Day 12

Navigating Jesus’s parables can be difficult. My sister and I shared a bedroom and we both had bulletin boards where we would often hang bible verses. I remember reading a bible verse from the book of Mark and it was very confusing to my 16-year-old brain. It read, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)
 
Often when we think of Jesus, we think of Him on the cross. This text was particularly confusing to me because Jesus commands us to carry our own cross and deny our personal desires. This is a radical way of thinking for Christians. We know that salvation is a gift from God given to those who believe in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. Salvation freed us from the punishment on Calvary, right? Jesus is telling us that we are to be transformed by His grace so that our lives reflect the gospel. Our sinful nature is to be self-centered. We must recognize our sins (our cross) which Jesus atoned for in His death on the cross. Without gratitude in our hearts, the miracle of Jesus’s resurrection can grow stale to us. We must reject our own desires and submit to God’s will for our lives. Jesus died so that we can be a part of something better than our self-centered world. We are taking part in the greatest redemption story of all time when we take up our cross and walk alongside our Savior day by day.

By: Kirby Alexander