Rise Up

What do you think it meant to the disciples to have Jesus tell them they needed to take up their crosses?

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the , will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.' - Mark 8:34-38

I wonder if they were shocked to hear Jesus say these words, since the only ones who were being crucified were enemies of the state, and they certainly weren't rising against Rome, were they?

Maybe after hearing this, they thought that was his mission, which would make him the true Messiah.  He would lead them to victory over the oppressor and free the children of God.

And his talk of giving up their lives had to be about going to death for the cause, right?

We hear these words differently today, though.  We believe he was talking about eternal life with Him made possible through his death and resurrection.  So, what is there to be ashamed of?

Well, maybe he was talking about the time between his death and resurrection, the time when all the disciples would run for fear of capture, fear of meeting the same fate.

Were they ashamed of Jesus for losing the battle?

And if so, is He ashamed of them?

We learn that he did return to them after death, so he must have wanted them to be redeemed, to discover the real mission and move forward.  So, even if we deny Christ multiple times as Peter did, we can still return.

That is pure grace, bestowed upon us all.

So, the message here is actually a good one.  We can always come back to God.  Christ showed us that, and he made it clear that even though he could be ashamed of us for how we treat him, he could come to accept us again.  It is all up to us.

And that is the good news.

More to come...