Paving the Way with Crosses

"And they said to Him, 'Grant that we may sit in Your glory, one on Your right, and one on Your left.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'" (Mark 10:37-38)

How many of you have ever had the opportunity to see the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, beloved? If you have ever seen the movie "Saving Private Ryan," then you have stood in that very place with the title character of that film. Rows upon rows of white marble crosses adorn the landscape marking the resting place of the warriors who paid the ultimate price in the liberation of France during World War II. Once you see it, you realize that the pathway to the freedom that we enjoy today has, indeed, been paved with crosses.

James and John were clearly out of line when they asked Jesus if they could sit on either side of Him in His earthly kingdom. All they had in mind was the kingdom, the end-result, the eternal blessing of being redeemed. His gentle rebuke - "You do not know what you are asking for" - let them know that their focus needed to be upon the pathway to that kingdom instead of upon the end of time and that kingdom established. They were thinking of "sonship" and they needed to be thinking of "servanthood." The kingdom of God was not going to be handed to them on a silver platter. They were going to have to work hard to build it themselves and many of them would have to die in the process. In other words, their journey to the kingdom would be paved with crosses!

How like them we are today, beloved! Our songs and our themes of worship are so often about heaven - streets of gold, gates of pearl, choirs of angels, and reunited loved ones. And each one of those will be for us as true believers an eternal reality! But when we focus so intently upon that which is coming one day, we tend to lose sight of that which is here now. What our obscured vision will not let us see is that "cup" of suffering which Jesus bids us come and share with Him. We cannot or perhaps don't want to see the rejection by a sinful world, the slammed door, the turned-away face. Yet Jesus very clearly revealed to His disciples what it would cost them to build with Him:

"And He summoned the multitude with His disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me'" (Mark 8:34)

"Take up his cross" - interesting that in a day in which so many of us as Christians want to focus upon eternal glory, Jesus reminds us that the path to that glory is paved with crosses! Every true believer has his own "cross" to bear and the path down which we bear it is one of servanthood, of yieldedness to the purpose and plan of the Father for our lives. So the next time you sing a song like "When We All Get to Heaven," beloved, just remember that the way there is the way of the cross. By the way, you don't really have to imagine a cemetery full of white marble crosses in order to regain your spiritual focus. All you need is one.

Ron