An article from the Cathedral Times
by
the Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler,
Dean of the Cathedral of
St. Philip
Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said
to them,
"If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves
and take up their cross and follow me."
(Mark 8:34)
We hear the phrase, "Take up your cross
and follow me," over and over again in Christianity. "Take up your
cross," the Savior said. We nod our heads in agreement, as if we all
understand perfectly.
OK. But what does it actually
mean to "take up your cross?"
Are we supposed to
follow Jesus so literally that we give up our lives, willingly, to the
religious and political authorities of our day, who will then put us to
death by execution? That's what Jesus did. Are we supposed to carry an
instrument of torture on our backs to the place of our suffering? Again,
that's what Jesus did. After all, the cross was not just a piece of
nice jewelry back in those days; it had about the same cultural
connotation as an electric chair might in our own time. It was a form of
degrading execution.
What was Jesus doing, then,
during his last days, that we might be called to follow? One way to
consider "the cross" is as a sign of weakness. When Jesus took up his
cross, he was acknowledging vulnerability. He was admitting weakness,
submitting to power that would take away his life. The cross, for Jesus,
represented his exposure to pain and suffering. The cross was his
vulnerability.
If so, I suggest that "taking up our
cross" means picking up and acknowledging our vulnerability. Most of us
spend our lives doing just the opposite. We prepare to go out into the
world by building up our strengths. We train and go to school and make
money and surround ourselves with good company. We even do good and
great things in the world with the strengths that we have worked
at.
To "take up our cross," however, means to lay our
strengths aside. It means to lay our "ego strength" aside. Taking up
our cross means, instead, picking up those weaknesses that we so often
try to run away from in life. Taking up our cross means carrying around
those places where we are vulnerable, places where we are maybe even
exposed to embarrassment and shame.
Those are not
comfortable places, are they? They are places where we hurt. They are
places where we would rather not go. They are places where we would
rather not be seen. Still, they are places that are a part of us. Our
weaknesses and losses are just as much a part of us as our strengths
are.
"Taking up our cross," means, then, coming to
terms again with the vulnerable and weaker parts of ourselves, knowing
our embarrassing features, acknowledging those places that hurt us. Both
our strengths and our weaknesses are part of us; but Jesus calls us to
deny "our selves""”our ego power"”and to carry around our weakness.
Actually something quite powerful occurs when we do
this. Jesus said it like this: "those who want to save their life will
lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of
the gospel, will save it." (Mark 8:35).
The Very Reverend Sam Candler