"Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Me." This is the command of Jesus. Easy enough to say but oh so rich and profound. This call to discipleship Jesus gave to the crowd that day gets to the very core of man. It uncovers the essence of the separation between God and mankind.
Deny yourself - this concept is talking about governance. Who determines my course of action? Who tells me what to do and where to go?
A couple weeks ago at prayer breakfast, one girls brought in a can of sweet tea. First of all, yes it's a bit odd to be drinking sweet tea at 9 in the morning. But what was more odd, however, was the image on the side of the can. There was a crowd of protesters holding up their signs. Written on the only two legible signs was this "Be your own master" and "Question Authority." And the name of this brand of beverage? "Peace." HA! Now logical fallacies notwithstanding, the whole point of this story is this: Nobody wants anybody to tell them what to do. It illustrates God's point perfectly: mankind is a rebel.
Self denial means I give up the right to dictate how I act. Something outside of me now governs me. Jesus is saying that if you want to come after Him you need to give up the right to govern yourself. Salvation is a decision to change my allegiance. Romans chapter 6 describes this vividly.
You want to follow Christ? God now governs your life.
Take up your cross (daily) - this phrase is a loaded with (forgivable) devotional, allegorical affection. This makes it all the harder to find the authorial intent (always the pursuit of the student of Scripture) of this phrase. The problem lies in the fact that the cross is the centerpiece of the redemptive plan, the mission of Jesus in His first advent and basically the center of our lives on a daily basis (I would heartily encourage everyone to read "the Cross of Christ" by John Stott for buckets more on this subject). So naturally we see the cross of calvary everywhere in Scripture. I understand the affection and the tendency but I think we can miss the point of what is being said if we jump to a favorite conclusion before doing the required homework. We are, in all our studies, trying to be committed to exegesis not eisegesis - striving to derive meaning from the text not imposing our own meaning upon the text.
So what did Jesus mean for this crowd to understand when He said it?
Dig through commentaries, mine through resources and you will find different nuances and emphases from different scholars but all agree, this is talking about death. The way of the cross is a path to doom. It is a route once set upon cannot be undone. You don't get to take up a cross and lay it down when you get tired. When the shine wears off and the idealism hits reality you can't just drop that sucker and walk away. You pick up a cross and you are on a death march. And everybody knew that. And to them, the cross was not yet loaded with sentimentality but with repugnance.
Was martyrdom implied in Jesus' words? Maybe, but I don't think so. While many have died and many more will die for the cause of Christ, most do not. Most of us will never have the honor of being persecuted for His name to that extreme. Most of us get to keep our heads. But death is still the point. I tend to think of this expression as an extension of the first. That is, how far does my self denial need to go? The answer: to the grave, daily. Let it be known, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die" (*Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship p.79).
Follow Me - this seems self explanatory enough, and it is. But I think due to this simplicity it is often overlooked - at least it certainly has been by me. This concept is visually demonstrated in Jesus ministry with the disciples. What did they do? They went with Him everywhere He went. They were associated with Him. In their day and time a follower/disciple was often times considered "as the man himself" (Rengstorf, TWNT 1, pp. 415, 425 & Lane NICNT p. 331). Identification - this is the point.
So you might be thinking, "Yeah, I think I knew that before you took me down this trail! So why waste the print?" Because we must see that while what Jesus is asking for is simple to understand, it is also loaded with all the baggage that being identified with Him entails. Persecuted, ridiculed, hated, maligned, slandered, misunderstood - these type of words describe much of the ministry of Jesus. 1Corinthians 2:12-15:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, ;which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
A disciple of Christ is not going to make sense to a bystander. Why? (1Cor 1:18-21) Because who would ever give up the right to govern their-self? Who would be willing to submit their life, to the point of death, to serve the plan of another? And who in the world would continue to accompany someone who brings ridicule, pain, hatred and death along with them?
Answer: one who has seen the glory of Christ.
Philippians 3:7
*Please note Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not what you would call a conservative Christian Theologian nevertheless he got this point right!
