The Cross is a way of living

THE CROSS IS A WAY OF LIVING

Mt. 16: 21-27.

Jesus asked His apostles the question, "Whom do men say that I am?"  We know the answers they gave.  Then He asked them, "Whom do you say that I am?"  We remember how Peter made his great confession.  Peter confessed that Jesus was the "Messiah, the Son of the living God."  Jesus told Peter that he had received a revelation from God and proclaimed him a spiritual rock and promised him the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  It would be difficult to find anywhere in the New Testament a happier and more harmonious scene.

This harmony was short-lived.  One moment Peter confesses his faith in Jesus as Messiah and the next moment he takes Jesus aside and tries to tell Him what to do.  One moment Jesus speaks to Peter as a spiritual rock, the next moment He calls him a Satan and orders him to get out of His sight.  What happened to bring about this sudden change?

The answer is not hard to find.  It was the Cross.  Jesus confronted His disciples with the Cross and they did not want to know.  They wanted everything to be rosy.  In fact, they loved Him so much that they did not want to hear Him talk like this. 

For years I wondered when Jesus died, why the Apostles never expected the resurrection.  How many times Jesus had told them that He would be captured, scourged, crucified, and in the same breath, He had always added and on the third day He would rise again.  Why didn't they say when the stone had been rolled against the tomb, "It is all happening as He said it would.  Let us wait near the tomb and witness the resurrection for ourselves."  It was because once He told them that He was to die on a Cross, they closed their ears for they did not want to hear anything more and so they failed to hear Him say that He would rise on the third day.  It is very like parents who say to their children, "You wait, one day these lips will be sealed and these eyes will be closed and then you will miss me."  And what do loving children say?  "Mum, Dad, don't talk like that.  You are going to be around for a very long time."  They just don't want to hear such talk.

The Cross is easily the most disturbing factor in the Christian faith. The first disciples did not want to be confronted by it, and neither do we.  But it should remind us of the seriousness of our sins.  People, like you and me, took the Son of God and nailed Him to a tree.  Every time we see the Cross, it should remind us of the seriousness of sin and how we must change our way of life.  This is what so many of us do not want to know.

We see how generous Jesus is to us.  Now He makes a request of us.  He asks us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.  He wants us to accompany Him and realise that the cross is a way of living.  Accepting the cross is to be our way of attaching ourselves to Jesus.

There is a very touching story told of Fr. Damian, the priest who worked among lepers on the island of Molokai.  Often when preaching he said to the people, "You, who are lepers..."  But one day he said to them, "We, who are lepers..."  The people at once realised that he had contracted the disease of leprosy and was one of them.  That moment was electric.  You could have heard a pin drop.  Now they knew that he was truly one of them.

Lord Jesus, You ask us to carry our cross and be a part of You.  Suffering in some shape or form is part of Christian living.  We cannot take the cross out of Christianity, but You will help us carry our cross.  Then life will be worth living and a challenge.  May we never forget that after the Cross there comes the Resurrection.  Then we shall reign with You in heaven.

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