Follow Me

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." (Mark 8:34)

Throughout the gospels Jesus gives a very clear command to all of His disciples and that is "Follow Me." As much as all of us want to follow Christ in theory, we find that in practice this is sometimes an extremely difficult thing to do. We all want a Messiah without rejection and suffering. We all want the promise without any of the pain. We all want the reward but don't want to pay the price. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die (Bonhoeffer).

Christ had to be a suffering servant before he could become a conquering king. Jesus had to remind Peter of this in Mark 8:33. As Jesus was teaching His disciples how the Son of Man must suffer at the hands of men and be rejected and killed and will on the third day rise again, Peter rebuked him. Jesus then replied by saying, "Get behind me, Satan!" For Peter couldn't understand why Jesus should have to suffer. He wanted things to remain the way they were and to have Jesus continue to teach him as he had been doing. He did not want Jesus nor himself to have to pay a price for our freedom. Jesus explained to His disciples that he must bear the cross and be crucified in order to fulfill the will of His Father. His disciples had no idea how great a sacrifice their teacher was about to make for them.

As disciples of Christ, we are called to the cross as well. The cross is not merely a metaphor that we are to gently ponder in our minds. We are called by Jesus to take up our cross and to die daily as Paul did. We must take up our cross but not until we have put the old self under, not until the old man is dead. For if we did it through our old self then it would be our own strength that would have to bear our cross. We could never bear a cross without the help of God. Even Jesus had to have His flesh crucified before he could die and be raised again. For every great reward there is a cost. That cost will always involve obedience. Obedience is not something that is typically cost free. We must all sacrifice knowing in our hearts that Jesus already paid the ULTIMATE sacrifice for us. So today I make the choice to die to flesh and to take up my cross and follow Him!