Jesus said to his disciples: "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?"
REFLECTION
….come after me.
The central act of our redemption suffered greatly, was rejected and killed. We are asked to follow Him. We know the requirements, and inspite of that or perhaps because of our naïveté, we want to join His army head on. We see victory and we want it.
Do we know what the battle entails? For Easter we want a new and better us. Lent is our boot camp!
God became man—took on a human body— but without sin. Jesus physically suffered, was cold, hot, tired, hungry, rejected, cursed at, laughed at, insulted, ridiculed, and tortured before His cruel death! Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth mocked God.
The spoils for coming after Jesus are eternity with Him.
We strife for the best and the most. Sometimes we fail because our goals are too high, too many and 40 days is too long and our conviction falters.
However…
Decide to take up the crosses of your life. Give up sin. Focus on becoming better …perhaps by Easter we will be at our best.
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