The Cross

Matthew 16:24 (Amplified Bible) says, “If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself (disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests) and take up his cross and follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and if need be, in dying, also). I decided to wait until Easter was past to share a few thoughts on the Cross. On April 1, 2021, I wrote about this and what our Lord went through on a post titled “This I Do For You.” And on April 26, 2022, I wrote of what He took for us, even mentally, in “Thorns.” The cross means so many things to so many people. Wearing a cross became more accepted during the reign of Constantine in the 4^th century. Prior to that, it was viewed by many as a symbol of public execution. But it was a symbol of who you identified with. And Jesus told His disciples that even if you gain the whole world, what would it profit you, if in the process, you lose your very soul. Or what would man give as an exchange for his life in the kingdom of God?

Denying oneself is often a concept that’s hard to grasp. The disciples found it hard to understand. The mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons could sit at the right and left of Jesus in His kingdom. He answered by saying they didn’t know what they asked. He asked if they thought they would be able to drink the cup Jesus was about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that He would be baptized with. He tells them to not be like those rulers who lord over other people and treat them harshly. Jesus tells them not to act this way. He tells them that whoever desires to be first among you must be your servant. He told them that He did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20). This seems to be a concept that has lost favor. So many in ministry have built up kingdoms for themselves. Fancy homes. Planes. Expensive cars. It seems everything in their ministry is focused toward gaining power, influence, and money. A seat with the powers that be in political circles. Reigning and ruling from a man-made platform that has no place in God. All the while wearing a cross.

That cross that has become so visible hanging from one’s neck is often worn to say, “I’m a Christian.” But those same ones follow a doctrine, a way of living, a belief system, that is the antithesis of all Jesus taught. Years ago, I had a cross made. It was simple but quite beautiful. I wore it everywhere. Always. But then around 2016 with the rise of Trump and the constant onslaught of lies and fabrications and even gaslighting on certain pro-Trump networks, mainly Fox, I was constantly seeing people who had no problem with distorting truth, wearing a cross. Always visible. Yet what came from their mouths was venomous. Propping up a man who had no problem lying, stealing, name-calling, treating those with disabilities as less than, dishonoring our military and a war hero in John McCain, and a felonious sexual deviant. How did this align with the cross they so blatantly wore? Did they have any idea what that cross meant? What our Lord Jesus Christ endured on that cross that we might be reconciled with His father? That it was on that cross that He took all for us? I doubt they actually have that degree of understanding and I’m not sure they care to truly know. But I stopped wearing my cross. I put it away. I do not want to be identified as someone who just wears that cross as a piece of jewelry. And I don’t want to be identified with those who wear it as an evangelical fashion statement. I do not want to be so inured to His suffering that I show no regard to His words to us. To what He did that I might have abundant life. I don’t want to hear what Paul told the Galatians that he marveled how they had turned to a different gospel. One who perverts the gospel of Christ.

When you see people who represent Donald Trump, like Pam Bondi, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Lara Trump, Karoline Leavitt and Paula White, who speak that which is contrary to all Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount, turn from them. Have no part in this which adulterates His words to take up our cross and follow Him. I pray we truly can say as in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” That cross worn as a symbol of that which espouses a doctrine of man and of demons must be put away. Embrace Him. He has risen! Blessings.