The Weight of Following Jesus | Mark 8:31-38
I don’t know how many times I have heard this passage to convince us to pick up the weight of our sins and follow Christ. But if you listen to what the passage is saying, there is something much deeper that is, in some ways, harder for us to put into practice. Over the last several weeks, we have witnessed Jesus healing the sick, casting out demons, feeding the hungry, and teaching them and the disciples about the kingdom of God. Along the way, the Jewish leaders have challenged Jesus. We come to our passage today and realize that even the disciples struggle to grasp who Jesus is and what he is doing.
Jesus announces his death to the disciples, and Peter challenges Jesus for saying that He must die. Jesus responds harshly (we typically think so), but it’s because Peter’s response is focused on the world’s desires, not God’s will. Then Jesus, in his typical fashion, takes this moment to teach the Disciples and crowd about the values of God’s kingdom. The values of God’s kingdom are the importance of human souls being reconciled to their creator. Things like power, prestige, wealth, image, stability, and many other things we focus on are unimportant.
Picking up the cross would be a very humiliating experience. It signified your unwillingness to comply with the expectations and regulations of the government. It was a humiliating death. Jesus’ main disciples didn’t even help carry the cross for Him. Jesus went to the cross because he disrupted the expectations of the religious leaders. They were the ones who practiced the law to the letter, but they missed the core and heart of that law they were practicing. Jesus challenged the world’s view on order, power, and what was necessary. And that world sent him to the cross.
Each of us picking up our cross is more than picking up our sins. Some of what sets us apart from the world is because of turning from sin and toward Christ. However, ultimately, what looks like shame, weakness, and failure to the world is us choosing to live in God’s kingdom as intended. Living lives that are right with our creator. We live in a world enamored with influencers or the hopes of becoming famous through the latest social media trends. This can result in our being canceled when we follow Christ because the world is chasing different values and standards of what this life is all about.
Our goal as Christ’s followers is to follow and find hope in the one who created us, no matter what the world thinks of us. It is to fully surrender to our creator. Finding our hope and peace in who He is.
Pause and Pray
Take time to reflect on whether you are carrying your cross.
Have you turned from the world’s views on the good life?
Are you following Christ’s example, serving others, and sharing God’s kingdom?
Spend time in prayer asking God to lead you in surrender to Him.
Walk in the Kingdom
How will you pick up your cross this week?