Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
(Luke 14.27
NRSV)
Do you remember that story that Maxie Dunnam tells about an American businessman who traveled to Europe to see the famous Oberammergau Passion Play? Following the performance the businessman had the opportunity to meet and talk with Anton Lang who portrayed Christ in the Passion Play. Seeing the cross that was used in the play, the businessman wanted his wife to take his picture with it. Handing the camera to his wife, he asked her to take his picture while he lifted the cross to his shoulder. To his surprise he could hardly budge the cross from the floor.
"I don't understand," he said to Mr. Lang. "I thought it would be hollow. Why do you carry such a heavy cross?" Anton Lang's reply explains why this play draws people from all over the world to that little Bavarian village every decade. "If I did not feel the weight of His cross," he said, "I could not play the part." If being a disciple of Jesus costs us no pain to acquire, no self-denial to preserve, no effort to advance, no struggle to maintain, then this isn't what Jesus had in mind. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not something we should take lightly. It involves our total commitment.
Dear Jesus, help me to be totally committed to serving you. Amen.
