Imagine the disciples for a minute. This man named Jesus said, follow me, and they stopped everything they were committed to and followed. If we experienced that today, we would look at someone like they were crazy and keep on with what we were doing. I want to think that I would drop my nets and leave my family and follow, but would I? And then, as they would have been learning from Jesus, suddenly he starts to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer and be rejected and even killed as we read in Mark chapter 8. I would probably be right there with Peter beginning to speak of how that couldn’t be true and indeed wouldn’t happen. Who would want to kill Jesus?
One of my favorite scriptures is in this passage, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:34-35. Or find it in the end. To find your life means letting go of yourself and living as Christ did.
Take space this week for that verse to speak to you. Ask the Lord to shed light on where you are struggling to take up his cross. Ask for areas in your life to be illuminated that you need to let go more of. How can you continue to die to yourself as you become more Christ-like?
Scripture to Meditate on:
Mark 8:31-38, ESV
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Others to read: Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16, Psalm 22:23-31, Romans 4:13-25
Songs of Meditation:
This is True Life by Justin Rizzo
Most Merciful God by Greg LaFollette