Jesus the Messiah was not about the imposition of political authority through force of arms, rather the Messiah triumphed through suffering love and the forgiveness of sins, through “bearing the cross” (8:34). The cross is evidence that the world hates the good, the loving, the kind, and the just. God came to us in Jesus Christ, and we crucified him. Our world is full of violence, lying, malice, greed, warfare, prejudice, and hatred, but “the cross which we take up is dying to such standards and values” (Macquarie). The cross and the resurrection reveal that non-violence, truthfulness, kindness, mercy, goodwill, and love ultimately overcome evil, malice, hatred, and death itself.  

We participate in that overcoming when we follow the ways of Jesus, the Messiah. We do this in more ways than we may think: We embrace a child who needs friendship and love. We alleviate suffering. We befriend someone with few or no friends. We seek to be reconciled with our enemies. We see someone scapegoat another person or a group of people and we refuse to participate in such scapegoating. We use no violence to control and manipulate another person. We resist the urge to call fire down upon our personal and national enemies. May we take up our cross and follow Jesus the Messiah!