Taking Up the Cross
Luke 9:18–27
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23
Christ’s description of discipleship in Luke 9:23 includes the command “Follow me.” Having heard of self-denial and cross-bearing, we may find ourselves looking about for some motivation that will bring us to that commitment. Knowing that the alternative is to lose our life or forfeit our very self helps. But the cost still seems high. In most cases, the only thing that will ultimately get us going along this path of self-denial and discipleship is following after Jesus, which means setting our eyes on him as he has gone before us.
Jesus is the model for our self-denial. He is the image of cross-bearing.
Seeing this was the turning point in the life of Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian fellowships. In a little chapel near his estates in Europe, there was a remarkable picture of Jesus Christ. The artist was a true child of God, and he had painted love for Christ and the love of Christ into his portrait as few have done either before or since. Underneath it were the lines, “All this I did for thee; what hast thou done for me?”
One day Zinzendorf entered the chapel and was arrested by the portrait. He recognized the love of Christ that had been painted into the face of the Master. He saw the pierced hands, the bleeding forehead, the wounded side. He read the couplet, “All this I did for thee; what hast thou done for me?” Gradually a new revelation of the claim of Christ on his life came upon him. He was unable to move. Hours passed. As the day waned the lingering rays of sunlight fell upon the bowed form of the young nobleman who was now weeping out his devotion to him whose love had conquered his heart. Zinzendorf left that chapel a changed man. He went to work through the Moravians, whose missionary interests and Christ-like service have encircled the globe.
This is what moves a person to follow after Jesus in the path of denial. It is what moves one to be a Christian in the first place—not the promise of rewards (though there are rewards) or an escape from hell (though following Christ does mean deliverance from hell). We are moved by the love of Jesus, for which he endured the cross.
People won by that love will never cease following after Jesus.
They “strive to enter through the narrow door” (Luke 13:24).
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.