"And he bearing his cross went forth into a place . . . where they crucified him."John 19:17, 18; This momentous event took place on a certain Friday nearly two thousand years ago. And it led to something far more important three days later—Christ Jesus' resurrection from the grave. On a number of occasions he had conquered death for others. Now he took another giant step forward in spiritual ascendancy. He met and mastered death for himself. He proved for all time the fact of man's immortality as the reflection of ineradicable Life, the forever I am.
What is today known figuratively as crossbearing—willingly accepting a difficult course for the sake of others or for the attainment of a higher good—was really a way of life for Jesus throughout his entire career. He said to his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."Matt. 16:24;
The first Easter was not only a historical event of the first magnitude in which the unbroken continuity of man's existence was proven. It also symbolized the sacrifice that step by step each of us must make in order to attain the healing and restorative power that Jesus manifested and gain something of the joy, the inner buoyancy, that he promised us. Each of us must "take up his cross," that is, deny and progressively put off the material thoughts and acts that fasten on us the false belief that man is a finite mortal separate from God, the one infinite Life. We must hold to the scientific fact of man's present perfection as the reflection of divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures of which it is capable; but this can be done only by taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily life."Science and Health, pp.178, 179;
