“What Does it Mean to Carry the Cross?”

A homily by The Rev. Alice Marcrum

September 9th, 2007

Yet, I must confess that there have been times in my life when it felt as though my relationship with Christ was like a long distance one. Or even more like I was calling and only getting an answering machine. The mystics refer to these times in our lives as desert and or wilderness times. The spiritual reality is that during those times when it seems we are most alone and our cross seems the heaviest to bear is when the Lord Jesus is actually standing behind us and holding us up.

Let’s get real here. When Jesus was carrying His cross to Golgotha, the soldiers forced another person to step in and help Jesus. Because of the beating and scourging of the Roman soldiers, Jesus was left so physically weakened that it was all He could do to stand up let alone carry a heavy wooden beam through the streets of Jerusalem and finally up the barren hill to the Place of the Skull. So someone else was forced to help Jesus carry His cross.

Having gone through such a horrible ordeal, do we really believe that our Lord and Savior would abandon us in our time of greatest need? Do we really believe that He would show us less charity than the Roman soldiers in their cruelty gave to Him? I personally cannot believe that Jesus ever abandons us. Once we are His as St. Paul says so beautifully in his letter to the Romans, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered’. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is our victory cry! We are more than conquerors through Christ our Lord. The cross of Christ, the object of shame and ridicule is our gift of salvation. It was through Christ’s death on the cross that we were set free from the bondage of sin that enslaved us. No longer are we slaves to sin, but through the cross of Christ we have become more than conquerors.  The cross is our banner of hope. When Jesus said, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”, He was setting the standard for being His followers.

Please turn in your pew Bibles to page 1214, chapter 9 beginning with verse 21. I want you to see these words for yourself. “He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, ²²saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. ²⁵What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? ²⁶Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

In this passage of scripture, Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples. He is not speaking to the crowds so He is much more specific in His teaching. It is in this passage that the understanding of the teaching He gives to the crowds is pre-explained to us. According to Jesus, to be one of His own, the gospel of the cross must have top priority in our lives. Jesus Christ must come before our relationship with even our closest family members. All that we own, houses, cars, clothing, boats, whatever our material possessions must also take a back seat to the importance of Jesus Christ in our lives.  Nothing can be more important to us than Jesus Christ. This is the standard that Jesus has set for us to be His.

I am not talking about church membership here. The scriptures are clear that we are called to have a daily personal relationship with Jesus. It is not something that we can turn on and off like a light switch. It is a commitment that demands are best for Christ. Christ is to be present in our daily activities whether it be business or leisure. We are to be His witnesses in this world.

The cross we are called to carry is the good news of Christ’s redeeming work for all humanity. It is to be such a part of our lives that sharing this good news becomes our joy and not our burden for we do not carry the cross alone. Jesus has promised to be with us always. He is sharing the weight with us. In fact, it is Christ in us who carries the cross through us.

Tradition has it that St. Peter was fleeing the city of Rome during a time of great persecution against the Christians. On his way out of the city, he ran into Jesus. St. Peter asked Jesus, “Where are you going my Lord?” Jesus replied, “I am going into the city to be crucified again.” Ashamed of his cowardice, St. Peter turned and followed his Lord back into Rome where he was crucified upside down.

Now there probably are not many here today who will be called by God to literally be crucified for Christ sake like St. Peter was, but we are called as Christians to bear the gospel of the cross each and every day of our lives. We do this by unashamedly sharing the good news of Christ’s redemption through thought, word, and deed. May we never be ashamed of the cross of Christ, but more importantly may Christ never be ashamed of us.