Taking Up a Cross the Empire Built
When Jesus said, "If anyone would come after Me, let me deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me," we need to remember...
This is tradition perspectives on discipleship, drawing on Luke 9:23.
When Jesus said, "If anyone would come after Me, let me deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me," we need to remember what the cross actually was. It wasn't a piece of jewelry. It wasn't a metaphor for mild inconvenience. The cross was Rome's instrument of state-sponsored terror, reserved for those who threatened the imperial order. Rachel Held Evans once observed that following Jesus has never been about comfort — it's about solidarity with the ones the world discards.…
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