The Way Of The Cross.

During Lent, we take a deeper look at the Cross as we journey towards Easter. In The Way of the Cross we discover a lifestyle of the Cross, a paradigm for living as Jesus modelled it: living away from the petty self-interest and self-preservation that the culture around us promotes, and living towards the deep goodness of trust, surrender, and abandonment. The Way of the Cross is an invitation to fearlessly pour out our lives, to boldly embrace suffering and loss, and to meaningfully respond to our human brokenness. The Way of the Cross is not a morbid path to travel, but is actually the most beautiful route to choose, an often-overlooked track that far too few locate. 

1. What makes you feel fully alive? Where do you experience your best life – that sense of real exhilaration and fulfilment?  

2. Have you ever seen an advertisement and consciously went and bought something (or perhaps taken a holiday somewhere) because you believed it really might change your life? How did it work out?  

3. Does owning ‘stuff’ make you happy? How much is enough? How would you feel if you went out one day (with all your family and pets) and came home to find your house and all your stuff had been destroyed in a freak fire?  

Ask someone to read this quote to the group. 

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.

1. During the 1930s, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer ran an illegal seminary, training young men who opposed the Nazi regime to lead counter-cultural churches. Later he was hanged in a prison camp just as the 2ndWorld War was ending. These were the words he had imprinted on the minds of his trainees, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  

Have you ever seen a recruitment ad for the military? What sorts of promises do they make to young recruits? What do they never mention? Why does Jesus say what he does in Mark 8, or was he just bad at recruiting followers?  

2. In the First Century Roman World, which included the territory of Judea, crucifixion was a punishment reserved for slaves and rebel insurgents who threatened the authority of the Empire.

With the benefit of 2000 of Christian history, what do you think of when you think of a cross? What does ‘take up your cross’ mean to you?  

3. What does ‘the empire’ look like today? What needs rebelling against? How can we best be Insurgents for Jesus?