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Home Mark 8:34-37 NRSVue

Mark 8:34-37 NRSVue

34He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

“Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.”

Some thoughts on this scripture

Reflection
Jesus is offering me a choice here, and telling me the plain truth about what that choice will mean. I can live for myself, concentrate on 'my life', my ambitions, my pleasures, so much that I become closed up in my own - fairly comfortable - little world. I can choose that if I want to, and nobody will stop me.

Reflection
Or I can choose to be a 'person for others'. This does not mean making myself a doormat or neglecting my real needs, but giving of myself for others, wanting other people's lives to have been better because I have lived.

Reflection
If I choose living for others, and keep that decision alive by constant renewal, then my relationships take on a new quality. It is then that I am fully alive.

Reflection
To be asked to take up a cross would have been really shameful. In Jesus’ time, the cross had not yet become the sign of victory and resurrection. Going with Jesus means often going against the tides of opinion, values, behaviour or thought. The cross was a real symbol of losing life, both physical and spiritual. Prayer gives courage and strength to live like Jesus, to listen with the openness of the disciple’s ear, and to share his life in our world.

Reflection
There is a cost to discipleship. There are times when the call of Jesus will go against other desires and values, personal and cultural. Following Christ may make us feel foolish in front of others. In our following of the Lord we need the support and solidarity of like-minded people. Our endurance will bring forth the kingdom in ways we may not expect.  

Reflection
Following Jesus means making choices and choices mean that we leave some possibilities behind even as we look to important prospects. As I deny myself, I ask Jesus to help me not to become regretful or nostalgic but to face the future confidently.