What's Up With All This "Cross" Business?

Luke 9:23
And He said to them, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross....."

I am not the first to ever write on this verse. It has probably been taught, scrutinized and looked at by most everyone who ever stood to teach a congregation. I don't know that I can bring anything new to the verse. Sometimes it really isn't about the "new' that we find in a scripture as much as it is reinforcing what already is within us. Remembering the truth of God and making sure that it hasn't turned into some syrupy platitude that warms us and gives us a good feeling.

I'm not sure, but it might have been that as Jesus stood sharing this verse with the crowd, that off in the distance crosses could be seen strewn across the hillside. The cross was very much a part of every  day life in Jesus' day. The idea of turning that instrument of torture into little pieces of silver and gold to wear around the neck would have been seen as wrong by the people of Jesus' day. The cross was very much a reality to them. So for Jesus to use this as a means of weeding out those who wanted to follow him was extremely bizarre.

When Jesus said that we were to "take up our cross", he was revealing the only way to heaven.
That in order to be his disciple...
To follow after Him...
The process began here on earth.
Jesus is the only one who can give you permission to enter heaven.
He proclaimed, in John14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me."
My confession of who Jesus is, is done with my life and not just with my words.
The denying of myself........my wants......my desires.....my selfishness.....has to be killed.
I embrace the will of God over and beyond my own will.

The one thing I have discovered is that some people only desire to have a "common law Jesus".
They want the benefits of a relationship with Jesus...
They want all the perks of being a Christian...You know....the blessings....heaven....getting out of hell....etc....etc.
They just don't want to have to make the commitment to Jesus.
You may think that my use of the phrase "common law" is a bit strange, but I don't think so.
We are referred to in Scripture as the "Bride of Christ". Jesus is our groom or husband to be.
So, in essence when we try to manipulate and wrangle this relationship to our own view...we are trying to establish a marriage without the commitment.

Taking up our cross begins with the denial of self. It begins with a desire and a decision to measure our current life against the promise of a new life with Christ. This "new" desire to follow Jesus outweighs the idea of continuing to live our old lifestyle.

This is how the apostle Paul wrote about the act of denying self.
Philippians 3:8 - "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus My Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ and be found in Him..."

Jesus calls us to take up our cross.
Who would pick up such a thing except someone who was ready to die, knowing that this death to self would lead to life?

Hebrews 12:2 - Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.
We must be like Jesus....
We must see what it is that is set before us as we take up our cross to follow after Him.
We must see that there is something greater that transpires in our lives when we participate in this act of taking up our cross.
The cross is personal....
The cross is not open for debate or discussion.
The cross does not compromise.

Anyone carrying a cross does not have a free hand with which to do what they want to. The sheer weight of the cross has to be evenly distributed over the shoulders and the body.
What does this mean?
You can't serve two masters. You lay both hands to the cross to carry it. You are not free to turn loose to grab other things that may catch your attention.

If you do try to carry the cross on your terms or in the way you want to, it becomes unbalanced. Kind of like when we make decisions to do what we want to do. We remove ourselves from under the direction of Jesus and we become unbalanced. We are moving into areas of rebellion and our lives become unstable because of this. In other words, we are beginning to backslide and are in need of being brought back.

The cross must be evenly distributed if we are to carry it. The cross must cover every area of our lives. This means that every attitude, every thought, every intent of my heart must be brought under the weight of the cross. Walking this way, as Jesus directed, covers me and protects me from returning to the death sentence of the our old way of living. In other words, the cross becomes the protector of my new life.

Where there is balance in our lives...the cross becomes easier to carry or bear, and the balance I need is found in Jesus. Where there is balance in my life, my focus is simply on walking and carrying the cross. My attention is not on those places that sin and desire use to reside.
I am carrying the cross in order to follow my Jesus.

This idea of carrying a cross may be a spiritual act, but it has physical, tangible effects in our lives.Your life will be defined by this act. The cross that Jesus bids us to carry saps and drains every bit of self out of our body...leaving only a will submitted to following Jesus.
In this dying to self, we find life.
Real life.
God life.
Heavenly life.
Abundant life, here today.
The cross.....
Don't leave home without it.

God on you...
mb