I have heard the verse (“Take up your cross and follow Me”) preached, many times in my life, and always, it was explained the same way. Which means to carry the hardship of daily life as a cross to follow Jesus. But this time when I heard the same verse preached as always, for the first time in my life, I felt it awkward. I thought, as a parent I would never expect my children to come across the hardship I faced in my life, instead I will let them be aware of it through advises or testimonies. Then I remembered how Jesus explained The Father’s love through Mathew 7:11, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him”.
Let me explain my point of view on this section (Mathew 16:24 – Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Luke 9:23; Mark 8:34)).
What I did to explain myself on this verse was, I viewed The Cross in two angles. 1. Person in the first-century. 2. Jesus purpose on Crucifixion.
- Person in the first century – For a person in the first-century, the crucifixion meant death by the most tortured, painful and humiliating means human beings could develop. So, people who still live in this century, understand this verse as ‘burden of their daily life’.
This is a traditional culture of teaching. The first teacher who might have gone through tribulations could have taught his students that these tribulations are part of the cross that people should carry to follow Jesus, and this teaching was exchanged to the next generation and so on. The students never tried to think beyond their teacher’s imagination. God gave human the ability to think and I believe the most important purpose of this is to find God. Nowadays churches argue each other on senseless and small issues creating enmity against each other. They have diminished into themselves as small assemblies or communities without knowing that the Savior is the same for all.
- Jesus purpose on Crucifixion – It was a sacrifice decided by God himself to rescue human race from the bondage of Satan or sin for the resurrection of all human race who believe in His Son, Christ Jesus. (Colossians 3:4 – “4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”). Through this sacrifice God gave us the forgiveness of sin through His Son Jesus Christ by his love, grace and submission to The Father’s will.
On this 21st century what I like to believe from Mathew 16:24 is to deny ourselves from our ego, pride, selfishness, greed etc, and to see each other through the eyes of Jesus. This is the cross that we are to carry to follow Jesus. This is not an easy task. To love someone as we love ourselves is not at all easy, unless Christ in us is fully revealed.
I do not think that Jesus want us to suffer our earthly burdens like poverty, pain, sickness, etc. Jesus always comforted the poor, sick, sinners and the evil spirit possessed, but hated the unbelievers. Jesus said, through him we can overcome the tribulation of the world and have peace. (John 16:33 – “33I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”). “But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Which means, Jesus have overcome all the tribulations a human could come across in his life. So, through him, we too can overcome.
Reji Jacob 