A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
The cost and rewards of discipleship
Reading: Matthew 10:34-39
The whole idea of “taking up your cross” (v38) is totally foreign to us. Indeed some people can refer to a minor irritation as “their cross.” However, to the people of Palestine in the 1st century it was a real and terrifying concept. One Roman general in charge of the area, having put down a revolt by Judas of Galilee, ordered that 2,000 Jews be crucified and that their crosses should be displayed next to the roads for everybody to see. Those Jews would have carried, probably stumbled would be a better word, to the place of execution carrying their own instrument of death. To every Jew in Palestine it was blindingly the obvious what it meant “to take up your cross.” So: (i) The cost is the sacrifice that a Christian has to make to do the will of Jesus. In Christianity there is always a cross, you could describe Christianity as the way of the cross.
(ii) The reward is “finding your life by loosing it”(v39). It is a very tempting option to save your life but if you do, you will loose it and your place and hold on history will be lost for ever. The adventure is finding your life by loosing it. That prospect never cases to excite me.
Meditation: I can find my life by loosing it.
Prayer pointer: I need to be ready for sacrifice.
Matthew: 70
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