Take Up Your Cross

On a television show I heard some of tonight they mentioned the cross. Well, they mentioned a cross, and they didn't mention it right. They made a joke. One character said "we all have our cross to bear" and the other responded "here comes your cross now", talking about another person who was approaching. This is undoubtedly a reference to Jesus saying "take up your cross and follow me".

However, its not a very good one.

This is a misconception many have. That "taking up your cross" means to bear with some burden in your life. A thankless job. A handicap or illness. A difficult relationship. And so on. This is not what it means.

Think about what the cross means. To us as Christians today its a symbol of atonement, grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, redemption, etc. In the time of Christ the cross was not a symbol of any of those things. In the minds of the people at that time it meant one thing: death. Christ carried his cross to his death, and that is most likely what he was referring to by his statement.

So we're not talking about mere burdens, but death. Whose death? Ours! We must die to self and follow Christ. Remember that Jesus followed up with "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will save it."

What does it mean to die to self and follow Christ? We put Christ first in all things. He is more important than our friends, our families, our money, our jobs, our hobbies, our reputations, and even our lives.

That doesn't mean that we cut off our friends, leave our families, give away all our money, quit our jobs, abandon our hobbies, and go live in a hut. But it does mean that we must be willing to part with anything to follow Christ if it comes down to it. For some people in some cultures, choosing to follow Christ really does mean leaving everything behind and risking death. Many of us will never have to go through such an extreme to follow Christ, but we all should be willing to. For those that actually have, how wonderful for them to have such a great proof of their faith for themselves -- and how wonderful their stories are to inspire us believers who have it so much easier comparatively.

Grace and Peace