Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me

 There are some words of Jesus that we love to hear: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” We like the Jesus who heals, blesses, feeds, protects and comforts us.

But today Jesus gives us another side of discipleship: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

These words are not particularly attractive. Yet they are at the heart of Christianity.

Last Sunday, Peter made a beautiful confession of faith: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus praised him and gave him the keys of the Kingdom. But in today’s Gospel, Peter has a problem. When Jesus explains that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed and be raised, Peter says, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”

Peter wanted the glory without the cross. He wanted Jesus to be Messiah, but according to his own understanding of what a Messiah should be.

And sometimes we do the same thing.

We want a Christianity without sacrifice. We want blessings without responsibility, success without struggle, resurrection without Good Friday, and the crown without the cross.

But Jesus tells Peter, and tells us—“You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” The cross is part of the Christian life

Jesus is not saying that suffering is good in itself. Christianity does not teach us to look for suffering or to remain in situations of abuse and injustice.

Rather, Jesus teaches us that love always involves sacrifice.

My brothers and sisters, Christianity is not merely believing in Jesus. It is following Jesus.

And following Jesus means that there will be moments when we must choose between comfort and commitment, between popularity and truth, between revenge and forgiveness, between selfishness and generosity, between the way of the world and the way of the Gospel.