The Way Of Suffering: Jesus Picks Up His Cross
John 19:15-17 (NIV)
‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.
‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.
Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
The other day, I came home to find my housemate watching some ridiculous reality TV show. A woman was crying to her friend, worried that her boyfriend was cheating on her. The friend counselled her by saying something like, ‘Oh, stop being so dramatic! You keep imagining the worst. Manifest positivity and positive things will happen.’ This poor advice struck me and, oddly perhaps, made me think of Peter’s friendly but ill-advised advice to Jesus in Matthew 16:21-28.
Jesus often spoke of a time when he would suffer horrible things and be killed but soon rise again. To be fair to the disciples, Jesus’ teachings were often a mixture of metaphor, parable and plain factual reality. So, I’m not surprised Peter thought it was a metaphorical cross and struggled to grasp how Jesus was saying he would literally be crucified and die. Peter feels it is his friendly duty to pull Jesus aside and talk some sense into him. 'Never Lord,' he says, 'This shall never happen to you!' (Matt 16:22).
Peter says the equivalent of, ‘Stop being so dramatic, Jesus! All these negative thoughts you’re having aren’t true. Think positively!’ But no! On the way of suffering Jesus picked up his physical cross, a rough-cut tree, full of splinters and carried it on his just scourged back.
Jesus says that if anyone wants to be his disciple, they must follow in his footsteps, take up their cross and die as he did. The metaphor is rooted in reality for his followers then and today. Over 365 million Christians face persecution and discrimination for their faith (See opendoorsuk.org). Many of our beloved Gas Street brothers and sisters from Iran and Afghanistan have suffered terribly because of their faith in Jesus Christ. As Christ's followers, we are given the choice between the comforts of the world or the 'death to self' of the Cross. BUT In Jesus, death always leads to resurrection!
Prayer - Jesus thank you for picking up your cross for me. Give me strength today to die to myself and to my sin and live for you.