There are words of Jesus that we love to hear.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
“I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
“Do not be afraid.”
Those words comfort us. We need them.
But today Jesus says something that can be much harder to hear:
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
These are not easy words.
And I think we need to be careful about how we understand these words, because for a long time “take up your cross” has been used to tell people simply to endure their problems.
“It’s your cross, Just put up with it.”
“God is testing you.”
“That’s just the way life is.”
But that is not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is talking about discipleship. He is talking about a life oriented toward him and toward the way of God’s kingdom.
And to understand it, we need to look at Peter. Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Peter is right. But he still does not understand what that means. For Peter, the Messiah should be strong and victorious, someone who would defeat the Roman Empire.
Then Jesus begins to explain something Peter does not want to hear. Jesus tells them that he will go to Jerusalem, that he will suffer, that he will be rejected by the religious leaders, that he will be killed, and that on the third day he will be raised.
Peter hears this and responds: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
Peter wants to protect Jesus from this path; he wants a Messiah who wins. Jesus shows him that God’s Messiah will save by giving his life.
And then Jesus says to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan!”
Peter wanted to protect Jesus from suffering, but in doing so he was asking Jesus to abandon the very work he had come to accomplish. Peter had tried to get in front of Jesus and tell him what his path should be.
Jesus reminds Peter where the disciple belongs: Behind Jesus, following Jesus.
And then Jesus says: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
The cross, in Jesus’ world, was an instrument of execution and humiliation. It was a public demonstration of Rome’s power. So, when Jesus talks about taking up the cross, his disciples are not hearing a beautiful image about the difficulties of life.
They are hearing a call to follow him on a road that may have a real cost. Taking up our cross means following Jesus even when following him costs us something.
And that also helps us understand what it means to “deny yourself.” Denying ourselves does not mean believing that our lives have no value. It does not mean accepting abuse or ignoring our needs. Denying ourselves means stopping ourselves from being the center of our lives. It means recognizing that our comfort, our security, our desires, our reputation, and our own will are not the final measure of how we decide to live.
The question is no longer only: “What do I want?” It becomes: “What does it mean to follow Jesus here?”
What does it mean to follow Jesus when loving our neighbor is difficult? when telling the truth has a high cost? When someone is being pushed aside or treated without dignity?
That is where discipleship begins to touch our everyday lives. Sometimes it means giving our time when we would rather stay home. Sometimes it means giving up something we want so that we can serve someone else. Sometimes it means giving up the need to always be right. And sometimes it means accepting that following Jesus may cost us recognition, money, security, or comfort.
That leads us to an important clarification. Not all suffering is a Christian cross.
Sometimes we say:
“My illness is my cross.”
“My difficult marriage is my cross.”
“My financial problems are my cross.”
“This situation is my cross.”
Jesus is not saying that everything painful that happens to us is a cross that God wants us to carry.
A difficult situation can become an occasion for living out our faith. If someone stays in an abusive relationship because they believe they have to “carry their cross,” that is not what Jesus is teaching.
Jesus never calls us to accept abuse as a test of our faith. Following Jesus does not mean allowing another person to destroy our dignity or our safety. The cross of Jesus has to do with faithfulness to God and love of neighbor.
And we need to make one more distinction. Our cross is not Jesus’ cross. Jesus’ cross is the saving work of Christ. We do not repeat that work, and we cannot add anything to it.
Our cross is the cost of following Jesus when following him asks us to surrender our own interests for the sake of God and our neighbor.
Before Jesus asks us to carry our cross, he announces that he is going toward his. Jesus carries the cross. Jesus dies for us. And in the cross we see how far the love of God goes for us.
That is why we do not take up our cross in order to earn God’s love. We do not follow Jesus so that God will love us. We follow Jesus because in Christ we have already received God’s love. God’s Grace comes first. Discipleship comes after.
That changes the question. We do not ask: “How much do I have to suffer to be a good Christian?”
We ask: “Because Christ has loved me, how can I follow him today?”
And that question is not only for individual Christians. It is also a question for us as a church.
A church that follows Jesus cannot live only concerned with its own comfort, its preferences, or its survival. Following Jesus as a congregation sometimes means asking whether our preferences are more important than our mission. It means asking whether the way we have always done things is helping us welcome our neighbor and serve our community. It means being willing to give up something familiar when doing so makes room for someone else.
Because when Jesus says “follow me,” he sends us toward other people.
Look outward. Look at the people God has placed along our path.
Following Jesus as a church means being willing to become uncomfortable for the sake of our neighbor. It means making room when it would be easier to protect what is familiar, and using our voice when it would be easier to remain silent.
When people in our community are afraid, we do not look away. When immigrants are afraid of being separated from their families, we remember that they are our neighbors. When people are pushed aside because of who they are, we defend their dignity. When someone cannot be heard, we speak up.
And some of those choices will have a cost.
They may cost us time, money, comfort, or approval. Following Jesus may mean giving up something we want so that someone else can experience the love of Christ.
That is part of taking up our cross. Not because we seek suffering, but because we are following Jesus.
Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, but he still wanted to decide what kind of Messiah Jesus should be.
Jesus had to teach him to get behind him. Peter would still fail many times. He would be afraid, he would deny Jesus, Peter would discover that following Jesus does not mean doing everything right.
And still Jesus would not abandon him. Jesus would continue forming Peter as a disciple.
That is good news for us too.
We are still learning, sometimes we are afraid, sometimes we do not understand, sometimes we fail, sometimes we get in front of Jesus and try to tell him how things should be.
And still Jesus says, “Follow me.”
Peter heard Jesus speak about suffering and death. He also heard that on the third day Jesus would be raised.
Peter could not understand it yet. But Jesus knew where the road was going. God raised Jesus from the dead, the cross was not the end. Christ defeated death. And the risen Christ is the one who now goes before us.
So following Jesus does not mean walking toward a final defeat. We follow the Christ who went through the cross and came out of the tomb. The resurrection reminds us that when we follow Jesus, we are not walking toward nothing. We are walking in the hope of the life God has promised in Christ.
We do not know exactly what lies ahead. We do not have perfect faith. We do not need either one in order to follow.
That is also why the Lord’s Table is so important. When we come to this table, we do not come because we have followed Jesus perfectly. We come because Jesus invites us. We come with our faith and our doubts. And Christ receives us. Here we receive the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ, given for us. We do not come to prove that we are good disciples. We come to receive Christ, who gives himself for us.
And Christ does not send us back onto the road alone. He gathers us as a community and feeds us as his body so that we can live as his body in the world. We leave this table and return to the road, behind Jesus.
Because Jesus is not forming isolated disciples, He is forming a community. A community that follows him. A community that loves its neighbor. A community that trusts his grace.
Peter did not become a perfect disciple after this conversation. He became a disciple who kept following Jesus, even through fear, failure, and doubt.
That is our story too. We will not always get it right. We will sometimes want to get in front of Jesus and decide where the church should go, we will sometimes be afraid to follow where he leads.
But discipleship is not about getting everything right. It is about staying behind Jesus and continuing to follow him. And when we lose our way, Christ does not walk away from us. He calls us back. He forgives us. He keeps forming us.
Siblings, Jesus does not call us to look for suffering, He calls us to follow him, to stop making ourselves the center of the story, to love our neighbor, to trust his grace and to remember that we do not walk alone.
Christ goes before us, Christ is with us. And by His grace, we keep walking behind him. Amen
