And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power (Mark 8:34–9:1)
This Sunday in the Church calendar is called the week (or Sunday) after the Feast of the Exaltation. For this occasion, the Church rubrics interrupt the regular reading of Sunday passages after the Feast of Pentecost and select a special Gospel reading associated with the recent Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, celebrated on September 14/27.
This reading speaks of carrying our cross as being directly related to the Cross of Christ the Savior, by which He brought salvation to the human race.
Speaking of carrying our cross, the evangelist Mark quotes the words of Christ, and they sound so beautiful and clear in the Church Slavonic language that I will allow myself to repeat them: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mark 8:35, 34).
Let us dwell on this sentence: Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Luke 8:34).
First of all, it follows that God seeks those who worship Him and follow Him consciously and voluntarily, because He says: whosoever will come after me. This is the very important principle of internal freedom, which is has been very difficult to maintain in the history of the Christian Church. Only this makes a person a Christian. It is difficult to implement in Church-state relations, where those who want good, in essence, so that others may come into contact with the Gospel faith and not be deprived of Eternity, may become consciously believing Christians. There is a temptation to use external force—whether it be the state, media, education, and so on—to make a person or an entire nation Christian, regardless of personal human freedom.
Yet Christ says that, in the end, everything will be decided in a person’s soul.
This is also important for Christian parents to remember. Of course, we cannot help but strive to raise our children in the same faith in which we live ourselves—the joy, depth, and beauty of which we have experienced and without which we cannot live. But ultimately, we must raise our children so that they freely make the choice to take upon themselves the yoke of the cross of Christ’s faith, which is never easy, but which is the greatest treasure in the life of a believer.
The second thing that follows from the phrase let him deny himself is the condition of following Christ. This is also a very challenging principle. Often, a person wants to be a Christian in the realm of Christianity that brings joy and comfort. People sometimes rush to the Church and Christianity when they are troubled and seek comfort, sometimes even as a kind of drug, as a spiritual antidepressant. A person wants to receive from the Church what the harsh, deceptive, wicked, and cunning world does not provide, while assuming that they can remain unchanged. It must be understood that this is a deception, and that one can only receive if one gives; that Christianity cannot be used fragmentarily, and one cannot be a partial Christian. Moreover, one’s inner being will not be formed properly without denying oneself for the sake of God’s truth, for one’s neighbor, and in order to keep the commandments.
Next, Christ says that whoever decides to follow Him and then denies himself must take up his cross. We must admit that these words, over the two thousand years of Christian history, have been somewhat worn out in everyday and even Church-homiletic use to the point of losing their meaning, making it difficult to bring their relevance to the modern person’s mind. Folk wisdom, which perhaps two or three centuries ago resounded like a bell (for example, such old Russian sayings as: Christ suffered, and so must we), would most likely be received ironically by our contemporaries. But if we push aside the weakening, meaningless embellishments and convoluted interpretations, we still cannot and should not cancel the words of the Gospel. The perception of life as an eternal holiday, in which we are carefree children bearing no responsibility, and the hope that we can flutter through life like a butterfly from childhood to old age, as if life will be like a glossy magazine with shiny pictures, is in no way based on the Gospel. Christ warns us that this life is inevitably connected with hardships and sorrows, without which the human soul is not forged; not only in meetings but also in partings; not only in love and friendship, but also in betrayal and deceit. Face all of this courageously and remember that while you are indeed ascending and carrying your cross, before you walks the One who does not deceive, Who not only promises that this path can be walked, but also shows how to walk it.
And one more important clarification related to this phrase—take up your cross. Don’t invent crosses for yourself that belong to others. There is an old parable about a man who found life unbearably difficult and began asking God to change his cross. God brought him to a field filled with many crosses and said, “Choose any one.” The man walked around for a long time. One cross was small but dug painfully into his back. Another wasn’t heavy, but he couldn’t hold it in his hands. A third was beautiful, but he lacked the strength to lift it. Finally, the man found a cross, and when he looked at the inscription, he saw that it was very the cross he had before.
So, don’t seek out what is not yours, and don’t invent ascetic labors that you won’t in reality find in your life. Instead, do what is required of you, as God sends it to you in this life. And that will be the cross-bearing that places you alongside the Cross of Christ.
