The Royal Road

Bread and Wine Reading: "The Royal Road", Thomas a’ Kempis

Scripture Reading: Matthew 16: 24-28
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

All of this talk of cross-bearing is getting pretty hard! What happened to that easy road that if you just turn it over to God, if you just believe with all you have, if you just pray and do right by God, God will reward and bless you? Your life will be full and rich and you will everything you need. Yeah, we’d probably much rather listen to that “gospel of success” refrain, especially now as the lords of Wall Street and the princes of finance are literally driven to their knees, as the car dealers who have spent the last several years cranking out those huge gas-guzzling 4-wheel dinosaurs now beg for mercy, and as we all begin to take a good hard look at how we got here at all.

Thomas a’ Kempis’ 14th century words tell us that the cross is unavoidable. We cannot escape it. It does not call us to an easy life; there is no “gospel of success” as we know it. Instead, we are called to deny ourselves—to shun what our earthly self desires, to put others’ needs ahead of our own, and to realize that our walk with Christ is not one that promises earthly blessings. Life is just hard sometimes. Oh, who are we kidding…it’s downright crappy some days! We live with illness and worry and insecurity. We live with grief and shadows and death. And, lo and behold, there is God…God with us…always…whether or not we are successful or blessed. As a’ Kempis said, “if you willingly carry the cross, it will carry you. It will take you to where suffering comes to an end, a place other than here.” A place other than here…and that, my friends, is the royal road, the true “gospel of success”. By denying yourself and walking this road of Christ’s death, by becoming one with Christ even as the cross is raised against the sky, even as tragedy looms on the horizon, you, too, will be raised, resurrected to new life.

Sadhu Sundar Singh said this: “If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world, with all its earthly goods. Which cross have you taken up? Pause and consider.”

Discussion Questions:
1.) What do you have trouble with the call to “take up your cross”?
2.) What part of your life is lived within the “gospel of success” and what part is lived as a cross-bearer?
3.) What does it mean for you to “suffer with Christ”?

So go forth and pause and consider!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli