(Audio)
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
We're afraid to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Jesus. We're afraid because we only perceive the negative in such a choice. But it is only a denial of that which can never truly satisfy. It makes room for and affirms the only possible source of lasting joy and happiness. If we can learn to see this we can not just follow but run after Jesus.
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
It seems that the cross is a call to embrace death. But this wasn't the approach Jesus took to the cross and it should not be ours.
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (see Hebrews 12:2).
The call to follow Jesus is a call to the cross, yes. It does not end at the cross but leads through to the joy set before us. The cross is our shared yoke with Jesus. It doesn't sound like it would be easy and light. But Jesus has grace from the Father to obey. He has perfect hope in the joy set before him. In him we can indeed find rest for ourselves even while our crosses remain.
We aren't self-abusive. We aren't obeying commandments for their own sake. It is all about the joy set before us. Jesus is not whipping us on from behind us. He is urging us on from a place of perfect peace and happiness. He offers the water of life when we are thirsty. He offers his own strength when we feel weak. He will do anything necessary to get us home.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Let us take up our crosses, yes, but only with our eyes fixed on Easter.
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
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