• Luke 14:27 - And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
• Matthew 10:38 - and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
• Matthew 16:24 - Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
• Mark 8:34 - Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
• Luke 9:23 - Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Question: So, WHY was Jesus so obsessed with crosses even before he was crucified?  I mean, even if Jesus knew what was going to happen, how could the expression have any meaning to those he was talking to yet?

Likely explanation: Jesus’s words were written by people over two centuries after Jesus supposedly lived, and the phrase “take up the cross” was in common use from the myth.

Conclusion: Jesus never actually said any of this stuff.

Okay, this is probably me just being super sensitive, and maybe it’s just me, but I REALLY don’t like jokes being made about Jesus on the cross, and it’s certainly isn’t for religious reasons.

No matter if you believe Yeshua was real or not, this is an image of TORTURE!  Crucifixion happened to hundreds / thousands of REAL people, many of whom were probably killed for reasons that we would probably not even put people in jail for nowadays.

When I see Jesus on the cross, I can’t help but feel the pain and suffering that these people must have gone through.  Nails couldn’t be driven through the hands…the bones and muscles of the hands aren’t strong enough to hold the weight of the body. (Imagine what kind of suffering people had to endure before learning that little bit of gruesome knowledge.)  Nails were driven through the bones of the forearm.  Hanging…nails into your arms…knowing that you will hang up there until you die…ugh.

Even if Yeshua is imaginary, the torture depicted by his image really happened to real people.  I can’t help but look at those images and feel the horror of what they must have gone through.  I simply can find nothing about the situation remotely funny.

And when I say that the worship of an ancient torture device creeps me out, I’m not exaggerating.  I feel that there’s something deeply wrong and rather sick about it.  You’re sitting there in a church, and up there in the front is a graphic, 3D sculpture of a man being tortured to death.  And then people pretend to drink his blood and cannibalize him.  Who the hell came up with THAT shit?

Yeah, I hate horror movies too.  I’m a sensitive SOB.  Sigh.

~ Steve