Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” For three weeks we studied the parables of Jesus. We then studied the miracles of Jesus for another three weeks. Each of these studies of stories and miracles provided us insight into the Kingdom of God. As we discussed over those six weeks, we are called to respond. Jesus asked us last week: What do you have to say? Having declared their faith in Jesus that faith starts to slip quickly when they are confronted with Jesus’ reality.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
For three weeks we studied the parables of Jesus. We then studied the miracles of Jesus for another three weeks.
Each of these studies of stories and miracles provided us insight into the Kingdom of God. As we discussed over those six weeks, we are called to respond.
Jesus asked us last week: What do you have to say?
Having declared their faith in Jesus that faith starts to slip quickly when they are confronted with Jesus’ reality. The Kingdom calls Me to journey to Jerusalem where I will be tried, tortured, and killed in the worst and most humiliating way possible
Jesus tells His apostles and thus tells us – it is not like you think it is. Your assumptions and imaginations fall far short of the Kingdom’s reality.
Jeremiah tried to exhort the people with God’s reality. For that he was deemed a fool. He says straight out in a very unconditional way – people see me as an ass. The Bible translation used for the reading we heard does not really capture what Jeremiah was saying. In the Jerusalem translation it is rendered: I am a daily laughing-stock, everybody’s butt.
Despite all this, Jeremiah could not stop from doing as the Lord asked. He put it all out there because God’s way burned within him. Jeremiah’s doing of God’s will was expensive, but then again, he saw God as worth his all.
St. Paul calls us to sacrifice ourselves for the Kingdom; to be changed and transformed so our entire focus is on God’s will so we may do what is good and pleasing and perfect in God’s eyes, not our own.
We are called to the fullness of Christian life, to being the real and persistent image of Christ each day.
Conceptually it may be easy to see ourselves as Jesus’ faithful child. When moments arrive to be charitable, kind, or courteous we do exactly that. We would not do less.
In the hardest of situations, when confronted by real hate and mockery, facing impossible news and events Jesus did not see the cost too high. He asks us to be there too, taking up the expensive cross.
