Reexamining the Cross

Steven’s Scribbles
“Reexamining the Cross”
Matt. 16:24-28
    
    What do you think of when you think of crosses? Maybe it’s your favorite wall hanger, a neckless you put on every morning, a new pendant on your bracelet, a part of the rosary you carry around, the top of your church steeple, or what you kneel down in front of every night to say your prayers. In Matt. 16:24 Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” When Jesus thought of the cross did He think of any of those things? No. In the very next verse Jesus tells us that taking up our cross and following Him means giving our lives up. To Jesus the cross symbolized putting the Father’s will above anything else. It symbolized torture, death, humiliation, and eventually exaltation. When preparing for the cross, Jesus was under such destress “His sweat became like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44) a medical condition known as hematidrosis. WebMD describes the condition as “Tiny blood vessels in the skin break open. The blood inside them may get squeezed out through sweat glands, or there might be unusual little pockets within the structure of your skin… Sometimes it seems to be caused by extreme distress or fear, such as facing death, torture, or severe ongoing abuse.” Does that sound like jewelry or decoration to you? During this extreme agony, Jesus’ prayer was “Father…yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). When Jesus tells us we must take up our cross and follow after Him, remember that He was crucified on His cross, a we too must be crucified on ours. We must crucify our worldly ambitions to trade them for Godly ones. We must crucify the old man of sin that creeps up. We must crucify our on will and trade it for God’s will. Paul said “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal. 6:14) To those living in the first century, crosses weren’t to be gloried. They were where they sent criminals to be killed (Luke 23:33). “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). There was a perfect man (1 Peter 2:21) that went to the cross and died, which in the first century would have sounded like an oxymoron, but it is true. When we think of the cross, I challenge you to think of it in the manner Jesus did. A sign of needing to submit to the Father and not to self. I love you all!


In His service,
Steven Hugley