This is Not Your Cross to Bear

Ready or Not | This is Not Your Cross to Bear

Matthew 16:21-30

August 30, 2026

Rev. Teer Hardy

We like putting words in Jesus’ mouth because the Jesus we invent in our image asks less of us. But Jesus tells his disciples: deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.

Those words are hard.

But Jesus is not standing at a safe distance pointing us toward the cross. He is already headed that direction.

To Jerusalem.To rejection and suffering.To a hill outside the city where Sin and Death do their worst.And to a tomb that does not get the final word. Not for Jesus. And because of Jesus, not for you.

Following Jesus may cost us something: our comfort, reputation, certainty, need to be right, or insistence on staying safe.

Cost is not the point. Jesus is.

Jesus does not say, “Go find a cross. He says, “Follow me.”

There is a difference.