WHOEVER DOES NOT TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME IS NOT WORTHY OF ME
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from the Afrikaans Version: Wie sy kruis nie neem en agter My volg nie, is My nie waardig nie.
Translator: Lynda Botha
Someone asked me: “What did Jesus mean by I should take up my cross and follow Him?”
People have different views on this matter, but because I was asked, I will share briefly with you the way I understand this and to the best of my ability incorporate this into my life. Let us quickly look what it meant in Jesus' time if you carried a cross.
The Romans made you carry your own cross to the place of execution if you were to be crucified. Then you would have hanged on that cross until you were dead. So, if you had to walk in the street with a cross on your shoulders, the people who saw you and heard about you, knew that you were inseparably linked to that cross until your death.
So therefore, I believe what Jesus meant by saying: I should be willing to take up the cross and follow Him, is that, no matter how hard satan and his cohorts try to temp me, I had to crucify my old self, to become a follower / disciple of Jesus Christ irrevocably, despite whatever lies ahead on my path – even if it means to follow Him will lead to your death, not that it will necessarily happen.
Now I know there are the "prosperity preachers" and such others proclaiming that it will always go well with a child of our Lord. Then satan probably answers:
"Over my dead body" and we already know that cannot die.
Jesus Himself said:
JOH 16:33 “I have told you all this so that you have peace in Me. Here on Earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
What I believe Jesus tells us, is that we must be prepared to take up our cross if we want to be His followers, and to put it this way, although it might not necessarily happen, we must be willing to take the punch, even though it could possibly lead to death. In other words, for the sake of Jesus, no sacrifice should be too big.
To further substantiate what I have said, we read in the Word of God, every time Jesus states that if we want to follow Him, we must take up our cross, then He also makes it quite clear that we must not prefer our lives over Him.
After all, He did not choose His life above us and if He didn’t do what He did, we were going to spend the eternity in hell.
MAT 16:24 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”
MAT 16:25 "If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”MAR 8:34 "Then, calling the crowd to join His disciples, He said, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
MAR 8:35 "If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”
LUK 9:23 "Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
LUK 9:2: "If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.”
At another place we read:
MAT 10:38 "If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.”
MAT 10:39 "If you cling to your life, you will lose it, but if you give up your life for Me, you will find it.”
Therefore, I will endeavor like my hero Paul to say: that the interests in the world that does not go with the Gospel of Jesus, is crucified to me, in other words – dead;
Just as the world’s interest in me is crucified, in other words – dead.
GAL 6:14 "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.”
Greetings,
Sakkie