My text for this series of articles has been Luke 9:23: “And He said to them all, if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Jesus never asked His disciples to do anything that He was not already doing, for the command is that they follow Him. So, any who are following another are coming behind the one who has already gone on before them. This is the case with Jesus, for He never asked anyone to do anything that He was not also willing to do Himself. The prime example of this is the matter of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples, which was a servant’s position. I tire rather quickly of leaders, even in the Christian circle, who are not willing to “get their hands dirty” in order to get a job done. Anyone who would assign a job to another, yet is not willing himself to serve in the same position, if necessary, is not worthy to be a leader in my estimation. Oh, I do not mean that leaders must always do the same jobs as their followers, but I do mean that no leader should think himself “too good” to do a hard job, if the need arises. Jesus is the only perfect leader the world has ever had, yet He did the hardest job that could ever be done, in fact, a job that nobody else could do, for He died in our place, as if He had been the worst sinner, yet He never sinned. To have an attitude at least somewhat like Jesus had is what it means to “follow” Him!
Notice that Jesus threw out the challenge to “any man”, so it seems that He had in mind more than just the twelve disciples, although they were the followers who were “on hand” at the time. To take up one’s cross is not an easy job, and nobody will ever do that in the same sense that Jesus did, for no sinner can die for other sinners. Jesus was a sinless man, yet He died as if He had been the worst of sinners, for He took the place of all sinners! The cross is s death instrument, not a religious symbol just to be worn on one’s person. I am not saying that it is wrong to wear a cross, but I am saying that nobody has likely ever worn a cross that looked like the cross of Jesus after He had hung on it for six hours, for it was covered with blood and all that accompanied death, so that it looked despicable! The bearing of a physical cross would have been hard for any man, but especially for Jesus, after the treatment He endured before the cross. The disciples would not die in the same way Jesus died, for their deaths could not pay for anyone’s sins. Moreover, the thieves who died with Jesus did not die in the same way, for it seems evident that the Jews and Romans combined were instrumental in doling out the worst of all physical punishment to Jesus. But the hardest part of the cross of Jesus was that He was dying under the wrath of God for our sins, thus His “cross” was worse than any before or after it. But the call for the disciples to take up their crosses and follow Him did not mean that they would die in the same way Jesus did, although all of them, except John, did die as martyrs, according to background information. The point Jesus sought to make is that each man who would follow Him must pay some price as a “cross”, which would not be easy.
One point to be made is that Jesus was asking for any who would follow Him to do so, yet to understand that there would be a cross. The modern form of Christianity that displays nice facilities; beautiful music and a soothing sermon, in many cases, does not fit the bill concerning cross bearing! When churches and religions advertise only the interesting things they have to offer, with never a hint about any cost in following Jesus, it seems to me that they are missing the lesson on what the Bible shows to be the cost of discipleship. After all, Jesus is calling for daily cross bearing, in order for anyone to “come after” Him. When only the convenience of a church “ministry” is emphasized, somebody has missed the picture of “cross bearing”. By J. Briggs King, Rainsville, AL (678) 451-0921