Take up and Carry Your Cross
Sunday after The Exaltation of the Lord’s Cross
Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-38;9,1
Long before his suffering, Christ spoke to the people (not only to his closest disciples):
“For the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed; but on the third day He will rise again.” (Mark 8:1)
The last statement - about the resurrection - was not so striking, because it was not very intelligible, but the fact that Jesus had to suffer, and would be killed, was understood by everyone. Peter even “took Jesus to one side” and “began to rebuke him.” (Mrk. 8:32)
The Apostle Matthew reports that at that time the Apostle Peter said to Jesus:
“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (Matthew 16:22).
But Jesus not only did not soften his prediction about his personal fate, but told His followers that anyone who wants to follow Him must be ready to renounce all personal life's benefits, must be ready to endure everything in the name of confessing the truth and even accept death.
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mrk. 8:34)
Jesus did not want His followers to have the mistaken idea that confession and affirmation of the truth can be accomplished by an easy path. This is why we must understand that the verbal declaration of the truth must always be based on a willingness to stand up for that truth - a willingness to accept suffering and even bodily death.
Christ's followers must also realize that:
“whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.” (Mrk. 8:35)
Thus, whoever wants to save his soul must be prepared to lose his bodily life; no one can save himself by deviating from the truth.
Such is the path of truth that Christ defined for His followers, but first He Himself walked that path of the cross. He did not demand from his followers something that He Himself did not do.
But at the same time, we must realize that Jesus Christ did not accept suffering and death on the cross out of desperation – but only because of the evil will of the chief priests and Jewish elders. Christ knew in advance about those evil plans and spoke about them many times to his followers long before his Holy Week. He could have avoided the way of the cross and death on the cross. After all, He was always in communion with His heavenly Father and told His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane that He could call on “My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels” to defend Him (Mt. 26:53).
Even at the Last Supper, in a conversation with His closest disciples, the Lord affirmed:
“I give my own life to take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” (John 10,18)
In light of this knowledge of the actions of Jesus Christ, the cross of Christ is not just an instrument of death, but an altar on which our Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, to establish the truth, to save people.
By His actions, He testified that the confession of the truth required sacrificial dedication, commitment, and a willingness to give up one's life. Those who fear suffering, who fear death, are imperfect in love and cannot defend the truth. The Apostle John the Evangelist testifies:
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)
That is why the wicked and all manner of despots often rule over people, because they intimidate people with torment and death. To rid oneself of the fear of death is to spiritually conquer death and become invincible. This is what we can do by imitating our Lord, when we are willing to take up “our cross” and follow Him. (Mrk. 8:34)
When we are ready to take up and carry our cross following Christ, then the cross of Christ is not just a symbol for us, but a weapon of salvation, an invincible weapon. We must always remember this when we venerate the image of the cross of the Lord, when we bless ourselves with that cross, when we sanctify our minds, our feelings, our actions with it.
Merely performing the ritual sign of the cross of the Lord over oneself, without comprehending our responsibility before God, without the willingness to follow Jesus, imitating Him in the confession of the truth, gives us little. Without this firmness and determination, we are only lukewarm Christians, and about such persons there is a testimony from God through the apostle John the Evangelist:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16)
We, Ukrainians of the Orthodox faith, in light of that call of Christ, must also take up the cross of our people, our nation, of our faith, and carry it--both under the oppression of our occupier-neighbours, and here, as we live in a free, democratic country with all rights and liberties, even when we are scattered in a foreign sea (nationally and religiously).
We need to take on double or even triple responsibilities here in order to raise our children to be worthy citizens of this country, but at the same time, worthy confessors of the Orthodox faith, and worthy sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people.
It is much more difficult for us to raise children than for ordinary Canadians or Americans, but by the will of God we are put in such circumstances. Our cross is in front of us, so let us take it and carry it following Jesus. Let us do His will.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
