Perspective: That Whole "Take Up Your Cross" Thing

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That Whole "Take Up Your Cross" Thing

I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:2 (CEB)

Lead me to the Cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord, I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Oh, lead me
Lead me to the Cross

From "Lead Me to the Cross" by Brooke Fraser

In the Gospels we read that one day Jesus starts speaking rather ominously to His followers.  Specifically, He tells them that, once they reach Jerusalem, He will "undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."¹  The disciple called Peter, who has just declared that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah,² does not like what he is hearing, so he takes Jesus aside and tries to set Him straight.  Jesus says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."³

What Jesus then says to the people following Him is something all people with the audacity to call themselves Christians need to start taking seriously.

First, Jesus says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."⁴  Like Peter, many of Jesus followers believe that He is the Messiah, their long-awaited liberator, and they expect Him to be a conquering king like His ancestor David.  Jesus has come instead to be a "suffering servant" who takes up a cross instead of a sword, and He wants everyone to know that truly following Him will mean doing the same.

Jesus continues to call us to take up our crosses and to follow Him.  Nobody takes up a cross, whether it is literal or figurative, without being crucified on it in some way.  Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once famously claimed, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."⁵  If we truly follow Jesus, we might not have to literally lay down our lives as Jesus will, but we will surely have to let go of some of the things that are important to us, like our expectations, our preferences, and our comforts.

Next, Jesus says, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."⁶  I would like to suggest that these seemingly paradoxical words are perhaps a warning that we must not hold on too tightly to our lives as they are.  When Jesus first announced that "the kingdom of God has come near," He also called people to repent.⁷  The Kingdom of God is unlike any kingdom of this world, so, if it has indeed come near as Jesus says, then we need to be willing to rethink everything, because everything is going to change.  We cannot receive the abundant life Jesus offers us if we are clinging to our lives as they are.

I would also like to suggest that Jesus' words might be a warning that, if we start thinking that we have something to lose, we will inevitably act in ways that are contrary to the way of self-sacrificial love Jesus calls us to follow.  The way of this world is the way of self-preservation and even self-aggrandizement, but followers of Jesus are no longer of this world.

Jesus then asks rhetorically, "For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?"⁸  In two of the Gospels, we read that, shortly before Jesus began His ministry, the devil showed Him the kingdoms of this world and said to Him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."  Jesus replied, quoting the Hebrew Scriptures, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."⁹  Jesus could have chosen the path of conquest, but He would have inevitably lost Himself.  Instead He has chosen the path of service and self-sacrifice, which He knows will lead Him to a cross.

In the words of one early Christian thinker, "God is love."¹⁰  If we worship any god who isn't love itself - a god like power, money, or influence - we will forfeit our souls and sacrifice our neighbors in service of that god.  If we worship the God embodied by Jesus, the God who is love itself, we will love our neighbors and give of ourselves in service of God.  The path of self-sacrificial love, the path Jesus calls us to follow, is the path that truly leads to life.

Finally, Jesus says, "Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."¹¹  Peter doesn't like hearing what Jesus says about taking up a cross, because he wants to be on the winning team.  Only losers end up getting tacked up on crosses.  Later on, after Jesus is arrested without putting up a fight, Peter will deny even knowing Him.¹²  Luckily, Peter will see the light, and he will continue to follow the path Jesus has shown him.

I suspect that a lot of people who claim to be Christians are a lot more ashamed of Jesus and His words than they want to admit.  I suspect that a lot of them would like a savior who didn't get crucified.  A number of pastors have reported that people in their congregation have started calling some of Jesus' teachings as "weak" and dismissing them as "liberal talking points."¹³  One so-called "pastor," who evidently likes to portray Jesus as an "ultimate fighter," once felt the need to tell his hearers that "Jesus will never take a beating again," as if the Cross was a one-time embarrassment Jesus had to endure¹⁴ and not a revelation of His character.

Jesus still calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our crosses, and to follow Him.  He still calls is to serve our neighbors, not to dominate them.¹⁵  He still calls us to love our enemies, not to destroy them.¹⁶  The call to take up one's cross is no easier for us to hear than it was for the first Disciples, but anyone who refuses to take up their cross is not following Jesus.


Notes:

1. Mark 8:31 (NRSV)
2. Mark 8:29
3. Mark 8:32-33 (NRSV)
4. Mark 8:34 (NRSV)
5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The Cost of Discipleship (translated by R.H. Fuller and Irmgard Booth).  ch. 4
6. Mark 8:35 (NRSV)
7. Mark 1:15
8. Mark 8:36-37 (NRSV)
9. Matthew 4:8-10 (NRSV)  (See also Luke 4:5-8 and Deuteronomy 6:13.)
10. 1 John 4:8
11. Mark 8:38 (NRSV)
12. Mark 14:66-72
    
13. Tori Otten.  "Christianity Today Editor: Evangelicals Call Jesus 'Liberal' and 'Weak.'"  The New Republic, 08/10/2023.
14. Mark Driscoll.  "Thug Jesus."
15. Mark 10:45
16. Matthew 5:43-45

The photograph of the crosses was taken by Lubos Houska and has been been released into the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.