The faithful member of a comfortable suburban parish volunteers at an inner-city church’s program to help kids read. Jesus says, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43).
A person is going through a rocky time in marriage. A mutual attraction arises with a coworker, but the spouse backs away. Why? The echo of Jesus’ words, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).
A middle-school student resists peer pressure to experiment with drugs and sex because he/she takes confirmation vows seriously. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6).
Frustrated he can’t hold in-person worship services and regular church fellowship, a pastor creates new internet offerings and makes special efforts to stay in touch with members. He does this because Jesus’ words are heavy on his heart, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).
A single parent frazzled by work and bills, still takes time to teach her children faith and say bedtime prayers. Why when you’re so tired? “Let the little children come to me” Matthew 19:14).
These are Christians living what Jesus teaches us all. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). Key is “for my sake.” Carrying the cross is more than coping with illness, unemployment, or interpersonal problems, or what have you. It’s Jesus’ cross we’re to carry in our own problems. That means living as Jesus teaches us, to do good to others, to live holy lives, even if that brings slander, shunning, or suffering. “If anyone would come after me….” “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21). Peter objected, just as we’re tempted to mute our confession to avoid hardship, but these words from Sunday’s Gospel teach that it’s in the challenges and problems of daily life we show Whose we are.
“The love of the cross, born of the cross…turns in the direction where it does not find good, which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the evil and needy person” (Martin Luther, Heidelberg Disputation, 28).
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