Jesus' Cross

Since moving our family to our little coastal town about 12 years ago, I have had a yearly sighting of a man carrying a cross along the highway.  He appears between May and July each year, and he walks along the highway between the small coastal town in which I reside and the slightly larger town where I work.  No, I am not seeing things, or seeing people that aren't there.  Others have seen him as well, so I KNOW that I am not crazy.  Trust me....the first few years of seeing him along the roadway on my way to work, I did question my sanity.  


Picture this: a HUGE wooden cross.  The man is rugged looking and sort of has a bit of a "hippy-vibe" about him.  He has no pack, no luggage and I have not seen him ever get into a vehicle.  Come to think of it, how would he haul that cross......perhaps a large trailer or a flatbed, maybe?  Seriously, the cross is at least 16 feet long and is probably 8 feet across and is made of what appears to be a 6"x6" post material.  When I spotted him yesterday, he was resting in a shady spot near the highway, and he had a white cardboard sign, but I couldn't make out the words that were written on it.  Today when I saw him, he was stopped along the roadway and a man a woman had stopped and were offering him a bottle of water and a subway sandwich.  


The thing that strikes me the most about this man is this:  he "carries" this huge cross on his shoulder; much the same way as artists depict Jesus carrying His cross to Calvary.  The striking difference between this man's cross and Jesus' is that unlike Jesus' cross, this man's cross has a little wheel attached at the bottom where it "drags" along the ground.


Here is what the Word says about "taking up" His cross.


^{Mark 8:34-38} 
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”


The Word goes on to tell us of the horrible and agonizing death the our Savior suffered for all of us.  While I do understand what this man with the cross is trying to "say" by his public display of "taking up their cross" and following Jesus.  I know the point he is trying to make.  However, I am not so sure that I would have understood his intentions back in the days before Jesus called me out of darkness.  I would have shrugged him off as a "weirdo" or a "freak" of some sort.  


For me, to "take up" my cross and follow him, is to surrender my life to Him completely.....daily, repeatedly.  It is a private "taking up" of the cross.  Much like Jesus' example as He carried His cross to Calvary's hill where He took on all of the sin of the world for all people for all time.  It was a private "taking up" of the cross for Jesus.....a willingness to follow the Father's will for His life even unto death.   In Jesus' quest to follow the Father, the ones who made it a public spectacle for all to see, were the very same ones yelling "Crucify Him, crucify Him."  He didn't make a large amount of noise, He wasn't drawing attention to Himself, or otherwise saying "Look at me, look at me! I'm headed to the cross to take on the world's sins!"  Rather, He was simply following His Father's lead and doing only what His Father asked of Him...nothing more, nothing less. 


Now, I am not the one to judge this man's motives, nor his intentions, nor his reasoning. That is up to the Father alone for He is the only One to judge any of us for anything.  I desire to live my life and to take up my cross such as Jesus did.  Every step of the way....following the Father, doing what He asks me to do for that moment in my life....nothing more and nothing less.  To quietly and simply live out the life He has given me.  To listen more than I speak and to hear before I share.  And to one day, quietly hear Him say to me: "Well done, good and faithful servant."  All glory be to God for His great love and sacrifice for us.