We have watered down ideas about what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus, it is far more than we think, it is a command, not a suggestion.
Jesus told us that anyone who wants to follow Him must take up their cross and follow Him, you see a cross is meant to die in not carry around, when Jesus spoke this He is saying follow me to Calvary, die to your flesh, so you will live.
The things we bear daily in our flesh, whether it is sickness in our bodies, scars we bear from our choices, thorns we deal with as we are tormented in this world have nothing to do with the cross Jesus talks about when He says “ “And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”Matthew 10:38
These maybe trials we face to strengthen our faith but they are not our crosses to bear, our cross we must take up voluntarily as Jesus did, for we must be willing to die to ourselves so we will live, God's grace is more than sufficient for us in our trials, He tells us to press on and trust Him. We don't die to our trials but we must die to our flesh.
We must die to our flesh, our will, our way, we must lay aside everything that would hinder us from following Jesus.
This is the unpopular part of the gospels, but yet Jesus spoke it, and did it, Jesus died to His Deity when He left Heaven's glory to come live as we do from birth to death, He died to His human nature when He resisted temptation from the devil, and when He asked God the Father to let this cup pass from Him, but nevertheless said thy will be done, Father.
We truly don't have an understanding of the cross as they did during the Roman Empire rule, the cross was not smooth planks, it was rough cut trees it wasn't something to be admonished it was made to create fear and dread, it was the final instrument of death as a form of punishment by the law and a warning to all who followed the one who hung upon it.
You would be beaten before you were hung because it was pleasure to the executioner, then you would carry your cross to the hill you would die on because it was a pleasure to the crowds, and then you would be nailed to and hung naked upon the cross so you would die slowly, because it was pleasure to the soldiers who pursued death daily.
As they nail you to the cross the rough bark from the tree rips into your torn back and open wounds, as they drop your cross into the ground the nails and bark rip open your wounds more as your blood runs like water from your veins, as you hang there gasping for air, you pray to just die but you have no idea of the agony you will bear as you slowly painfully die alone.
These may just be words to you, but to me they are how my LORD and Savior Jesus died for me, to take my punishment for my sins on my cross so I don't have to die this way.
But still he calls us to die, a different death, a daily death, a moment by moment death so we may live.
To live for Christ, we must die to ourselves.
Most want Jesus, but only the kind miracle-working Jesus who feeds them and heals them, not the hardline Jesus who says He is the only way, that we must endure to the end, that we must obey Him that we must take up our cross and follow Him.
We can't believe in Him only as Savior and not LORD, His word is clear, we must surrender to Him everything, we can't follow Him with our lips and walk away from Him in our lives.
Christ does not call us to die for Him, He calls us to live for Him, Christ does not call us to live as we want, He calls us to die to ourselves.
Have you died to yourself yet? Have you surrendered you're all on the cross Jesus called you to die on?
God's word says this:
“Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven. Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.” Matthew 10:32-39 CSB
“He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” He went a little farther, fell to the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “ Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”Mark 14:33-36 CSB
“All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas to them and, after having Jesus flogged, handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole company around him. They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe. They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they spat on him, took the staff, and kept hitting him on the head. After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him. As they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man named Simon. They forced him to carry his cross. When they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull), they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink. But when he tasted it, he refused to drink it. After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots. Then they sat down and were guarding him there. Above his head they put up the charge against him in writing: This IS J ESUS, THE KING OF THE J EWS. Then two criminals were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. Those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” In the same way, the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him and said,”
Matthew 27:25-41 CSB
“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others. Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:1-11 CSB
”I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 CSB
“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”Matthew 19:26 CSB
