Luke 9:23 "If any man would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me."
Jesus lays down here one of the most important principles of a disciples life. If we are truly going to fulfill all that God is calling us to we must know what this verse realy means, and believe me there are many misconceptions out there about this verse. Firstly we note that there is a particular set of steps in this process. This comment that Jesus makes is directed at those who are desiring to be his disciples he says "If any man would come after me." So often we hear people outside the church say we all have our cross to bear, that is not what Jesus is talking about, and we will come back to that. The next step is self denial. We cannot take up our cross until we have first truly denied ourselves, that is laid down our own will and motives. Jesus shows us this in his own life when he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane. He spend three hours agonising over his upcoming death, he has known all his life that this night would eventually come. This was the purpose he had come for, he knew that and spoke many times about his death and resurrection and yet he still had to yield his will to his Father. This area of self denial is the point that most of us fail. We simply end up doing our own thing or we don't even bother to take the time to seek God and find out what his will realy is and as a result we still end up going our own way, only to wonder why things don' work out. At one stage some years ago, while praying about this verse God said to me "David are you prepared to go to the garden?" That realy challenged me as I saw what Jesus went through that night as he prepared to go the cross for me. Paul says in Hebrews 12:4 that we have not resisted to the shedding of blood, and yet we know that Jesus sweated drops of blood that night in the garden. We cannot underestimate the importance of this in our own lives, the point of self denial is the make or break in our walk with Jesus, it's where we either chose Gods will or rebelion.
So what is our cross that Jesus is talking about? We hear so many people say "We all have our cross to bear" It may be easier at this point to say what it is not, it's not sickness, poverty, disease, persecution or some terrible hardship that you may be going through. Sadly though this is what a lot of people think it is, even people who are not saved believe this, but as I have already pointed out Jesus was not refering to them but to people who wanted to follow him. So how do we know it's not sickness or disease because Isaiah 53:4-5 points out that Jesus has borne all our grief, carried all our sorrows, he was wounded for our transgressions and that by his stripes we are healed, he did all this when he went to the cross on our behalf. Psalm 103:3 says that he forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases. I am amazed that Christians can believe that Jesus has forgiven all their sin, and that they cannot in any way earn their salvation and yet not believe that God has healed all their diseases and can even say that the sickness or disease that they may be suffering is their cross in life. This type of thinking totally denies the work of the cross of Jesus. Our cross is not where we crucify our own flesh, Romans 6:6 says "Knowing this that the old man has been crucified that we might put to death the mortal deeds of the flesh." in Galations 2:20 he says that he has been crucified with Christ. We cannot crucify our own flesh, if we could then Jesus didnot have to go to the cross. It is only through the work of the cross od Jesus that our sin can be dealt with. Jesus had to deal with the old man or old nature for us to walk free from sin. As we accept Jesus as our Lord and saviour our sin are forgiven, we are washed clean and Jesus gives us his rightouseness. Paul says in Galations 5:16 that if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and then in verses 22-23 he shows us the fruit of the Spirit. It's our responsability to yield our lives to the Spirit, realising that our old man is dead through the work of the cross of Jesus and as we do that we are able to walk free from our old habits and in doing that we lay as those sins that have so easily beset us.
So having said all that what is our cross? it is simply the things that God calls us to do on a daily basis as we serve him. We know that for Jesus his cross was the ultimate call that God had for him. That's why he came in the first place. If you look at the symbol of the cross you see it consists of a vertical post and a horizontal bar, this speaks to us of our vertical relationship with God our Father and the horizontal relationships we have, one with the church and our gifts and abilities that God has called us to use there and the other with the world as we are called to be his witness to those around us, family, friends work mates, people who don't know Jesus as there Lord and Saviour. Of course the foundation of our cross is the word of God because all that God does is established in his word.
Sadly many Christian struggle under the belief that their cross is some horrible disease or sickness or hardship but Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me all who labour and heaven ladden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart and you will fin rest for your souls for my yoke is easl and my burden is light." My prayer is that as you meditate on this you will be able, by Gods grace, to lay aside those burdens and take up what God has called you to and truly know what it means to walk in all that Jesus has for you.
