Death Row

What cross do you bear?

Then he said to them all, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. - Luke 9:23

Do you think the disciples understood what Jesus was talking about when he told them they must take up their cross?

As hard as I try, I cannot come up with a modern day equivalent.

He is referencing a brutal form of punishment and execution used by their oppressors, the Romans.  To be given one's cross to carry and to accept it signifies an awareness of one's imminent persecution and death.

If I willing go this way, I will be punished, brutalized and killed.  I will lose this mortal life for Christ's sake.

Perhaps the closest thing I can imagine in today's world is putting oneself on death row.

If I want to be a follower of Christ, I must accept the death penalty.

That's a tough thing to hear, isn't it?  Who wants to die, even for Christ?

Of course, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we see that as a happy time, not a death sentence.  Are we fooling ourselves?

In Jesus' time, and for many generations since, Christians have been persecuted, followers have been martyred.  While we have seen others persecuted for their faith, we believed we were beyond that.  All those who sought to destroy the followers of Christ were gone, and the world was thought to be a much better place.

In this century, our past has caught up with us, and we are once again subject to persecution and death because of our faith.  And we may not even be that solid in that faith to begin with.

So, perhaps what Jesus is telling his disciples is more relevant today than we realize.  To follow Him means to put ourselves out there as targets, for we are telling the world we believe God loves his creation so much that He came to be among us in the form of a man.

That statement can be viewed as blasphemous to over half the world.

But there is more to what Jesus is saying.  It isn't just about accepting persecution for his sake.  We are denying all that this world holds dear in favor of God's Kingdom.

So, by accepting the cross and walking with it, we are letting the world know this life is not as important as they think.  It is a path to something far greater.

Now that is the message we need to ponder.  Do we believe that?  And if we do, how are we denying what everyone lives for to be the light of the world?

As Jesus told the rich man, let go of all that stuff and you can begin to see what is important.

Can we do that?  Can we carry our own cross?

If it sounds like a death sentence, perhaps we need to get closer to our faith.  It is worth thinking about.  It is worth praying over.

More to come...