Mark Day 3

Read Mark 7-9

Today's Devotion -- Mark 8:32-38

34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone
would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the
whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his
soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's
glory with the holy angels."

taken from www.biblegateway.com

Jesus said a lot of things that didn't make much sense to the people at the time...and I imagine this one confused almost everyone. It almost seems like he said these things for our benefit -- the benefit of those who could look ahead to the events that would occur in Jesus' future.

Today we think about the cross where Jesus died, and we see some burden we bear as our 'cross' -- in almost all cases our crosses are nothing to bear when compared with Christ's cross!

But at that time, no one knew that Jesus would be nailed to the cross like a common criminal. They had all, no doubt, seen murderers and thieves struggling to carry heavy wooden posts on their backs toward the crucifixion site. How awful it must have been to have to carry a huge post on your back, causing deep splinters and cuts with every step, knowing that as soon as you stopped you would be nailed to it. They may have thought they didn't hear him well -- surely that wasn't what he meant!

The closest I can get in today's world to comprehending what people may have thought he said is that if I want to follow Jesus (whom I've seen as a great teacher and miracle worker), I have to ignore anything that I want in life and volunteer to go to the electric chair.

According to tradition, Jesus' disciples did go on to die painful deaths. Very few, if any, of us will suffer that way. But how deep is your faith? What have you given up for Christ's sake? Do you think you could keep trusting God despite severe humiliation and pain leading to death?