Read Mark 8:27-38 with your family.

Jesus had very good friends, but those friends did not always understand what Jesus was doing or why he had to challenge the religious authorities in the Temple in Jerusalem. They wanted Jesus to stay with them so they could continue enjoying his company as they travelled around meeting, teaching, and healing people.

However, Jesus had a job to do. A hard job. And Jesus wanted us to share a part of that hard job.

His disciples didn’t understand. Peter tried to tell him not to risk his life, but Jesus got upset and told Peter to get behind him and don’t be a temptation to an easier way of life (this was not about the character of Satan that we have in today’s movies and scary shows, all ‘satan’ meant was temptation to follow a different path than the one God wanted us to follow).

Then Jesus said “take up your cross”, but that didn’t mean real cross like the one on which Jesus would die, instead it meant take up your responsibility to make the world a better place, even when people get angry at you and say or do mean things.

Following Jesus is not easy, but if we do behave as Jesus asked us to behave, and treat everyone with love and kindness, we get to help change the world into what it was supposed to be. That’s what Jesus meant by asking us to make some harder choices. We might not get what we want right away, but we can experience the beauty of God’s world if we all work together to make things better.