Solid Rock or Sinking Sand: Take up your Cross and Follow Me

Friday, May 27, 2011

Take up your Cross and Follow Me

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:23-26)

Although Jesus offered salvation as a free gift (John 1:12; 3:16–18; Eph. 2:8, 9), He also warned that following Him would entail suffering and hardship (Matt. 5:10–12; Rom. 8:17; 2 Thess. 1:5). People are willing to pay a high price for something they value. Is it any surprise that Jesus would demand this much commitment from His followers? There are at least three conditions that must be met by people who want to follow Jesus. We must be willing to deny self, to take up our crosses, and to follow Him. Anything less is superficial lip service.

Christians follow their Lord by imitating His life and obeying His commands. To take up the cross meant to carry your own cross to the place where you would be killed. Many Galileans had been killed that way by the Romans. Applied to the disciples, it meant to identify completely with Christ's message, even if it meant death. We must deny our selfish desires to use our time and money our own way and to choose our own direction in life without regard to Christ. Following Christ is costly now, but in the long run, it is well worth the pain and effort.

If this present life is most important to you, you will do everything you can to protect it. You will not want to do anything that might endanger your safety, health, or comfort. By contrast, if following Jesus is most important, you may find yourself in unsafe, unhealthy, and uncomfortable places. You will risk death, but you will not fear it because you know that Jesus will raise you to eternal life. Nothing material can compensate for the loss of eternal life. Jesus' disciples are not to use their lives on earth for their own pleasure - they should spend their lives serving God and people.

It makes no sense to attempt to save our lives on earth only to lose everything when our lives quickly and inevitably pass away. The wise course is to invest our earthly resources—our time, talents, and wealth—in what is eternal. Even if we lose our lives for Jesus’ sake, that investment will produce returns for all eternity (Luke 19:11–27; Matt. 6:19–21; 19:27–30)

Luke's Greek audience would have found it difficult to understand a God who could die, just as Jesus' Jewish audience would have been perplexed by a Messiah who would let Himself be captured. Both would be ashamed of Jesus if they did not look past His death to His glorious resurrection and second coming. Then they would see Jesus not as a loser but as the Lord of the universe, who through His death brought salvation to all people. Recognition of Jesus will be rewarded in the coming judgment. Failure to recognize Him will lead to significant loss (1 Cor. 3:12–15; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:12; 1 John 2:28; 2 John 7, 8; Rev. 3:11; 22:12).

I think of the old Christian Hymn "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" which puts a lot of this in perspective when it comes to picking up our cross daily and following Him. Read the lyrics and meditate on the words:

I have decided to follow Jesus;