The Waiting Cross

Luke 18: 31

Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them,

"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things

that are written by the prophets concerning

the Son of man shall be accomplished." 

        There are two kinds of courage. There is the courage of the man who, suddenly and without warning, is confronted with some emergency or some crisis, and without hesitation and even being reckless flings himself into it. There is the courage of the man who sees a terrible situation looming ahead and knows that nothing short of running can avoid it, and who yet goes steadfast and forward. There is no question which is the higher courage. Many a man is capable of the heroic action on the spur of the moment; it takes a man of supreme courage to go on to face something which haunts him for days ahead and which, by turning back,  he  could escape.

       With the frequent warning of what was to happen to Jesus in Jerusalem, we sometimes wonder why, when the cross came, it was such a shock and such a shattering blow to His disciples. The truth is that they simply could not take in what He was saying to them. They were obsessed with the idea of a conquering king; they still clung to that hope that He would let loose His power in Jerusalem and blast His enemies off the face of the earth.  I'm sure that some of us today holds that same hope every now and then.

       Here is a great warning to every listener. The human mind has a way of listening only to what it wants to hear. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. There is a kind of wishful thinking which believes that the unpleasant truth cannot really be true, and that the thing it does not want to happen cannot happen. A man will always struggle against the tendency to hear only what he wants to hear.

       Jesus never foretold the cross without foretelling the resurrection. He knew that shame lay before Him, but He was equally certain that glory lay before Him, too. He knew what the malice of men could do, but He knew also what the power of God could do. It was in the certainty of ultimate victory that He faced the apparent defeat of the cross. He knew that without a cross there can never be any crown.  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24).

        Amen!

Reading: (Luke 18:31-35)

Ref: (HGSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry