RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-11-27	Take Up His Cross, And Follow Me
		Mat 16:24  Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Mar 8:34  When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Luk 9:23  Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. In all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) record Jesus' words for His disciples, “take up his cross, and follow Me”. It is probably best to start with what this does not mean. Some take the “cross” to mean a burden they must carry in their lives. The Bible says, “take up his cross”. People misquote the verse to say, “take up your cross”. For example, if they have a strained relationship, a physical illness, or a thankless job they think they must carry or endure these as their “cross”. They would say, “This is my cross I have to carry”. This has nothing to do with what Jesus meant by His words. When Jesus carried His cross up Golgotha, no one thought of the cross as symbolic of a burden to carry. The message of the cross for the first-century person hearing Jesus' words only meant one thing. Namely death! And the Romans made it the most painful, humiliating, and cruel means of execution. They had the victim carry the very device (the cross) of their execution to have them face ridicule along the way to their death. Jesus means that we must be willing to die in order to follow Him. It is a call to absolute surrender. Notice the next thing Jesus said (Lk.9:24) Luk 9:24  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. It is a life and death choice by living for Jesus and being willing to die for Jesus by following Him. When Jesus says, “Follow Me” it implies at least knowing what He wants for your life. Wherever Jesus went, He seemed to have crowds who would 'follow' Him, at least physically. A few verses later, after saying these words, three people seemed willing to follow Jesus. But when Jesus questioned them further, their commitment was half-hearted at best (Lk.9:57-62). They failed to count the cost of following Him. They wanted their own self interests and not His. Most believed Jesus would free them from the Roman oppression. This was not Jesus' plan. Jesus seemed to dissuade them, and His crowd popularity sank. Just prior to Jesus telling them to take up his cross and follow Him, He spoke of His impending death (Lk.9:22) Luk 9:22  saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day." So the idea of actual death was always in view. If we gave an invitation like, “Come follow Jesus, you may lose friends, family, reputation, and even your life” we would have less false converts. This IS the call Jesus was making. Following Jesus does not necessarily mean losing all these things. But the question is, are you willing to lose those things for the sake of Following Jesus? Maybe there are some believers today who need to evaluate their priorities of life. Is Jesus more important to you than your friends, family, or reputation? Luk 9:24  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What are we doing today for Jesus' sake? Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

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