H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 1 HOW TO CARRY A CROSS What Christ requires of His followers is much different than what most people think Christianity is all about. Most people think Christianity means Being a fan of Jesus. Yay Jesus! Jesus is cool! Being friends with Jesus. Jesus is my homeboy. Being good like Jesus. I m a good person. I ll give you the shirt off my back, and I don t do bad things. Believing in Jesus. Jesus is real! But being a Christ-follower means much more than that much more! For example, everyone knows that Jesus died on the cross, right? Did you know that Jesus also commands all of His followers to die on the cross? It s true. Jesus said in Luke 14:27, And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. 1 What did Jesus mean? The cross was a tool for Roman torture and execution. It was called crucifixion. The Romans, the supreme world power in that era, used crucifixion to torture and execute their worst criminals. It was so horrific that it was against the law for a Roman citizen to be crucified. It was strategically invented as a means to cause the most pain and humiliation for the victim, and to strike the most fear in the hearts of onlookers. Once a criminal was tried and condemned, he then had to carry the horizontal crossbeam through the city to the execution site always highly visible. Then his hands would be nailed to the crossbar, raised to connect to the vertical beam already in the ground, and his feet would then be nailed. There he would be left to die, which could take anywhere from hours to several days. This was how Jesus died. The cross, then, is a metaphor for death. Jesus is commanding His disciples to die. What does that mean? Is it a command to commit suicide? Is Jesus commanding that we institute a third ordinance Baptism, Communion, and then Crucifixion? Of course not. Jesus is talking about another kind of death death to self. There s another passage in Luke that will shed light on Jesus words. In Luke 9:23-24 He said, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 1 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 2 Aha! So carrying your cross means turning from your selfish ways, not hanging on to your life, giving up your life for Christ s sake, and following Him. Carrying your cross is not merely the willingness to die for Christ. It is much more than that. It is much more difficult than that. Cross-carrying is about daily dying to self and living for Jesus, no matter the cost. To carry your cross is to daily decide to live for Christ and no longer for self, no matter the cost. As the NLT Study Bible puts it, Jesus used the cross as a metaphor for devotion rather than martyrdom. He wasn t calling you to die physically, but to die to self so that you can live completely and totally dedicated and committed to Jesus. It is much more difficult to live completely dedicated to Jesus every day than it is to die for Jesus one day. Carrying your cross is deciding that it s not about you. Your life is no longer about you. It is about Jesus. You are ceasing to make yourself the center and object of your thoughts and actions. It s about Jesus. You are pledging your whole existence to His service. Let s break this down and get more specific. To carry your cross is to die to self in at least four ways. 4 Ways You Must Die 1. Die to self-permission. Before you become a follower of Jesus, you are in charge. You don t need anyone s permission to do something. If you want to do it, you do it. You are your own boss. You are your own master. You are the captain of your own ship. Nobody tells you what to do. It s your life, and you can do whatever you want to do. You decide what s right and wrong for you. When you decide to carry your cross and follow Jesus, you are dying to self-permission and living for Christ s permission. You are dead and you have no permission to give. You don t have a will. You are dying to self-will and living to God s will. If God says do it, you do it, even if it is hard. If God says don t do it, you don t do it, even if it is hard. God is in charge. Jesus set a good example for us in His relationship to the Father. Before Jesus was crucified He was fully aware of what was coming. He knew what He had to do. On the night that He was arrested to be crucified He prayed, Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine (Luke 22:42). To carry your cross is to die to self-permission and live for God s permission. It is to say to God, I want your will to be done, not mine. You are no longer in charge. You are no longer the CEO of your life. You are no longer the master, the captain, the boss. God is in charge, and no command is off limits.
H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 3 2. Die to self-pleasure. Before you become a Christian it s all about your happiness. It s all about doing whatever will make you happy and comfortable, no matter the cost. If that means drinking and drugs, then you do it. If that means sex, you go for it wherever, however, and with whomever you please. If your own happiness means wealth, then you do whatever you need to get it. If that means divorce, you go for it. If it means adultery, stealing, lying, you do it. It s all about what makes you happy. Pleasing self. But when you decide to carry your cross and follow Jesus, self-pleasure dies. You die to yourself, and a dead person can t feel pleasure. It s not about you anymore. Now you live to please God. Your pleasure comes from doing whatever pleases God, even if it means great sacrifice and discomfort on your part. Your driving motivation is no longer what would make you happy, but what would make Jesus happy. Not what would most please you, but what would most please God? And if pleasing God means putting yourself in great danger, making costly sacrifices, and taking dangerous risks, then so be it. Paul is a good example of this. Jesus called Paul to travel world planting new churches. This was not an easy task back then. There was the threat of persecution. Christians were hated by the Jews and misunderstood by the Romans. Traveling was dangerous and slow. They didn t have planes, trains and automobiles. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, 24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26 I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. 27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. This is not a man who lived for self-pleasure. This was a man who lived to please God, no matter the cost. People are willing to make great sacrifices to please self in some way. For example, many people are willing to go on severe diets, basically starving themselves, and beating their bodies in shape with exercise. Why? Because it will make them happy to lose weight and get a beach body. People are willing to make great sacrifices to please self. To carry your cross is to die to self-pleasure and live for the pleasure of Christ no matter the cost. You are willing to make great sacrifices, even die if necessary, for the pleasure of Christ. 3. Self-promotion.
H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 4 Before you become a Christian it s all about looking good. Image is everything. It s about getting people to like you, to approve of you, to applaud you, to think highly of you. It s all about making your name great perhaps even seeking fame. You certainly don t want to do anything that would make you look silly, or cause people to laugh at you. You certainly don t want to do anything that would make you look foolish. You certainly don t want to do anything that would cause people to dislike or hate you or think you are uncool. But when you become a Christ-follower, it s no longer about you. It s death to self. It s death to self-promotion. Now, it s all about making Jesus look good. It s about making His name famous. It s about getting people to applaud Him, and to like Him, and to think highly of Him. And if you have to look like a fool to make Jesus look good, so be it. If you have to be unnoticed so that others will notice Jesus, so be it. If you have to be disliked and hated and lose the approval of some people, so be it. John the Baptist is a great example of this. Before Jesus came along John the Baptist was the biggest show in town. The crowds were flocking to hear him preach and be baptized by him. But when Jesus began His ministry, John s popularity shrunk and Jesus popularity grew. Jesus stole the show. John s friends were concerned about this. When they brought it to John s attention he replied, I am filled with joy at His success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less (John 1:29-30). To carry your cross is to die to self-promotion. It s no longer about looking good; it s about making Jesus look good. 4. Self-purpose. Before you become a Christian, it s all about your purpose. It s all about your goals. It s all about your agenda. It s all about your plans. But when you carry your cross and follow Jesus it s no longer about you. You die to selfpurpose. Now it s about God and His purposes. It s about His goals, His agenda, His plans. It s about discovering what God wants you to do rather than coming up with your own purpose in life. And it means living out that purpose no matter the cost. Perhaps a better example than me is Levi. Levi was a tax collector. He lived a very wealthy and comfortable life. Was it wrong to be a tax collector? Not necessarily. Somebody had to do it. But one day Jesus came along and told him, Follow me and be my disciple. And Levi (also called Matthew) got up and followed him. He left his old purpose behind and took on his new, God-given purpose of being one of Jesus twelve disciples. Following Jesus means death to self-purpose. It s no longer about you. It s about God. What is He up to? And what does He want me to accomplish with my life? When you are choosing a career, for example, your first question is, What does God want me to do?
H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 5 My wife and I have so ingrained this in my son s mind (Andrew is 5 years old) that when asked what he wants to be when he grows up his instinctive answer is, Whatever God says. So now we have to ask him, What do you want God to say? But he has the right idea. It s not about him. Dying to self doesn t mean that you don t do what you want; it means that you want to do what God wants you to do. It doesn t mean that you don t experience pleasure and happiness; it just means that what gives you the most pleasure is pleasing Christ. It doesn t mean that you don t like it when people approve of you and applaud you; it just means that what you live for is getting people to approve of and applaud Christ, even if it means losing your own reputation. And it doesn t mean that you don t have a purpose; it means that your purpose is doing what Jesus has called you to do. Jesus commands you to carry your cross. To decide to live for Christ and no longer for self, no matter the cost. A lot of people in the church have the wrong idea about Christianity. They think that Christianity is being a fan of Jesus, being friends with Jesus, being good like Jesus, believing in Jesus. But when Jesus says that being His disciple means carrying our cross and following Him, we learn that true Christianity is so much more than these things. It means pledging your whole existence to God. It means living for God and no longer for yourself. It means it is no longer about you at all. It s about God. It means that Jesus is no longer just a part of your life. Jesus wants to be your life. He wants your life to be all about Him. There are many people who do the church thing and dabble in Christianity because they want God to bless them, to make them happy, to help them achieve success, to help them with their goals, to keep them safe from harm. But they ve got it all wrong because essentially their relationship with God is still self-centered. It s all about me. God exists for me. I worship God for what I can get out of it; for how He can help me. I worship Jesus so He will help me with my will, and my promotion, and my pleasure, and my purpose. To carry your cross is to die to me. Now my relationship with God is not about Him blessing me, and making me happy, and helping me with my goals, because I am dead. I died. I took up my cross. God doesn t exist for me. I exist for God. For His will. His pleasure. His purposes. His promotion. There s a great question in the Life Application Study Bible related to this command. Do you think of your relationship with God primarily in terms of what s in it for you or in terms of what you can do for Him? Bottom line. God loves you. But He doesn t exist for you. You exist for Him. Your whole existence is for Him. That s what cross-carrying is all about. But that s not all. If you look closely at Jesus words you will make 2 surprising observations.
H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 6 1. Carrying your cross is a command. Notice that this is not optional. This is not a suggestion. You are commanded to carry your cross. To not do so is disobedience. If you are not carrying your cross, you are not a follower of Jesus. 2. Carrying your cross is comprehensive. Cross-carrying is for all believers. This is not for the spiritual elite. This is not only for pastors and seminary professors. This is not only for mature believers after you have been a Christian for 3 to 5 years. This radical devotion is to be the norm for all Christ-followers. Now the question I want to answer in closing is how? How do you carry your cross and follow Jesus? How do you die to self-permission, self-pleasure, self-promotion, and self-purpose? How do you make your life all about Christ rather than all about you? Here are three suggestions to get you started. HOW TO GET STARTED WITH CROSS-CARRYING 1. Have a daily quiet time. Your daily quiet time should be the number one priority of your life. It is a daily time of personal fellowship with God through the Word and prayer. Having a daily quiet time will help you to carry your cross in several ways. You are refocusing daily on carrying your cross rather than living for self. Remember that it is a daily decision. If you re like me (human), self has a tendency to resurrect. I have to crucify myself daily. You are requesting God s help, without which you cannot carry your cross. You are reminded of God s will as You read His word. You are instructed and inspired by studying the examples of those who succeeded and failed at cross-carrying in times past. You are given wisdom to know how to carry your cross in each new situation you find yourself. 2. Trust that God loves you and His will is best. The only way you can truly and fully die to self and live for God is if you trust wholly and completely in God s love for you. Because if God loves you then His will is best for you. If God s will is best, if He is love, then dying to self will actually turn out to be the best, most fulfilling, most rewarding, most significant, most joyful way of life. Notice what Jesus said in Luke 9:24. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Jesus promises that when you die to yourself you will find yourself. When you give up your life you will actually get true life. 3. Remember that It s not about me.
H o w T o C a r r y A C r o s s 7 The bottom line with cross-carrying is that it s not about you; it s about Jesus, no matter the cost. If you can just remember that little phrase, and perhaps put it where you can see it every day, that will help you quite a bit. Remember that Your marriage is not about you; it s about Jesus. Your career is not about you; it s about Jesus. Your dating life is not about you; it s about Jesus. Your sexuality is not about you; it s about Jesus. Parenthood is not about you; it s about Jesus. Church is not about you; it s about Jesus. To carry your cross is to daily decide to live for Christ and no longer for self, no matter the cost. Have you made that decision today? Will you make that decision right now? Remember that carrying your cross is not the easy life, but it is true life. It is the superior life. Following Jesus with all your heart is a decision that you will never regret.