We have been looking at the job description for disciples. We are told to take up our crosses (Mt. 16: 24) but struggle with all that implies. The third devotion of four in the series will look at what it means to take up our crosses.
Nuggets
Crucifixion was chosen as a form of punishment because it was painful and degrading.
Jesus died a very public death on the cross.
Devotions in the What Does It Mean? series
Crucifixion is not a method of capital punishment these days. In our society today, we look for more humane forms of execution.
We know Jesus died on a cross. However, we may not know all that a crucifixion meant and entailed.
Crucifixion
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Mt. 16: 24 ESV)
Crucifixion was chosen as a form of punishment because it was painful and degrading.
Offenders were usually impaled on the stakes, but their wrists could have just been tied to the crossbeam.
This brutal form of punishment was used frequently in Jesus’ day as a deterrent for deviant behavior. Coupled with scourging or flogging to ensure a “speedier” death, it was a bloody practice. That was why Jesus had the sign King of kings nailed on His cross (Jn. 19: 19).
Offenders were paraded past the crowd carrying the crossbeam. Also carried was a tablet detailing the committed crimes, which was later put on the cross. The offenders’ wrists were either nailed or tied to the crossbeam, and then the crossbeam was fastened onto an upright pole. The feet were also either nailed or tied to the pole.
Depending on the method, it could take days for offenders to die. This was because the cause of death was usually loss of blood circulation or heart failure. To hasten death, soldiers would break the offenders’ legs so they could not support the weight of their bodies.
Crosses were usually situated near a road. Crucifixion would not be a deterrent if people did not see it.
Jesus’ Death on the Cross
Jesus died a very public death on the cross.
Jesus’ death had one purpose: “He [God] erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2: 14 CSB). Jesus, through His death, paid the price for our sins.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfectionmeans we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Perfectionmeans we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
No, we don’t understand the why or specifically how. We don’t have to know. We just have to believe that God made this possible.
Yes, it sounds foolish. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Cor. 1: 18 NIV). We just have to believe.
When we “see” Jesus on the cross, we see Him giving up His will for God’s Will. We know that Jesus was hoping some other way could be created to accomplish redemption. That was His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt. 26: 36).
But Jesus said — regardless of how it had to shake out — He would do God’s Will. He couldn’t have been looking forward to the pain and humiliation. He went through with the plan anyway.
Making the Connections
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor. 12: 7-10 ESV)
It means the same thing for us — complete surrender to God. We should imitate Jesus and do whatever God calls us to do.
Glossary
This means we have to die to self. Paul explained it this way: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5: 24 ESV). We have to put our wants and dreams second to what God wants for us.
Sometimes, we put a negative connotation to this, like it is a thorn in our side. We get this from Paul. He talks about having a thorn in his side that he asked God to remove (I Cor. 12: 7-10). We interpret God saying no as meaning it was just something Paul had to live with for the rest of his life.
Taking Up Our Cross
But it isn’t just negative. We do not just lay down our lives, roll over, and die. We do not just sacrifice what we perceive to be good stuff and get nothing in return.
We pick up whatever God has in store for us. We take up a new life in Jesus.
I read somewhere that the writer thought sacrificing our “self” was sacrificing our individuality. I just don’t see it that way. My individuality is what makes me, me. Yours makes you, you. We aren’t sacrificing our character or personality. We are still us.
That could be one thing trips up some non-believers. They think they would have to give up their characters or personalities — their essence.
God comes to us as we are — faults, scars, and all. I don’t see Him doing that if He is planning to suck the “us” out of us.
I think God is wanting us to sacrifice former conduct that isn’t in line with His teachings. Let’s look again at what Paul says. “But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, awhich belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4: 20-24 ESV). Even if we have enjoyed our former actions — if they do not fall under God’s laws and commandments — we need to give them up.
We pick up what God has in store for us. Yes, it is going to be filled with trials because Satan is going to try to wreck our witness.
Yes, it is going to be work. We pick up our responsibilities in the kingdom work. That will help us grow to be the people God intends.
But it is so much more than that. We pick up the blessings God will bestow. We pick up the peace and love that He lavishes on us.
We pick up a Friend. We no longer will be alone. We now have a haven, protector, and provider.
We take up living as God would have us live. That is difficult in a sinful world. Yes, there are some things that we have to give up, but those are more than compensated by what we gain.
Loving Heavenly Father. You ask us to do hard things. You ask us to follow Your will, which is sometimes in opposition to what the world in which we live considers good. But the reward for our obedience far outweighs the struggles we encounter in the world. Help us to focus only on You. Help us to deny our humanly selfish desires and complete the tasks You have for us. Lord, in all we do, we want to follow You. Amen.
What do you think?
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I like how you explain of the things to make people understand in a simple but effective way,
Thank you!
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