MICHELE WATERS —

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24 NLT)

Jesus minced no words when He told each of His disciples to take up — to shoulder — their own individual cross. He had the scope of the Big Picture of His purpose for coming into the world — the Kingdom of God.  A sacrifice — a commitment — was needed. The disciples without a doubt understood physically what He meant: crucifixion was a common visible occurrence, a preferred Roman punishment to deter rebellion.

Commitment to shoulder the cross in order to follow Him and His Kingdom would mean risking one’s life and not turning back. Yet Christ didn’t come to remove the Roman government to free the Jewish people from its rule, as was commonly thought to be the purpose of the Messiah. Rather, He prepared His disciples for the cross:

“The Son of God will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn Him to death. Then  … [on] to the Gentiles [the Romans] to be mocked, flogged and crucified, and He will be resurrected on the third day” (Matthew 20:18-19).

Commitment in God’s Kingdom

“The way to the Kingdom is the way of the cross.”[1] The cross would break through any long-held misperception of the purpose of the Messiah. The risk — the sacrifice — was more than a physical one; it would be a complete change of trajectory of mindset of the heart and the will. It was a new way to view the world, a new way to view life. When following Jesus, every aspect of life is affected.

The selfish ambitions of Jesus’ followers had to be set aside if commitment to shoulder the cross was ever to be made. For three years, the disciples were privileged to sit under His teachings and follow Him, yet to take the next step — to set aside their preconceived ambitions — was difficult. They compared and contrasted: Then there was an argument among them as to which of them would be the greatest (Luke 9:46 NLT). They called out unfair; with pride pricked, jealousy erupted when others who had not done the hard work of following Jesus were using His name to drive out demons (Luke 9:49-50). Eventually, however, they came to the realization not all would be treated equally. Jesus told Peter what kind of death he would die to glorify God. Peter, pointing to another disciple, asked  “What about him, Lord?”  Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow me.” (John 21:19-22 NLT)

If the cross that Jesus carried
Up the hill to Calvary
Was maybe made of balsa wood,
The lightest weight of tree,
Would we think it
A lesser sacrifice
If made so easily?
If the cross that Jesus carried
Up the hill to Calvary
Was maybe made of heavy wood
Perhaps like darkest ebony,
Would we think it
A greater sacrifice
If made a tough reality?
The fact He went up Calvary’s hill
To give for us a sign
That all our sin
Will be forgiven
Forever throughout time
So does it make a difference
Whether oak or ash or pine?

— Jack Leonard

Like the properties of balsa wood or of ebony, the cross for one follower may be lightweight, easy to work with, useful rather than attractive, and utilitarian in short-lived, low-stress projects; for another it may be very heavy, extremely hard and tough to work with but will result in beautiful, lasting, intricate creations; or perhaps it lies somewhere in between the two. Neither is it our place to determine if the cross we must bear is easy or tough nor is it any of our business what cross another must bear.

For Jesus’ disciples, a true commitment, risk of death, and no turning back was a pledge of their “whole existence to His service.” Nothing has changed since then for those who commit to be Christ’s followers. If we choose to shield ourselves from pain and suffering, we risk dying spiritually — mentally, emotionally and consciously; we turn inward and lose our called purpose. When we shoulder the cross, we choose to accept whatever weight allotted to us. We put to death the self — we turn our focus away from our self — because now [we] belong to another — to Him who was raised from the dead — that we may bear fruit for God (Romans 7:4 HCSB).

Focus on Living Not Dying

Jesus, forced to carry the cross upon which He would be crucified, externally displayed “submission to Rome’s power.” Yet, the ultimate significance was the internal [and eternal] obedience to the cross God called Him to bear — an image of the ultimate submission we are each to make as well. Jesus does not call us to seek pain and suffering and to avoid pleasure: to follow Him means to do His will day by day, moment by moment, even if it may prove difficult. When we live for and serve Christ, we live the Kingdom of God on earth.

Christ rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing (Gal 3:13 NLT). Don and Lorie Marsh capture the crux of this verse in their song, “Cross of Calvary”: Cross of Calvary, that cursed and blessed tree … It’s death to You, Lord, but it’s life to me.[2] Christ didn’t stay in the grave but conquered death: We live because Christ lives.

Paul boasts in this one thing: … I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. … if we could be saved by keeping the law, there was no need for Christ to die (Gal 2:19, 21 NLT). Through his own efforts of independence and self-assertiveness, Paul could not keep the law or earn God’s approval; neither can we. When we shoulder the cross, we accept the death of self as our center so God becomes our center. The focus of Christianity is not on “dying but on living.”

To take up the cross doesn’t mean cutting ourselves off from society or being aloof. Oswald Chambers points out that to those who chose not to know Jesus only saw “a glutton and a wine-bibber.” Jesus lived a full life in “robust holiness”: He lived “in” the world but not “of” it. We are also to live: “disconnected fundamentally but not externally” from the world. When shouldering our cross, we do our part by consecrating our life to Christ; Chambers says, God then does His part “by sanctifying and empowering us.”[3] Each in the way He chooses for us.

[1] Beers, Ronald A., gen. ed. Life Application Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 1996:1607, 1442, 1859.

[2] Marsh, Don and Lorie. “Cross of Calvary”. 100 EZ Inspirational Favorites. Word Music. 1996.

[3] Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1935:332.

Originally published on Breakpoint.org: BreakPoint Commentaries, May 11, 2015

Re-published with permission of  The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview