Jesus receives his cross
“If any want to
become my followers, let them take up their cross daily and follow me…” (Luke 9:23)
My friend Peter told me that
sometimes, when he looks at himself he sees his character as somewhat
suicidal. He says: “Sometimes I look
back at what life has thrown at me and realise that everything seems to have
gone wrong. Perhaps even where I go and what I do seems to be wrong. It could, in reality, be a psychological
imbalance due to the stressfulness I have had a good dose of in my life. It could be my inborn complexes that I have
struggled to overcome all my life, leaving me with feelings of inadequacy and
of not appreciating what I could really do.
What I was really worth in God’s eyes”.
This is something like the experience of the prophet Elijah. God called him for a specific task – to
eradicate the worship of Baal in Israel – and yet he barely believed in his own
strength, let alone what His own God could really accomplish through him. He was therefore allowed to plod around till
he had come to terms with himself and with God’s calling.
Whenever Elijah looked back
all he could see were the many people who had died because of him… persecuted
prophets killed in the hope that Elijah would be one of them…. a widow’s son
who died for no apparent reason after she had shown him charity and taken him
in when he had nothing and nowhere to go…. her city plundered and thousands
butchered because, as he saw it, it had given him refuge as he struggled with
his God’s calling, Someone the inhabitants didn’t even believe in
themselves. He saw this as totally
unfair and unjust.
Why do we seem to have to
suffer the same kind of fate? Perhaps Elijah was right to argue with God about
it all. And to ask him to exonerate him
of this calling and find someone better qualified to finish off the job
successfully. Yet, despite it all,
Elijah is said to have appeared with Moses alongside Jesus on Mount Tabor where
the Messiah’s divinity was confirmed by the Father. These two chosen Hebrew spiritual leaders
had, incidentally, argued with God and struggled to accept their calling. Yet God prevailed and they accepted their
calling, their role in His plan, difficult as it may have seemed at the time.
Jesus also suffered and
struggled with this calling of the Father so that now He too was being asked to
face death to save those who wanted to kill Him. Father was telling Him: “Sonny, I want this
great sacrifice from you. Do it for me
and for them. I cannot promise they will all love you for it but I will love
you more than ever. Lie on this cross and when You’ll be high and lifted up on
it, the world will see how worthy you really are….and salvation will be
theirs.”
1 Kings 19:3-7
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life…[and]….went a day's journey into
the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might
die. "I have had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life; I am no better
than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All
at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked
around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a
jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second
time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too
much for you."
