Opening Prayer
Lord, grant me gladly to carry Your cross after You. Amen.
Text: John 21:20–23
Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”
Devotion
“Follow Me,” Jesus says to Peter, that is: “Follow Me in suffering and death.” And the Lord gets up and leaves the meal, and Peter follows Him. So he will follow Him in crucifixion. But John follows too. Then Peter asks, either on John’s behalf that the Lord might also show his coming fate, or out of surprise and curiosity: “But Lord, what about this man?” But Jesus refuses the question and says that it will answer itself. Should John then not go the way of tribulation, when he followed after the Lord? Yes, indeed! there is no other way to follow the Lord. “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me'” (Luk 9:23). “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luk 14:27). But not everyone’s cross is the same: Peter has his, and John his. The Lord gives each one what is fitting for him. He can exempt His dearest friend from a martyr’s death, He can exempt him and — deny him the crown. He can give him other sufferings and other honors which are not less. The only thing Jesus emphasizes here by dismissing Peter’s question is that he should take up his cross. Do not ask curiously and be dissatisfied if others suffer less than you, or if they have more honor than you, or why your path might be narrower or your power less in relation to the size of your cross. No believer has too hard or too light a cross. No one would be served by exchanging with someone else. There is a selfish dissatisfaction which murmurs against God and envies others; keep yourself from giving it room! If you made a trade, you would soon see that someone else’s cross does not fit you. Take yours and follow Jesus! There is an obedient devotion, which teaches us to suffer quietly, to give thanks for everything and gladly bear burdens for one another. “Follow Me,” the Lord says. These words we will take with us and go and do it. None of us then will lack the struggle and pain of the cross, but neither shall we lack the joy and honor of the cross, the eternal blessing of the cross.
Closing Prayer
Draw us to You, Lord Jesus. You know we want to follow You, and You know the unwillingness of our flesh against the cross. Draw us after You. Grant us grace to walk in Your footsteps and carry our cross and learn to rejoice under it, to the praise of Your name and the strengthening of our brethren. Amen.
Hymn
O how my heart shall then delight
When I no more refuse Thee
Then no more sorrow or sad plight
Need drive me back to choose Thee;
Thy holy Word and voice:
My happy only choice;
All other thoughts I shall disown
And follow in Thy steps alone.
Thy Word’s calm sea I float upon;
Thy thorns I choose with gladness.
I know that roses grow thereon
To sweeten all my sadness!
These trials lead me on
The path to glory’s throne;
How wise for heav’n are those who care
Our Jesus’ easy yoke to bear.
Bonin/Brorson: Den Vei, du gik i Kors og Trang L 424:4-5 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Der lieben Sonne Licht (ELH 252); alternate hymn: In the cross of Christ I glory ELH 523:1, 4