Reading 32
Take up your cross
The reading
Mark 8:34-38
He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? For what will a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”
The companions
Psalm 116:1-9
I love the LORD, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy. Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the LORD’s name: “LORD, I beg you, deliver my soul.” The LORD is gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me. Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
Isaiah 50:4-7 (selected)
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.
The note
The phrase has been worn down until it means an inconvenience you put up with. Give it back its weight. The people listening had watched men carry the crossbeam through the streets to the place where they would die, past everyone who knew them. That is the picture he hands them, and then he says this is what following him is.
Then the line the passage turns on. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. Anyone who has watched a person spend thirty years defending themselves knows it is accurate.
Careful, guarded, first in every calculation, and less alive each year. A self that is only ever protected gets smaller.
The reverse is just as visible. People who spend themselves are not used up by it. That is not sentiment. It appears to be how the thing works.
This week
You will hit a decision this week where the safe move is to protect yourself: your time, your credit for something, your position in a disagreement. Pick one and go the other way. Once.
Hand over the credit, take the awkward job, drop the point you were winning. Do not announce it and do not keep score of it. Then check what it actually cost you, which is usually less than the arithmetic said.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” and “the Lord GOD” in the companions.
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