CRU Update

We returned to CRU again this week on Thursday and Friday after a restful break. This Term, we will be exploring the Gospel of Mark – an account of Jesus’s life, death on the cross, and resurrection. We began with a game of “Celebrity Heads” – each Year 7 and 8 was assigned a celebrity that they would have to guess. People around Jesus’ time struggled to guess Jesus’ true identity as the Messiah. A shoutout to Billy for his incredible guesswork, only taking two guesses to discover that he was Taylor Swift! After that, Christian Wong interviewed Will McCowan on some deep questions about what it means to be a Christian and how he came to know Jesus. Mr Kellahan began this week’s talk with a hilarious story about a group of American tourists. They were walking near Balmoral Castle (where the Queen usually lives) and ended up finding a nice, elderly lady who had supposedly never met the Queen herself, but the man walking beside her had met her numerous times. After getting a picture with the man (who apparently knew the Queen quite well), they soon discovered that the lady they were talking to was the Queen herself! Just like the Queen, to those around Jesus, many had different ideas as to who Jesus was. He was a person who went around villages of Galilee preaching and had a devoted group of followers, but he also turned a few pieces of bread into thousands of loaves and walked on water!

Eventually, Jesus asks his disciples the question, “Who do you say I am?”. Peter responds that Jesus is the Christ – the anointed one who is meant to save humanity. The conversation then escalates as Jesus tells the disciples that he must suffer and eventually die on the cross – notice how paradoxical this all is for a supposed “King of the Universe”. You would think that Jesus would raise an almighty army to defeat sin, or magically remove all sin from the world, not die on the cross! Jesus then tells the disciples that if anyone wants to be a Christian, he must “Take up his cross and follow me”. This is an incredible commitment – being a Christian is not a decision that you make on a whim; it is something that you must investigate deeply. At CRU, we hope that we can learn about Jesus and consider whether to make the hard decision to follow him or not. The most important question that will ever be asked of you is, “Who do you say Jesus is?” – he may be a phony, but he may also be the Saviour of the world. Moving forward, we will have CRU on Thursday lunchtimes for Years 7 to 8 and Friday lunchtimes for Years 9 to 12. In addition, there is a weekly Bible study run every lunch for each Year group in addition to an exciting weekend Camp held with Abbotsleigh coming up soon – in particular, it’s a great opportunity to learn about the Bible for new Year 7 boys. You don’t need to be a Christian to come to CRU – all you need is yourself and an interest in looking further into Christianity with a supportive group of friends, a soft drink and a sausage sandwich.

Jayden Pan
11GR3