Take Up Your Cross: Luke 9:23
What does it mean to take up your cross daily, as Jesus tells us in Luke 9:23? It means we make a daily recommitment to follow Him instead of the world.
CAUTIONSDAILY STRIDES
Trace Pirtle
3 min read
Over the years, most of us have taken up many different hobbies.
Some of us tried our hand at painting, sketching, or calligraphy. Others took up writing poetry, short stories, or blogging. Still others picked up the guitar, a language program, or acting in the community theater.
But in every case, we could as easily put down the hobby as we took it up. After all, they are hobbies, and some stay with us for life, and others are for a season.
Take Up Your Cross: Not a Hobby
But when Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23, NKJV), He isn’t talking about starting a new hobby. He’s calling us to a new life; one distinctly different from the old life.
So what does pick up your cross mean? The answer to this question isn’t given enough consideration in the contemporary church, street corner evangelism, or traveling tent revivals.
In most organized settings, where emotions are primed for the altar call, the prospect has little idea what they are saying “yes” to when they are invited to give their life to Jesus Christ. They are caught up in the experience, but have they been given “informed consent?”
What I mean by informed consent is an understanding of what the person is getting into. The “seeker” has a right to know what is expected of them and how their life will change if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Yes, you and I know it’s the “right” choice to make. However, we don’t want people to have a “bait and switch” experience with Christianity. That is, they were promised heaven for eternity without being told they need to leave their old life behind while still living it.
William MacDonald, in the Believer’s Bible Commentary, says, “to take up the cross means to choose the life Jesus lived.” Here are some examples he cites:
The opposition of loved ones.
The reproach of the world.
Forsaking family and house and lands and the comforts of this life.
Complete dependence on God.
A pathway of loneliness.
Organized attacks from established religious leaders.
Pouring out one’s life for others.
Death to self and to the world.
These are just a sample of what Jesus means when He says we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily, and follow Him.
A Daily Discipline
Most of us won’t experience a martyr’s death or be called to leave our families; however, we may experience the reproach of the world and feel isolated when we proclaim His unpopular Good News. The Good News isn’t perceived as such by those who are perishing.
So taking up my cross becomes a daily discipline. Each morning before I rise, I lift the cross around my neck and tell Jesus, “Today, I once again take up my cross, deny myself, and follow You.”
This is my way of reaffirming my commitment to Him. I know I fall short. But I heard the late Phil Robertson say, “Just try!” Those two words have stayed with me for years.
As I’ve said before, I don’t believe Jesus expects perfection from us this side of heaven. However, I believe He does expect us to know the difference between what we called acceptable before salvation and what is acceptable after we are saved.
If I ever forget the laundry list of sins the Apostle Paul offers us, I remind myself there is no law against the nine “Fruit of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23,).
If we keep the Fruit of the Spirit in our mind, heart, and actions, we will seldom be out of step with Jesus as we take up our cross and follow Him.
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