Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
TAKE UP YOUR CROSS
What exactly does it mean to take up your cross? Well first of all it gives the impression of carrying a burden, a not so pleasant experience and something hard. Any suffering that we endure for the sake of Christ is part of taking up one's cross and accepting the trials and tribulations (for we are assured that they will come), is also a part.
Look at what it says in Philippians 2:5b-8 "...have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:Who, being in very nature God,did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!"
Jesus is our example for sure. Taking up the cross involves several things beginning with commitment. Being a Christian means not being ashamed of the Gospel but willing to proclaim it even when it's not convenient or comfortable. It means standing for what you believe even when it's not popular. It will involve making hard decisions and choices sometimes. It will involve sacrifice. The cross should be the banner over our lives not the other way around.
I read a play recently where a young woman (we will call her Jane) got saved and went to the popular 'cross shop' to get a cross. The crosses there were fancy, pretty, flashy, designer, small, big, on chains...you get the picture. Any kind of cross you wanted. Jane learned that many of her friends had gotten their crosses there. It wasn't the kind she had envisioned and was directed to a different shop. Here there was only one kind of cross-big, heavy, plain and wooden. They were free too, just had to be carried. There was no denying that cross. So she picked it up and began to carry it every where. Her friends noticed the huge cross and commented on it. They were actually a little embarrassed by her. Jane thought all Christians were supposed to carry their crosses and asked where theirs were. One by one they pulled out their tiny flashy crosses on their necklaces or inside their pockets. They explained that they had traded those huge crosses for ones that were more convenient. They could pull them out when they felt comfortable and that way they didn't make other people uncomfortable either. This didn't make sense to her, she wondered what was the point of claiming the cross only to hide it? Over the next few months, Jane realized that carrying the cross changed a lot of things in her life. Places that she had gone, things that she had done, people she had hung out with, choices she made all began to be determined by that cross and she started fitting things in according to how they worked with the cross, not the other way around. It wasn't an easy walk, but Jane found that she needed it, she began to depend on it and people noticed it. The cross she carried was beginning to affect the people's lives around her...one by one...in some way.
I think that was as good an example as I have read anywhere about what happens when we pick up our cross and begin to let it shape our lives. There is no way that we will not begin to become more and more like Christ who humbled Himself...
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