“We must bear our crosses with courage as we follow Jesus, step by step.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – July 20, 2024
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24, ESV
For much of my life with Christ, when I read or heard his exhortation to “take up my cross,” I assumed this was an invitation into heroic living. “Do something great for God and follow him with all you have!” The “cross” we carry, therefore, was assumed to be something I found or chose for myself, related to the great mission I was undertaking for God. However, I am now less and less convinced that our crosses are chosen by us and instead are the weights of this world that threaten to crush us, that we must instead bear with courage while we continue to follow Jesus, step by step.
The longer we live, the more we encounter the pain and brokenness of this world, and this is true no matter your economic or social position. To live is to encounter both joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure. However, at least in my own journey, I’ve found that it is increasingly difficult to retain the childlike and innocent faith of youth. As we age, we carry the heavy weight of life. We see friends, family members, and even children get sick and die. We suffer injustices at work or in our community. We observe and are impacted by the greed and lust for power of evil men and women. And we sit confused at the sense of God’s silence in the face of such decay and confusion.
And yet, in the midst of this sea of chaos, our Lord Jesus calls out to us: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
In Jesus’ day, the cross was a symbol, not only of death, but of power and imperial might. In a sense, it summed up in a single image everything that was broken and bent in our world. And yet, Jesus tells us to follow him with the weight of this death resting upon our shoulders. To follow Jesus is to be increasingly aware of the pain in our world, not in abstract or philosophical ways, but in concrete and embodied realities, carrying it upon your back and in the core of your being.
We are not promised a pain-free life. Discipleship does not exempt us from suffering, but as we continue to look to Christ, it transforms us into people who are able to continue to follow him, even in the midst of life’s greatest challenges. We do not seek out a life of suffering, but if and when it finds its way to us, we continue to keep our eyes on Christ, remembering that the way to life is found in the defeat and triumph over death.
Prayer
Father, give us the strength to bear whatever may come our way, as we continue to follow after Christ each and every day of our lives. Amen.
Application
What “crosses” have you been asked to bear with courage and faithfulness in this season, trusting that God will give you the strength you need to follow him even in the midst of the pain?
Related Reading
Matthew 10:38; John 10:18; 1 Corinthians 1:18
Worship Resource
Delirious?: Message of the Cross
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