Week 3 April 2025, Devotion Part 1

If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.   Luke 9:23

Jesus says it so matter-of-factly. The passage evokes the rhythm and momentum of habitual, purposeful walking. No fancy footwork needed; anybody can heed the call. While He speaks of essential lifestyle, we entertain notions of exotic behavior – like giving up sweets for a forty-year Lent.

When we first encounter Christ’s unsettling challenge, we are forced to rearrange some mental furniture. Before long the whole house of our life begs revamping. We start with a good spring-cleaning; old habits are swept out and shining convictions polished to perfection. Cheered by our respectable display of discipleship, we settle into the comfort of our self-begotten renaissance. Alas, old habits and familiar patterns – like kids and dogs – will sneak back in and track dirt across our sterile sanctification. When we limp after artificial perfection, the Lord Jesus of our intellectual projections and sentimental attachments will not save us from plummeting down the rickety steps to the basement where humility has been gathering dust.  Part 1 of 2

Comment: During Lent and Holy Week, we understand the cross to be synonymous with Calvary. But if we want to get to the crux of the matter of daily cross-bearing, we need to access the research materials kept handy in that basement.  Take the word “crux,” for instance, which in Latin means “cross.”  Until the Romans invented capital punishment, the biblical methods were stoning, burning, beheading, and strangulation.  Jesus suffered torture and death on the “stauros,” translated as “stake” from N.T. Greek.  “It was an upright pole…which might be used in impaling a piece of ground.”  I once witnessed that awful jolt while attending a Passion Play at my daughter’s church, when the actor portraying Christ flew off the stake, but didn’t land in the orchestra pit. If we need to ante the disturbing images a notch or two, have your jeweler fashion a tiny electric chair to be worn on a gold chain.

It is “crucial” to see Luke 9:23 through the eyes of Jesus, if we are to take Him seriously.  Interestingly, that word also comes [via the French] from the Latin “cruc-, crux, cross, trouble, torture.”  Fanatical players can find 110 words with “cross” in their Scrabble dictionary. You and I use cross walks, but not to get to the Crosswalk Church in Redland.  It would never cross my mind to enter the Crosshairs Gun Store in Torrance. Whodunnits are my vice of choice and I thrill to cross-examinations scripted by John Grisham.  It’s a tool used to challenge both the credibility and accuracy of opposing witnesses, with the potential to undermine their testimony.  Luke 9 opens with Jesus calling the twelve to give them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases…to proclaim the kingdom of God.  Then He feeds the 5’000 and hears Peter identify Him as “The Christ of God.”   After saying a few more crucial things applicable to you and me, the transfigured Jesus meets with Moses and Elijah in Luke 9:28.  Are we  good and ready now for the cross-examination awaiting us in our banner text above?