So I Willingly Take It Up

Luke 14:26–27. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.”

Jesus Himself elsewhere in Scripture insists in the strongest terms that children must obey their parents, & adult children must honor their parents.

Matthew 15:4 For God commanded, saying, “Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death.”

Yet Jesus says, the respect that I demand that you give to your parents—in comparison to your full devotion to Me, it will appear to be hatred.

Any True Follower Of Jesus Will Bear a Cross

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto His disciples, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Peter wanted a royal, victorious, and strong Messiah. He had no category for a strong Messiah who would
also be a crucified Messiah; a victorious King who would also be a suffering servant; or a triumphant lion who would also be a dead Lamb. As soon as Jesus has finished this exchange with Peter he says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.”

What Is Our Cross to Bear?

The cross we must bear is not an ingrown toenail, an abscessed tooth, or a grumpy in-law. Back in the first century, you didn’t make jokes like that.

No one would have talked as casually about the cross in the first century as we do today, either.
To bear a cross in the first century meant you were going out to die. Nevertheless, Jesus has the ‘cheek’
and audacity to look His disciples in the face and say, “Unless you take up your cross, you cannot be My disciple.”

To compare the view of the cross today to the first century: Socially, in the ancient world, this would have been the equivalent today to wearing a fresco of the mass graves of Auschwitz as a lapel button. The cross today does not seem to bother anyone.

Today we dangle crosses from our ears and wear them on our lapels and put them on our church buildings, and nobody is scandalized. It is a symbol, and absolutely the intent of many (but not all) in wearing them is to honor what has been done for us. Still, today we have a domesticated cross.

In the fullness of time, Christians came to understand that to live with Jesus, to live under Jesus’ authority, is in some deep sense to die to self. That can hurt and it can be painful. The only adequate metaphor Jesus gave to describe it was cross work. You can’t be a follower of Jesus unless you take up His cross.

The Cross Means Persecution

John, 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

If Jesus is persecuted, why on earth should you ever think that His followers, His children, should escape
opposition? Jesus connects His suffering with our suffering. Jesus’ very presence and teaching—because He is so righteous and His words are so utterly true and revelatory of God Himself—inevitably evokes a response from those who do not know God.

Matthew 5:11 Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake.

This is a damned world. When the light of righteousness shines in it, it is going to attract opposition of one kind or another, some very civilized and some quite barbaric.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, seeing we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Taking Up The Cross

Unless you take up your cross daily…how would you like to be crucified every day? It’s not very appealing, especially to the faint of heart.

Luke 9:23 And He said to all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny Himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Jesus is saying the genuine disciples go to their death, because it’s in dying that you really live.

It’s in giving that you receive. It’s in losing yourself that you find yourself.

That’s part of what it means to fasten on to Jesus, to trust Him, and then to really let things fall where they may. That means a kind of death to self so that you can actually find yourself, because you were designed to be attached to the living God!