"TAKE UP YOUR CROSS"

Luke 9:23
Philippians 2:6-8
I Kings 19:19-21


This Lenten season finds me chewing on Luke 9:23:
          Jesus said to everyone, “All who want to         come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me.  (CEB)


A few years ago, we were studying this verse, Luke 9:23,  in a Bible study I was leading.  When I asked what this verse meant to people, the general consensus among the group was that it meant that each day we shoulder our burdens, our sufferings and our sorrows and stoically soldier on.  We accept what befalls us and do our best to try get through another day without too much damage to ourselves and others.

I don't think that's what Jesus was talking about.

Just as the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, life happens to us all.  Auto accidents, debilitating genetic conditions, life-threatening illnesses, loss of homes, jobs and loved ones, the challenges of each age and state of life, bad days and Mondays, don't single anyone out.  We all our share of troubles, the majority of which we did not choose.

But Christ chose the cross, not for his own glorification but for our sakes.  Philippians 2:6-8 says, " Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.  But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings.  When he found himself in the form of a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (CEB)

What Jesus means that being a Christian is a choice to be like Christ and pick up the cross.  To choose the cross means to respond to Christ's love for us with faithful and fruitful obedience.  So, along with the cross comes self-denial, the sacrifice of self.

We choose to slide over to the passenger seat of our lives and invite Jesus into the driver's seat.  Our agenda and our plan to take a back seat to Christ's ministry and the mission of God to go out and make disciples for the transformation and salvation of the world.  We allow God's priorities to become our top priorities and Christ's law of love to guide our decisions and choices.

With every cross comes a sacrifice, for we can not carry our crosses and take up the call of Christ if our hands are already full.

In I Kings 19:19-21, the prophet Elijah calls Elisha to be his successor.  Elisha was doing what he always did -- farming.  He was out with a team of oxen plowing a field the day Elijah showed up.  In response, Elisha butchered his oxen, built a fire with the harness and threw himself a good-bye barbecue.  He left behind the security and comfort of home, family and his life as he knew it to answer God's call on his life.

To take up our crosses means to offer all that we are and all that we have to God:  our time, our resources, our service, our worship and even the the security of our comfort zones.  God has made it very clear to me that if my faith feels too cozy, safe and non-threatening, I am only playing at being a Christian.

As Lent leads us to the foot of the cross, let us remember that to be fruitful and faithful followers of Christ means self-denial and sacrifice.  Let us also remember that in the cross we find meaning and purpose and experience the love and peace of Christ and the joy of serving others.  Nor does it mean taking up our crosses means shouldering the burden alone.  Jesus shares it with us, helping us be more and do more than we thought we could.