Red Letter Series – Carrying our Cross
- Jesus starts out in a surprising way. He talked about loving - even your enemies, and here He says about whoever wants to follow Him must hate his mother and father, wife and children, even his own life.
- What is going on here? Has Jesus changed His mind? Even when He talks about hate He is actually talking about love.
- He is using Hyperbole, exaggeration to make a point.
- Our love for God must be so much greater than our love for those around us.
- We need to love everybody, not just those who love us. God is love and we were created for love, in His image and likeness.
- Why is so hard to be a disciple of Jesus?
- There are 2 ways of living our lives. The first is centered on ourselves. The other is to live with another source of love - from God. Reaching out to those who don't love us.
- God wants His love to be known everywhere. The way of love goes together with the way of the cross. We now talk about cost. Jesus says that if we don't carry our cross, we cannot be His disciples. This might not mean much to us today.
- In our mind's eye we think of Jesus carrying an exceptionally heavy wooden cross, knowing what it is going to be used for.
- Life has a deeper meaning than just living to enjoy ourselves. God has a lot more for us. We are each called to carry our own cross, meaning dying to self, being willing to give up our lives for others.
- Comparing even the most loving of human relations, when compared to the love of God is like hate.