The Cross

For the first Jesus followers, the cross was not God’s plan to save sinners from hell. The cross was a weapon that the Roman empire used to intimidate rebels, like Jesus, who raised hell. When Jesus told his disciples to take up the cross, it was a call to subvert Roman supremacy with inconvenient truth and self-donating love. The cross was not about going to heaven when they died, but about leaving a little heaven where they lived. No matter what it cost.