Dear Christian friends:

When St. Patrick went to Ireland to preach Jesus there he found that the people worshiped the sun. After several years the Gospel preaching changed their lives to live in Jesus' way. One of the tools which St. Patrick used in his preaching was the Celtic cross. The symbol for their sun god was a circle. So St. Patrick put the cross on the circle, and that became the Irish cross. The cross on the circle helped the Irish to see that Jesus is the true God, not the sun.

When we put the cross on anything it changes that thing. The cross gives anything and any person its true place and purpose.

In our text for today Jesus teaches His disciples about serving. Jesus puts the cross also on our serving. Our service in the church is no good without the cross. So today we attend to our text and consider:


When we seek honor and praise for ourselves in the church, people see us and not the cross. We really deny the Gospel instead of proclaiming it as we should.

When we do this we fail to see our own need for forgiveness and the need of others to receive forgiveness of sins and all the blessings of the cross.

In our text we have a clear example of this. Jesus is now on His way to Jerusalem to suffer and die there on the cross. Jesus calls His twelve disciples apart from the large crowd. He says to them, "We are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests, and law teachers. They will condemn Him to death, and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life!" (Matthew 20:17-18) With these words Jesus shows His heart, His deepest love to His disciples, His offering up Himself to take away the world's sins. These are the most important words His disciples or anyone can hear!

Are the disciples impressed when Jesus tells them about His cross? No! They say not one word about Jesus' fantastic announcement! They seem not concerned that He must now suffer and die. They ask not one question about it. What are they thinking? They seem to feel that something important will soon happen. They seem to think that Jesus will now set up an earthly kingdom, perhaps force the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate and his soldiers to leave their country, and then Himself rule over the Jewish country. The disciples are wondering and quarreling about who among them will receive the most power and glory when Jesus establishes His kingdom. James and John with their mother come to Jesus and ask that they be first and second assistant rulers in Jesus' new kingdom, one to sit on His right side and the other on His left side. (Matthew 20:20-21) When the other ten disciples hear about this, they are angry at James and John and jealous of them. (Matthew 20:24)

Jesus' disciples seem not to love Jesus and His cross. They seem to seek only their own profit, their own honor and glory in Jesus' kingdom. The cross is put aside as not important. They seem not to see their need for the cross.

Are we any better than these twelve disciples? Are we impressed when we hear the words of Jesus proclaiming His cross? Now during Lent we are having special church services each Wednesday so that our members can attend to the words of Jesus' suffering and death. Are our members impressed by those words of Jesus' suffering and death? How many are taking the trouble and making the extra effort to come here each Wednesday? About 30! Does that show that we are impressed by Jesus' cross? Maybe we are more interested in our own profit, comfort, pleasure and glory the same as the twelve disciples. We seem not to feel the need for the cross and its wonderful blessings. We seem not to be standing beneath the cross. And if we are not standing beneath the cross we are not really serving Jesus, but ourselves. Jesus is really not our God, but we have some hidden false gods!

We, the same as the twelve disciples, need to wake up! We need to be standing beneath the cross of Jesus. Then we can really serve Him and not ourselves.

In our text we see how Jesus with much love and patience corrected His disciples. Jesus also corrects us. Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-28)

Jesus uses Himself, "the Son of Man," as the example for service in the church. Jesus did not think about Himself. He thought about us and our need to have salvation from sin, death and hell. He left His comfortable home in heaven and came here on earth to suffer and die for us! Jesus gives us a perfect example of serving in the church.

Our mission, our work as members of Jesus' church, is to proclaim the cross and do it by willing, humble service to others. This means taking the trouble and making the extra effort to be here at all church services. It means giving up that T.V. show on Wednesday evenings and instead coming here to church to stand beneath the cross with our brothers and sisters to help and strengthen one another for service. It means managing our time, talents and money better, according to God's will and for His glory. Then we can support our church and its world wide missions as God has blessed us.

God help us to join in serving beneath the cross!

Amen.