“Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples . “Some think you are John the Baptist; others say you are Elijah or one of the prophets.” “But you,” he says, “who do you say that I am? You decide.” Simon—Jesus has been calling him “Peter,” the rock—blurts out an astonishing response, “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
“Yes, Peter, what you have said is true, says Jesus . And in order for me to be Messiah, I must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die.” “God forbid, Lord,” Peter says. The assumption was that Messiah doesn’t suffer. The expectation was that when the Messiah comes he will rally the people, organize an insurrection.
“ Get behind me, Peter. Stop talking and listen.” Sweeping his eyes over all of disciples , “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, pick up a cross, and come along. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. It’s your choice.”
esus denied himself by replacing his own agenda with God’s. He followed God’s plan, God’s will—to love, to heal, to reach out in forgiveness and compassion, to challenge the values and assumptions of his own culture and religion, even if it meant suffering and dying.
To take up the cross of Christ is not an acceptance of oppression and suffering but resistance, the voluntary assumption of costly behavior on behalf of others in the name of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Willy L Mafuta,
Senior Pastor,
Hopewell United Methodist Church, Hopewell, NJ 08525