What's In a Cross?

Right, so what was Christ really talking about when he told his disciples to shoulder their crosses? I heard this from a professor of mine in my Church and God’s Mission class, and I thought it was interesting so I’m passing it along. Just food for thought. Even though Christ had told the disciples about his coming death, even if they had accepted the fact he would suffer for all mankind, the thought of him doing it on a cross would have been obscure at best. Crosses were reserved for Roman punishment, punishment for rebellion against the Empire. If anyone were to kill Jesus, it would most likely be the Jews; the religious elite were directly challenged by his teaching and it threatened their very way of life. If Christ’s death was on the disciples’ minds, it would have probably been the traditional Jewish method of stoning him to death.

So what is the significance of taking up a cross and following Christ? The cross bearing march to the place of execution was the last act of the Roman Empire humbling rebels before they were finally brought to an end. It was the last forced act of submission before being put to death, and it was lead by the Roman centurion. Christ sets himself up as the Centurion, leading the death march. With the disciples taking up their crosses in their last act of submission before being fully losing their lives in Christ, how does this change or amplify our understanding of the passage? Interesting thought, huh?

The Weight

In Matthew 16, when Jesus told his disciples that to follow him they would need to take up their cross . . . what would that have meant to them? How would they have understood his command? What would it have been calling them towards? I will post again soon about my thoughts on the subject, but would love to hear your input.

Higher Education

When I made the jump from High School to College, I remember being really depressed. After finishing my first semester, I realized I had just covered more material in 6 months than I would have all year in a High School course. What had I been doing with my life for the past four years? Piles of busy work was my conclusion. In College, however, I knew I had arrived at accademic freedom. Freed from the shackles of primary education,I was now learning at an incredible rate, at least as fast as any human brain could hope to assimilate information. Now that I'm in grad school and going through whole text books in about a week, I realize I screwed around just as much in College as I did in High School. This realization is both comforting and again depressing to me. It means that 1) I’m smarter than I’ve ever given myself credit for and 2) Another four years of education in undergrad was spent not applying myself to actually learning scholastic material. The consequentialism of these assertions remains to be seen.

The pile of books in the picture are the books that I have finished in the first half of the semester. I give a solemn nod to the conifers that gave their lives for my continuing education and endeavour to not let them down this time. I will give their pulp efficacy!

Stoat Mania

I’ve wanted a ferret for as long as I can remember. In High School I decorated my binder with ferret pictures. I used to run around the house with a towel wrapped around my head and pretend I was a ferret, ferreting out snacks and shiny objects. Ok, so I made up the last part, but I really have always been passionate about ferrets. Relatively speaking, anyhow. While other people wanted cats and dogs and birds and other mundane pets, I always thought ferrets would be cool. It’s not like I have 17 ferrets living in my apartment or anything. And yes, I know they’re smelly and attention craving and conniving and sneaky, but so am I, so I think we’d get along just great. If you have a ferret, or know someone that does, let me know. I am subjecting my ferrets-make-great-pets bubble to the blogging community to either be reinforced or burst.