When you think of a cross, you may envision a gold necklace or a white fixture atop a church steeple. But when first-century Jews heard the word, they saw a torture device their Roman oppressors invented to execute criminals in the most excruciating way possible.
So, the crowd who followed Jesus must have been shocked when 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” (Luke 9:23). Take up my cross? Daily? I can almost hear Peter muttering, “A cross? I signed up for a kingdom!”
You and I may have a similar misconception about following Jesus. We anticipate and welcome God’s blessings—good health, financial stability, loving families. But what if those blessings are removed or delayed?
As Easter approaches, it’s tempting to skip over Jesus’s trial, beatings, and crucifixion in our rush to His resurrection. But Jesus repeatedly taught that following Him would be costly and painful. Right before He talks about disciples taking up their cross, He says, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed” (Luke 9:22).
What cross has God asked you to take up daily? It may be the pain of a child, a spouse, or a parent who is gender confused or pursuing sex-reassignment surgery. It may be the heartache of a loved one entangled in a same-sex relationship. None of us wants to carry a cross. It’s heavy and cumbersome. We want an easier task. And yet Jesus says, “Take up your cross,” even though He knows our cross is heavy and our heart is broken, even though He grieves over the mental anguish we battle day after day.
You may be on the verge of giving up. Don’t allow Satan to have that victory. After Jesus struggled in the garden, He emerged triumphant. And like Jesus, even when the pain is so excruciating we don’t think we can take another step or stumble through another day, we still need to go to our Father and say, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”
One part of Jesus’s journey to Golgotha that I love is the arrival of Simon of Cyrene. Mark alone tells us that he “was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross” (Mark 15:21). This tells me that God knows we cannot carry our cross alone. I think it’s more about our willingness to carry it, volunteering to do that hard thing—because we love Him.
This Easter season as you reflect on Christ’s willingness to suffer for you, consider your willingness to suffer for Him. He promises to walk with you every day, to love you when you’re angry with to strengthen you when you’re weary, and to comfort you when you cry. “Take up your cross” and follow Him.
