In Luke 14:25-33, Jesus warns would be followers to consider the implications of following Him to Jerusalem and the crucifixion that awaited. In last’s week’s blog, we saw that Jesus told the crowd that the call of the Kingdom of God demanded a radical choice of the King and His Kingdom over the closest family relations and duties. Now, we come to the second, and starkest of the three conditions for following Jesus, carry your cross (daily).
Bless you, if you wear a gold cross to tell others that you follow Jesus! I applaud the sentiment you express, and, at times, the courage that display takes. However, over the centuries, the image of the cross has been romanticized and too often reduced to a symbol of mere church affiliation. No one hearing Jesus would have romanticized His words.
The Romans had “perfected” ancient practices of impaling criminals, defeated soldiers, and political enemies. They wanted a public execution that was excruciating (from “cross”), lingering, and shameful. The one to be crucified was severely flogged and then forced to carry the cross-beam to the place of his (or more rarely her) execution. Once there, the Romans would nail the victim’s wrists to the cross-beam and lift the naked body (no loin cloth) to the top of the vertical beam (likely forming a “T” shape). The soldiers would then drive a 5”-7” iron spike through both of the ankles. After hours of horribly painful attempts to lift on that spike in order to breathe, the prisoner would eventually die of asphyxiation.[1]
That’s what those who heard Jesus would have understood because they would likely have seen crucifixions! The Romans wanted all to see this gore, to drive home the point that one doesn’t mess with Rome. For Jesus, this was not a metaphor for cutting out dessert for a season. He knew, and told His disciples often, that this death awaited Him. But what did it mean for those who followed Jesus?
For many Jesus followers, such as Peter, it would be actual crucifixion that awaited them. For thousands of others, it would mean other forms of martyrdom. Yet not all would be executed. Did they not need to carry their cross? No!
Let’s look at the Apostle Paul. This is a guess on my part, but judging from Paul’s cross-centered preaching as a Jesus follower, it may be that Saul the Pharisee took offense at the very idea that the King, Messiah, would be crucified. Crucifixion was not only a shameful end for Israel’s glorious Son of David, but was also cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). The risen Christ showed Saul that, indeed, Jesus did bear God’s curse for us. He also showed Saul how much Saul would have to suffer for Him, the King who suffered on the cross.
Long before Paul was martyred, he said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20 NIV).” Carrying the cross, is dying with Christ now; laying down our lives, now; and surrendering ourselves to God, now. If God grants us a long, faithful life and peaceful death, that’s a grace given to those who had already died with Christ before their bodies expired.
Jesus was crucified as an enemy of the state that belonged to the fallen world, and its Prince. Our crosses identify us as enemies of Satan’s realm. Jesus warned us that the world (Satan’s realm) would hate us. James would later warn, “…don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God (James 4:4 NIV)? The crosses we bear, witness to the world that we have taken sides, and we will pay the price for that. We live in the world, but our allegiance is first and foremost to the Kingdom of God (Philippians 3:20). Carrying the cross takes courage and faith.
Finally, Jesus warns those who would follow Him, to count the cost before picking up our cross. I end with this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who paid the cost:
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of His Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but deliver Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.[2]
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[1] For further details, see here, https://www.worldhistory.org/crucifixion/. Although some details are likely not accurate, Mel Gibson’s, The Passion of the Christ, gives us an emotionally and unforgettably powerful depiction.
[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p. 44.