The Way of the Cross

To follow Jesus requires a lifetime of self-denial and sacrificial service for others and a willingness to lose everything for the Gospel.

When Jesus dispatched his disciples to announce the “Good News” to the “lost sheep of Israel,” he warned that they would find themselves as “sheep among wolves.” Hostile men would haul them before “councils and whip them in their synagogues,” and they would be hated “by all men for my sake.” That was the harsh reality Christ’s disciples discovered when they proclaimed his message to the world.

Israel’s leaders, the men who should have welcomed the Messiah, instead fought what he represented at every opportunity. Nevertheless, to walk the same path of suffering and self-sacrifice as Jesus did is the only way to become his faithful disciple and achieve “greatness” in the Kingdom of God.

[Narrow Path - Photo by Dominik Riesen on Unsplash]

The student is “not above his master”! Only by “enduring to the end” will we be saved. If they persecuted our Lord, the “enemies of the cross of Christ” certainly have no qualms about mistreating us or any of Christ’s followers, who are identified by their Christ-like conduct.

Jesus never promised us a life of ease and wealth. According to his clear teachings, we should expect suffering and even persecution for his sake, and if hostility from the surrounding world order is lacking, would it not indicate deficiencies in our faith?

• “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be they of his own household.”

The Nazarene does not wage war against humanity or the institutions of this world. Conflict begins whenever men reject Jesus and his teachings. The persecution of those men and women who emulate him is inevitable. As Jesus also warned:

• “He who does not take his cross to follow me is not worthy of me. For he that finds his life will lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake will find it” – (Matthew 10:39).

We will reap great rewards if remain faithful to Jesus, but the narrow road that leads to life is often rough and dangerous. If we wish to become his disciple and remain faithful to his words, we must first count the cost. If we fail to keep his words or follow in his footsteps, we may discover that a horrible fate awaits us:

• “Everyone that hears these words of mine and does them not will be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and struck that house, and it fell, and great was its fall” – (Matthew 7:26-27).

• “If any man comes to me and hates not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it?” – (Luke 14:26-28).

• “For truly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and you know. For this cause I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent that I might know your faith, lest by any means the Tempter had tempted you, and our labor should be in vain” – (1 Thessalonians 3:4-5).

The call to follow the Crucified One is thus an all-or-nothing proposition. The half-hearted man who does not give his total allegiance to Jesus will fall by the wayside when times become difficult.

This does not mean that every disciple will experience persecution, but the potential and often real loss of property, health, freedom, and even life for the Gospel’s sake is the price of following the “Lamb wherever he leads.”

Moreover, Jesus indicated a coming time when all of us must make the difficult choice. Will we follow him or not? According to Jesus, many will choose the broad and easy road:

• “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find the faith upon the Earth?” – (Luke 18:8).

• “But all these things are the beginning of travail. Then will they deliver you for tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. And then will many stumble, and will betray one another and hate one another  And many false prophets will arise, and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be multiplied, the love of the many will wax cold. But he that endures to the end, the same will be saved” – (Matthew 24:8-13).

In the Book of Revelation, the Lamb’s followers stand majestically on “Mount Zion” with him. Before reaching that glorious summit, however, they first must overcome the “Dragon,” and they do so by the “word and their testimony, and because they loved not their lives even unto death” – (Revelation 12:11, 14:1-5).

The implication of the last clause is martyrdom. Just as Jesus, the “Faithful Witness,” overcame the Devil and thus qualified to reign with his Father, so we, qualify to rule with Christ by remaining faithful during persecution even at the cost of our lives. The Spirit of God is constantly summoning us to maintain our “Testimony of Jesus,” and to steadfastness through tribulation:

• “Fear not the things that you are about to suffer. Behold, the Devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt of the second death” – (Revelation 1:4-6, 2:10-11).

• “He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” – (Revelation 3:21-22).

• “And the Dragon was enraged with the woman and departed to make war with the rest of her seed, those who keep the commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus” – (Revelation 12:17).

SELF-SACRIFICIAL SERVICE

Jesus foretold his arrest, trial, and execution to his disciples, but they either did not hear or were incapable of comprehending his words. And so, they began jockeying for high positions in the coming messianic kingdom. Christ used the opportunity to teach them just what it meant to be the Messiah, as well as what being his disciple requires.

James and John asked to sit at his right and left when Jesus came “in his glory,” positions of great honor and power, but their request highlighted their cluelessness. As his words and deeds demonstrated, we are summoned to serve others just as Jesus did, and sacrifice, suffering, and death must precede glorification and exaltation.

Jesus challenged James and John. “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” He drank the “cup” of God’s wrath for others in his trial and execution - (Psalm 11:6, 16:5, Isaiah 57:17-22, Jeremiah 25:15-28).

Christ’s warning was not just for James and John, but also for each of his would-be disciples. Collectively, we are destined to endure suffering, deprivation, and persecution for him and his message, and one day, individually. Jesus explained the cost of becoming great in God’s Kingdom:

• “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones tyrannize them. Not so will it be among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you will be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Contrary to the ways of this world, “greatness” is achieved by self-sacrificial service for others, not by exercising dominion over them. We must first become the “servant” of all.

If we desire to become “great” we must first become the “slave” or ‘doulos’ of others, just as the Messiah came “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his soul as a ransom instead of many.” These words allude to a passage from the Book of Isaiah about the ‘Suffering Servant of Yahweh’:

• “Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, because he poured out to death his own soul, and with transgressors let himself be numbered, he carried the sin of many and interceded for transgressors” - (Isaiah 53:10-12).

Giving his life as a ransom for “many” did not mean a limited or exclusive company. The term is a verbal link to the passage in Isaiah where “the many” refers to the “transgressors.” The contrast is not between “many” and “all,” but between the one Christ who gave his life and the many beneficiaries of his sacrificial act.

In Greco-Roman society, ransoms were paid to purchase the freedom of slaves. Christ’s statement was a declaration of his mission: To give his life to free others from enslavement to sin, death, and Satan.

By responding in this way, Jesus used his example to reveal what it meant for anyone to become his disciple, both then and now. His call to service applies to everyone who wishes to follow the Christ of Scripture. The self-seeking man is incapable of becoming his disciple short of repentance and a radical change of heart.

To follow the “Lamb wherever he goes” means walking the same path that Jesus did, living a cruciform life of service for others, and bearing witness to Christ’s deeds and message no matter the cost. And service to others includes even our “enemies,” just as Jesus offered his life when we, too, were “yet enemies of God.”

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SEE ALSO:

• The Word of the Cross - (The power and wisdom of God are revealed in the proclamation of the Messiah who was crucified by the Roman Empire)

• Servant or Conqueror? - (Jesus rejected Satan’s offer of unlimited political power and instead chose the way of the Suffering Servant and an unjust death - Matthew 4:8-11)

• Ransom for Many - (His disciples are called to engage in self-sacrificial service for others just as Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many – Mark 10:35-45)

• Messiah and King - (The New Testament applies messianic and royal promises from the Psalms to Christ’s present reign. He alone is, present tense, Lord and Messiah!)