JESUS IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE SAID
TAKE UP YOUR CROSS
AND FOLLOW ME
IT ALWAYS SEEMED
LIKE AN ANACHRONISM TO ME
JEWISH METHOD OF KILLING
WAS STONING
THE CROSS TO THE JEW
WAS A ROMAN METHOD OF EXECUTION
I THOUGHT MAYBE SOME SCRIBE
ADDED IT
TO HELP JESUS MAKE HIS POINT
AND WHAT WOULD THAT POINT BE
TO JESUS
OR THE MAYBE SCRIBE
DEATH BY ROMANS
NOT FOR SACRILEGE
ABOUT WHICH
THE ROMANS COULD CARE LESS
BUT INSURRECTION
WHICH WAS A ROMAN CONCERN
SO JESUS WAS SAYING
IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DIE FOR ME
YOU CAN HAVE NO PART OF ME
I DON’T MEAN PHYSICAL DEATH ENTIRELY
ARE YOU WILLING TO BE MY DISCIPLE
24/7
OR ONE DAY A WEEK FOR MAYBE AN HOUR
24/7
FOLLOWING JESUS
FAILURE YES
BUT STRIVING TO MEET THE MARK
KNOWING THAT
I REMEMBER PAUL SAYING
Who will separate us
from the love of Christ?
Will tribulation,
or distress,
or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril,
or sword?
Just as it is written,
“ FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
But in all these things
we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him
who loved us.
For I am convinced
that neither death,
nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present
, nor things to come,
nor powers, 39
nor height, nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us
from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
FRANK A VOLLMER
