Take up your cross

 A long time ago I saw a thing on the internet about job descriptions for jobs that are really bad and I looked it up again this week but couldn’t find it – the closest I came was a list of the top 10 worst jobs as voted for by the readers of the Grimsby Telegraph ! At the very top was a sewage worker… 

 

To be fair it’s not the most immediately attractive job on paper at least, and the reason I was thinking about this related to today’s gospel reading from Matthew (16:21-28). Jesus is talking about his followers and what it means to be one of those followers. 

 

First of all he’s described how he has to go to Jerusalem to be killed. Peter argues with him and is bluntly told, ‘Get behind me Satan !’  It seems harsh but Peter was judging things by earthly standards and Jesus had very different ideas and he went on to tell the disciples that whoever wanted to follow him must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow… 

 

It’s not an immediately attractive job description is it ? And in some ways perhaps that was what Jesus intended – he had shown those closest to him some incredible things in his earthly ministry – they had enjoyed fellowship with him, they had listened to his teaching, they had witnessed some miracles and they had known and witnessed his love for them and for others.

 

Although by no means popular everywhere, Jesus was interesting to people. He had what today might be described as celebrity status, albeit in a relatively small area... We’re used to celebrities coming crashing down because of some weakness or problem but then power and strength was incredibly important – the idea of a Messiah coming to die couldn’t be right… 

 

But Jesus continually turned upside down the standards and expectations of the world and offered something different and today he invites each of his followers, just as he did then, to be prepared to take up our cross and follow him. 

 

And maybe that won’t always be easy. Maybe we will be inconvenienced for the sake of the gospel, maybe we’ll have to make tough choices, or stand up for things when others aren’t. Maybe we’ll have to be willing to love those who society seems to be shunning. Maybe we need to look different !

 

And that won’t always be easy. Jesus didn’t lose control by going to the cross but actually exercised enormous power by offering himself for everyone else – by taking the sins of all on his shoulders… He knew that his death wasn’t going to be the end of the story, but rather a new beginning, for the people at that time and for the millions of people since… 

 

Life for all was offered through the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

 

But yes, let’s get back to this thought about it not being a great job description for being a follower of Jesus – take up your cross, lose your life maybe for his sake…. What is it about ?

 

Well, Jesus answers that a little at the end of this reading as he tells his followers that he would come back – he would come back to judge people. Elsewhere the gospels make it clear that Jesus doesn’t want to condemn the world but to offer new life, fulness of life. Yes, he offers eternal life to those who trust in him and that puts any troubles of this world into some perspective. It perhaps makes at least tolerable some of the suffering which might have to be undertaken if we’re truly committing our lives to Jesus. 

 

To those early followers these sort of words were incredibly powerful – they understood all too well what it meant to take up their cross, in other words to risk death at the hands of Roman authorities for whom their lives were pretty unimportant. 

 

For Jesus, no life is ever unimportant and when we’re called to fulness of life, to enjoy life here as we wait for the incredible riches and blessings of eternal life, we’re called to discover the riches he has given for us, riches that are often found in the strangest of places. 

 

One of the things that this pandemic has taught people is that those riches are often not found in money or any kind of material wealth, they’re often not found in success in work or any sort of celebrity status, but rather in our relationships with others and of course, in our relationship with God. 

 

Last Sunday and on Wednesday we were challenged to think about who Jesus is to us and it’s a question that is there again in the underlying message of this gospel reading. How committed are we, not to a particular building, not to a particular tradition, but to Jesus…

 

And in the section of Paul’s letter to the Romans that we heard (12:9-21) we’re given a description of the marks of a Christian. When Jesus talks about taking up the cross, these are the sort of things that he is calling his followers to do, and I’ll just mention some of those that Paul writes about but it’s a passage worth reading over and over again. He says :

 

Let love be genuine, hate what is evil

Love one another with mutual affection, outdo one another in showing honour

Serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering

Persevere in prayer.

Bless those who persecute you

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty give them something to drink. 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

 

It’s a pretty demanding list but it is taking seriously the commandment to love one another, to look out for our neighbour whoever that neighbour might be and some of the words in there actually inspire us to go further than just help when we can – we are to be active in care and concern and love. We are to try and outdo one another in doing what is good. 

 

So often it’s comfortable to think we’ve done enough when we’ve completed something good, but Jesus always encourages us to go further, to go the extra mile for others, to show others what love is about… 

 

Life as a Christian won’t always be easy. The gospel reading highlighted that – “take up your cross !” it said. But as we do that, as we grow closer to other people through the way we live, through displaying or trying to display the qualities that Paul wrote about, we are growing closer to God and as we grow closer to him, we relax into a relationship that changes us, that makes us less fearful of the challenges we face, but more visionary and ready to see the opportunities before us to serve God through loving others. 

 

‘Take up your cross’ is not a warning of a tough life ahead, but an invitation to join a family committed to working together for good, committed to showing love for others and  seeking to go the extra mile wherever we can to try and reveal Jesus to people, and to join a family that will celebrate eternally together the rewards and riches not of money or of earthly success and wealth but of the grace, mercy and love of God.  

 

Earlier I thought about the idea of taking up the cross as a rather unattractive job description, but to do it for Jesus offers the greatest privilege we can ever know. AMEN