This Sunday, Jesus asks one of the most important questions found anywhere in the Gospel: “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:26). It is a question worth sitting with.
We spend much of our lives working, planning, building, achieving, and preparing for the future. None of these things are wrong. But Jesus asks us to look deeper. He asks us not simply, “What are you accomplishing with your life?” but “Who are you becoming?”
It is possible to gain many things and lose something far more important along the way. We can gain success and lose humility…acquire possessions and lose gratitude…become so busy that we neglect the people closest to us.
That is why Jesus says: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”. Those words can sound demanding until we remember something very important: Jesus lived them first.
Look at the human life of Jesus. He could have chosen power, but He chose service. He could have lived for Himself, but He continually gave Himself to others. He gave His time…His compassion…His mercy…His forgiveness. And eventually, on the Cross, He gave everything. Jesus stretched out His arms and gave us His very life. Why? He Loves Us.
The Cross is not simply a symbol of suffering. The Cross is the greatest sign of self-giving love. Jesus does not merely tell us what love looks like; He shows us.
Love gives. Love sacrifices. Love remains. Love sometimes costs us something. And Jesus loved us enough to give us Himself. So, when Jesus tells us to “take up your cross,” He is not asking us to search for suffering. He is inviting us to love as He loves, to give something of ourselves for another.
We see that love in a parent sacrificing for a child, a spouse caring for a husband or wife, someone caring for an aging parent, or a friend remaining beside another during a difficult time.
These may seem like ordinary moments, but they are often the moments when we become most like Christ.
Perhaps, then, there is one question we should carry with us this week: If Jesus has given Himself completely to me in love, where is He asking me to give more of myself in love to someone else?
One day, our titles, accomplishments, possessions, and recognition will be left behind. But the person we have become before God remains.
Jesus shows us from the Cross: The greatest life is not the life that possesses the most. It is the life that loves the most.