And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34)

More Than Sacrifice

In our last post, we thought about the attractiveness of following Christ. Jesus is attractive. And he is the Christ. But the disciples needed to know what kind of Messiah he would be because the wrong view would lead to a wrong view of discipleship.

So Jesus told them the cost of following him. They would need to deny themselves and take up their crosses.

This isn't Jesus' way of telling us we must deny our personality, die as a martyr, or even live an ascetic life that is detached from "things." He is not talking about self-denial that leads to personal gain—dieting, exercise, or personal discipline.

No, when Jesus said a man should deny himself it wasn't his way of saying they should deny the self things the self wants. You know, there's yourself over there in the corner. Keep things from yourself. The self is not some detached part of you that Jesus tells you to deny. He isn't asking for mere sacrifice.

Instead, Jesus is saying the self should be displaced and renounced. Life was about the self. Now it must be about Christ. This means the self leaves the throne of our hearts, and Christ now sits upon it.

These are negative and positive commands. The negative: deny yourself. The positive: take up your cross. The negative: step off the throne. The positive: surrender the throne to Jesus. Whatever he assigns you, whatever cross he asks you to take up, take it up, and follow him.

This, of course, is the life Jesus lived. He had an assignment from God. It included the literal cross. It was a method of torture designed by the Romans, but Jesus was destined to partake of it since the Old Testament Scriptures suggested it would be the way he died (Psalm 22).

Embrace Your Cross

Now, when Jesus said these things, cross-bearing was not an established metaphor. The cross was a terrible and very Roman contraption. It was a means for Rome to humiliate those under their subjugation. They would crucify rebels at the entrance to a town, on the main roads, as a way to tell every passerby who was in charge. Rome is the boss. And a person on their way to be crucified would carry their cross. They were submitted to Rome.

When Jesus tells us to take up our cross, it's not his way of telling us to put up with a sickness or a trial or a difficult person. It's not his way of saying we should endure times of difficulty. He's instead telling us to give him total allegiance. Follow him no matter the cost.

Quality vs. Quantity

If all this talk of self-denial and taking up your cross sounds like a tall order, you are right. But Jesus knew the task of spreading the gospel through the whole world would be difficult, and he also knew the secret to real living, so he did not hold back. He told people exactly what it would take.

Jesus, you see, is interested in quality over quantity. He knows his message of discipleship will not appeal to the general population. The crowds would not receive it. But it is the secret to real living, so Jesus makes it clear: deny yourself and take up your cross.

In Luke, Jesus spoke of a man who built a tower and a king who went to war (Luke 14:25-33). The man building a tower first sits down and counts the cost. The king going to war first sits down and calculates if he has a large enough army. Jesus is no different from the tower builder and the general king. He also counts the cost of building and warring. And what he needs to get the church built and the war won are disciples, people who bear their cross in allegiance to him (Luke 14:27, 33).

Giving Up to Quickly

But this is where the cost of discipleship is too much for too many. It sounds impossible. It sounds like a losing proposition. So, rather than follow Jesus, we make our compromises and continue to settle for less than real living. We turn Christianity into something cheap or easy or weak, and thereby dilute it to the point that it's lost its potency.

But potent Christianity is real living. So Jesus gives us promises about life following after him.