Easter Message 2025

On Good Friday, you may enjoy some hot cross buns (well, actually you may have been eating them since Christmas) fresh from the oven. But what does the cross mean? Why do Christians talk about “taking up their cross and following Jesus”? Is it more than eating a tasty Easter bun?

Sadhu Sundar Singh says, “If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world, with all its earthly goods. Which cross have you taken up?”

What does it mean to “take up a cross?” When Jesus carried His cross, it wasn’t a symbolic burden, it was the means of his death. So, taking up your cross to follow Jesus means giving your life, dying to yourself. Often, we would rather have our lives improved, not necessarily transformed. We like the idea of freedom but not the responsibility to die daily to ourselves. We want blessing without duty, grace without obligation, and life without death.

The Book of Matthew says that Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” 

The cross has become a sentimental symbol, a trinket worn around your neck, or a bun heating nicely in the oven. But following Christ, or being a Christian is a commitment to the suffering Christ. Christ who was crucified on the cross.

Thomas à Kempis, writing in the 15th century observed, “There will always be many who will love Christ’s heavenly kingdom, but few who will bear his cross. Jesus has many who desire consolation, but few who care for adversity. He finds many to share his table, but few will join him in fasting. Many are eager to be happy with him; few wish to suffer anything for him…. Many are awed by his miracles; few accept the shame of his cross.”

So why would we choose to take up our cross and follow Christ? Sadhu Sundar Singh got it right, we will bear a cross of one sort or another. The cross of the Master or the cross of the world. The Apostle Paul abandoned himself completely to Christ and considered all of his achievements as rubbish “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

The choice is ours. The cross of Christ or the cross of the world. Which cross have you taken up?

Rev. Mark Wilson

National Ministries Director

Australian Baptist Ministries