Great Lent 2026; Sunday of the Cross
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)
Christ is talking as if “coming after” or “following” Him is something good.
What is that all about? Where is He going? Where is He leading us?
Christ talks about “denying” ourselves. In the next verse He ties that to being willing to die.
This sounds important. We need to get it right.
There is a great lie in our world: that all religions are basically the same. But Scripture warns us that the devil himself can appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
So it is not enough simply to have faith in something.
Why in the world are there so many warnings in the Bible about idolatry?
Some people focus on sexual sin. But even Scripture often uses sexual sin as a metaphor for something even worse: worshipping false gods. One is bad—but the other is worse. Just as marriage is good, but union with God is even greater.
So we need to get this cross thing right.
Is it just about perseverance?
Everyone has their own cross to bear?
Well… kind of. But even that needs to be grounded. We are not simply stoics. If we are stoics at all, we are stoics of a very particular kind.
So what is the cross?
Yes, it involves pain. But not just any pain.
Look to the prototype. We are Christians, and Christ is our standard.
His cross was painful—but it was pain put to a purpose. It was sacrificial. He gave Himself as a sacrifice. And all sacrifice involves something valuable—something costly, something difficult.
Pain can be like that.
The cross was Christ’s sacrifice on behalf of the people and the world that He loved.
That gives us something to work with.
Taking up our cross means doing things that are hard on behalf of others.
At the very least, it means denying what we might prefer so that others can thrive.
For Christ, that meant leaving the place where He was given the glory and honor that was His due and coming to live in a world where He would be disrespected, misunderstood, and even tortured and killed.
And He did it so that we—the ones He loves—could join Him in eternal glory.
When we voluntarily sacrifice our time, when we put up with people who misunderstand us, who may not value us, who may never fully appreciate what we are doing—and we do it out of a desire for their health and salvation …
… then we are taking up our cross and following Christ into glory.
So be patient when your ego tells you to lash out.
Be courageous when your instincts tell you to hide.
Figure out what love requires in each moment—and then dedicate yourself to it.
In addition to patience and courage, this requires paying attention. It requires humility. It requires dedication to the needs of the moment.
And it surely won’t be easy.
But this is the cup that our Lord accepted in the Garden of Gethsemane—the cup that led to the salvation of the world.
And when we drink of that cup, we are united to Him through His passion on the Cross.
But we must remember something very important.
The cross is not the end of the story.
Christ did not go to the cross in order to remain in the grave.
He went through the cross into resurrection.
And this is exactly where the Church is leading us during Great Lent.
We are walking the road of the cross now so that we may stand together in the light of Pascha.
Our Lord Himself told us how this works:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
In Christ, the cross is never the final word.
What passes through the cross is changed.
We die with Him so that we may live with Him.
Buried with Him in death, we rise with Him into newness of life.
As St. Maximus the Confessor says, “The one who participates in Christ’s sufferings also shares in His glory.”
Suffering offered in love becomes glory.
Sacrifice becomes participation in His life.
And even death becomes the doorway to life.
This is the mystery the Church sings every year at Pascha:
Yesterday I was buried with Thee, O Christ;
today I arise with Thee in Thy resurrection.
This is where Christ is leading us.
Through the cross.
Into resurrection.
So when the moment comes—and it will come—when love requires something difficult from you, do not be afraid of the cross.
Take it up.
Follow Him.
Because on the other side of the cross is life—
life with Christ,
life with all the saints,
and life in the glory of the Kingdom.
