Picking Up That Cross
There was a time when I was young that it became popular to wear a little cross around your neck. Of course, it had become popular decades before in other cultures too, but this was just the circle of friends around me. Yes, even I wore one for a little while. Symbols like the cross worn on a necklace mean something specific. It may be a statement to the world or just something the individual desires to remember. Symbols mean different things to different people and cultures. What did Jesus Christ mean when He states:
Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple. Luke 14:27
Most people know that Jesus Christ died on a cross in the 1st century. Regardless of whether someone believes He is who He claimed to be (the Savior of the world), there is substantial evidence He did actual walk the earth, grew up in a region of Israel known as Galilee, and was killed by the Romans through crucifixion. Almost no one with credibility disputes these facts.
Interestingly, when He said the statement above it was obviously way before He died on a cross. No one who followed Him actually believed that He was going to die by crucifixion. He tried to tell them a few times, but they didn’t understand what He meant. So why did He choose the cross as a symbol for following Him if He wasn’t just alluding to His death prophetically?
Crucifixion can be traced back to the Persians through impalement. By the time of Christ, it had evolved by the Romans to become what we know it today. The intent was to cause suffering to extend as long as possible before death occurred. Often the individual was made to carry their own cross to the place of death to shame them as we know Christ was forced to do.
So, everyone in the 1st-century culture knew that the cross was a graphic symbol of death. It was brutal, and many adults could not even stand to watch when manifested. To choose to take up your cross figurately was to kill or leave behind your own agenda for something or someone else. In this case, the agenda was the will of Christ. He was teaching that if we live for our own self, then we can’t follow Him because our self-centered nature is opposed to Him. It’s kind of like how I’m in charge of my four-year-old. In the grocery store when he wants candy and I won’t allow it he then lets everyone in the store know that he wants to be and thinks he is in charge. It is quite embarrassing. Yet, it doesn’t take away the fact that I’m the one in charge of him and whether he gets candy.
Jesus Christ is the boss. (Yes, I know you’re thinking about Bruce Springsteen. But we are talking about the entire universe not just American music.) Even though Christ is in charge, or the Lord, we wake up every day thinking we are the lord of our life. It’s like we are all four-years-old in the grocery store again.
Christ was making the statement that we are a bad lord of our life, and if we put to death our childish, self-absorbed ways to walk with him, then we will have life. If we aren’t willing to do that, then we can’t really be one of His disciples. Unfortunately, many people “say” they follow Him but when you watch their life what is actually happening is that they are trying to get Jesus Christ to follow them around. They aren’t killing the little narcissistic man on the inside to adjust to Christ’s ways. They are sitting on the throne of their heart and trying to squeeze Christ into the seat with them. Because Christ knew we have the proclivity to do this, He just ripped that band-aid right off and said you either graphically impale your self-centeredness for Him or you can’t be on His team. You can’t follow half-heartedly. He invites you to be on His team, but you must be all in!
Shockingly, He did literally give up His own rights to live anyway He wanted and took up His cross to die so that we could have a relationship with Him. It’s beautiful. No one in the universe will ever do anything more selfless! He means business when He says He loves us and desires that we have the same devotion to Him that He has for us. This is how the world will know we follow Him. We strive with His help to deny our own self and take up His agenda so that He can shine forth. Would you like to join us? Let us know if you have questions.