21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Luke 9: 21-25
What cross are you carrying today? Jesus is not bashful when it comes to proclamations on suffering. The proceeding passage to this describes Jesus announcement -of His Messianic journey. In other words, Jesus announced His role as the Son of Man. He then goes on to say that the Son of Man may suffer many things.
We now know this suffering to be his torture and crucifixion on the cross. So it makes more sense to us when Jesus says “carry your cross daily.” But for the disciples, this would have been unusual. The cross was for the worst of worst people. The cross was a sign of disgrace. The cross was a sign of spectacular pain and suffering.
So what cross are you carrying today? Are you burdened by maybe a job furlough? Are you saddened by social distancing? Are you tired of being stuck in with nothing positive to read or do? Jesus went through this hard pain so that your pain now would be less painful. On that cross was your job loss. On that cross was your loneliness. Our job is to pick that cross up with appreciation knowing that our burden is much less today because He suffered then.
Pastor Mat