Jesus said

Pick up your Cross

Many of us are fans of Jesus Christ. We like Him – sometimes a lot. We love to hear the stories of His ministry and we enjoy hearing the preacher pulling out the finer points of each story. We all like to be reminded of the reason when we hear preachers quote John 3:16. We love the good stuff. Even better, we love the easy stuff. By that, I mean that we all love to be able to agree instantly with the preacher and to sing joyfully in the praise and worship. We even enjoy the giving because the preacher tells us that God loves a cheerful giver.

All these things, good though they are, make us fans of Jesus rather than followers.

So let me ask you a serious question - Are you close enough to be a fan but not quite close enough to deny yourself, and pick up your cross daily so as to be a follower of Jesus Christ ? When was the last time you heard Luke 9:23 preached? “Then he said to them all: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” I have heard it preached once, maybe twice – ok three or four times – in the past 40 years !!!

I think that when Jesus said “My yoke is easy, My burden is light”, He was referring to us picking up our cross and denying ourselves. I believe it when He says that too – His yoke is easy and His burden is light. When we pick up our cross, we crucify self so that He might be seen in us. When we put our own interests second to that of others we crucify self. When we give sacrificially we crucify self. When we go out of our way to hold and carry another’s burdens – their grief; their sorrow; their worries; their lack – we crucify self. When we accept insult and forgive without reservation despite everyone in the world knowing the insult is wrong and/or mis-placed – we crucify self.

It is easy to be a fan of someone, as millions of sports fans will attest, but Jesus asks us to go that extra few steps further and to follow in His footsteps. If a fan was simply a fan-atic then we’d all qualify one way or the other. To be a follower requires that extra commitment that says, I willingly and gladly pick up my cross and die to self daily for Jesus. Unless we do so, our chances and opportunities to bear fruit will be limited because our lifestyle will lack that little something that truly reflects Jesus in all we do.

Who will join me? Who will deny himself and take up His cross today – and every day of his or her life – in order to reflect a little bit of Jesus to a world searching desperately for a better reason to live? Who will help to give the world a little more hope than they have right now.

Jesus is the way, the only way, the only truth, and the only life, and its your job and my job to shed that light on a needy and hurting world.