When Jesus carried His cross up Golgotha to be crucified, no one was thinking of the cross as symbolic of a burden to carry. To a person in the first-century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only: DEATH by the most painful and humiliating means human beings could develop. “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and TAKE UP HIS CROSS DAILY, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” (Luke 9:23-25) This means being WILLING TO DIE in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender.
David prophesied of Christs death on the cross WILL, “I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws…They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” (Psa. 22:14-18)
When we are told to take up our cross this is what I think of, “Do not love (agapaō: God’s love) this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world (with agapaō love), you do not have the love of the Father in you (if we use God’s love up on the world we don’t have any left to love God with). For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. THESE ARE NOT FROM THE FATHER, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who DOES WHAT PLEASES GOD will LIVE FOREVER.” (1 John 2:15-17)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham