe, for the particularly strong – they would come along with clubs and spears to break bones and pierce you further to speed things along – but not too much. You still had to die under your body’s own process.
When the disciples heard, “take up your cross”, this might have been a few of the things going through their minds. No wonder Peter took Jesus aside and tried to talk some sense into him. Can you imagine the act of faith it took to keep following him after he not only said all this, but called you Satan for arguing about it with him? The disciples had to learn the hard way exactly what Jesus meant. They witnessed (either directly or indirectly) what would happen to Jesus himself. The Twelve Apostles themselves1 Whether you count Judas or not, 12 of 13 Apostles – Matthias being #13 – all died unnatural deaths; John is the only one to die of old age. all met similar ends except one. Countless others were killed for just following along and agreeing. It’s not sounding like the odds of being a disciple and making it to your next birthday were exactly good; they definitely weren’t going to be pleasant.
So now, here we are, a couple thousand years later. We know crucifixion as an execution method didn’t last too much longer in the big picture of history after Jesus experienced it. We also know, though, that throughout the last roughly two thousand years, a number completely uncountable and probably never knowable to us have died simply by professing what they believe about Jesus. But we have converted that horrific imagery of the cross into something that we’re proud of, something we readily display2 It goes without saying most of the time that we should be willing and ready to acknowledge our faith publicly, but this, too, can be a cross itself to overcome. If so, it’s probably the first and most important one for us to address. and take comfort in, something that we expect to be a sign for others that will call out to them rather than push them away3 Unfortunately, the actions of some today and certain events of the past make the Christian faith itself either distasteful or threatening to some. We need to make sure we’re displaying a faith that rectifies that.. What does it mean for us now to “take up [our] cross?”
I don’t think it’s entirely wrong to say that I might have to take up my cross in order to take the trash out or finish up the laundry. Especially for some of us, that may be one heck of a cross anyway, if we’re dealing with ailments and obstacles to the normal definition of daily living. I mean, really – we are all called to actually “lay down our life” as the scripture says, but most of us will not actually ever be faced with doing so.
It is wrong, however, if we stop there with our cross being some menial task, the unfairness of the world, or even bearing the body’s mental and physical frailties. We need to think of taking up our cross as both literal and symbolic. We need to be ready to have a cross that embraces the ugliness of the world – not for the ugliness that it is, but for the promise of the beauty we can find in it in the long run, allowing Providence to change that which isn’t good into something that is. We need a cross that compels us to be the hands and feet that allow that transforming power of God to be delivered to the world around us. We need a cross that doesn’t shy away from the challenges, whether those are comforting someone in need with words and small deeds of kindness, walking head-first into the self-conscientiousness and challenges of people near to us who don’t take faith seriously (or mock it altogether), and the scary unknown that we are called to face when those situations we’ve never imagined present themselves – especially if those situations are us being called to show love, grant mercy, or fight for justice for someone else. We need a cross that stands as our promise that we will face the day, remembering our commitment to Christ, and with Christ, we will – together4 Our faith is not one of individualism; if we’re thinking about “me” at any point in our journey of faith without thinking also of community and neighbor, we need to revisit some things. Christianity is primarily communal – a faith we practice together. – come through whatever is in our path.