Disciple Musings, part I

"And He was saying to them all, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.'" Luke 9: 23- 24.

In this post we take a decidely religious turn and deal, in part, with the topic of being a disciple of Christ.

Much has been written and said on what it means to be a disciple. In the time when Christ was actually walking the earth, His "disciples" were actually referred to as followers. There were many kinds of followers, from casual to close, and the 12 disciples were among the closest, even though most scholars believe that there were many others who remained unnamed who heard and saw basically everything John or Peter did. Anyway, these men who were close to Jesus went from followers, to close friends, to believers, to disciples, to apostles, all within a time frame of roughly 4 - 5 years. It was a difficult time for them and their ability to see all that Jesus was teaching and showing them was limited, at best.

Fast forward about 2,000 years and today, a "disciple" of Christ is more commonly known as a Christian, which means "Christ-follower." To say that we are a disciple of Christ simply means that as a follower and believer in Christ, we study, examine, and try to imitate His life and teachings. In a sense, we are students of our Lord, but students extreme - we want to become absorbed in all that He is, all that He said, all that He represents.

So, when Christ was speaking to both His disciples and the crowd around and said that a disciple must "take up their cross daily..." He was using a word picture that would help them understand many things about being a disciple. Perhaps this one reference can help a great deal in the on-going search for what a true disciple is to be.

First, we must ask, "what did the cross represent?" Here is a short list with some explanations:

1. The cross represented sacrifice: No matter how zealous we want to be, we can never sacrifice ourselves like Christ did. We may give up things, make resolutions, and modify our behavior, but His sacrifice was both totally complete, divine, and beyond the scope of any human endeavor. The people in South America or elsewhere who have themselves placed on a cross at Easter or some other holiday are only making a mockery of Christ's death. His sacrifice for all humanity was for He alone, and no other. All that happened in that act cannot be contained in all the books in all the libraries in the world. Christ knew this, even as His followers would in a few years, but at this time, He was referring to the need for His followers to make daily sacrifices of self will for God's will. The cross represents sacrifice and since no one who follows Christ can truly follow someone or something else, it requires daily tuning of our hearts and minds to put us in proper position to His leadership.

2. The cross represents obedience: Christ willingly went to His death to fulfill God's ultimate covenant with mankind. He gave His life as part of the plan that existed before the world began. This was no "on the fly" decision or adjustment. God always has, and always will fulfill all His plans and purposes. He is a God of order and design. Christ was taunted with the option of taking another route, but then He would be sabotaging His own plan He designed with the Father. In reality, there was no other option and Christ exemplified His obedience to the Father, which signified unity and cohesion. When we as disciples of Christ obey God, we are signifing that we are in unision with God's soverenity. Christ was saying in these recorded verses that to deny our own will and take up God's will, we symbolize where our aligence is, and who our Master is. This daily act of obedience to God's will aligns us with the Father's master plan for this world.

3. The cross represents death: Everyone who hung on a cross died. Some died that day, many others died days later. Christ died within hours due to His horribly tortured condition. When Christ said to take up the cross daily, He was saying that we must die to our own desires, dreams, and carnal thinking. It is not amazing that a non-disciple will think more about themselves than anyone else. People who are narcissistic and self absorbed are not acting in a surprising way. When self is in command, self is served. When Christ is in command, self must die and Christ must live in self's place. It's an easy thing to explain, but a highly difficult thing to live out.

4. The cross represents pain: Mr. T predicted "pain" Rocky in the 3rd installment of that series, and Christ was telling His disciples that they would experience pain in their following of Him. The pain could be physical, emotional, spiritual, but there would be pain. It's not exactly a fun reality to be hit with, but living in a constant war between living for ourselves and living for Christ exacts a toll upon any disciple. Only Christians experience this. No one else is in the process of sluffing off one master while trying to give their all to another. Most of the disciples would eventually be tortured and killed for following Christ. Christians in America today will suffer nothing more painful than just seeking the will of the Father over any other. However, that too, is painful. It's not to be taken lightly and courage in this particular reality is something cultivated, rather than found all at once and forever.

5. The cross represents shame and embarassment: Christ was stripped on the cross, but the pictures and drawings we often see display a more modest depiction. It was a shame to be found so guilty as to deserve the cross. The nakedness was just icing on the cake for the prosecutors. The cross was where the most despised and hated criminals went to meet their punishment. For Christians, living in a world that does not want to follow Christ, nor hear His name, we are seen as shameful, despised, and in truth, some of the more zealous detractors would like to punish Christians in the worst way. As a disciple, many will feel shame like Peter did when He denied Christ out of fear of shared punishment. We often feel shame for putting ourselves first, or denying the chance to do good in God's name. We may feel embarassed when we are accused wrongly, or even more when we are rightfully accused of wrong when we knew better. It's quite a thing to have non-Christians rightfully point fingers at us when we act like non-believers. Christ was telling His disciples to take up that fact of shame and embarassment and move on with it.

6. The cross represents Identity: Christ spoke of the shared cross with His disciples long before He actually carried His own. Christ's admonition to take up the cross was at least, in part, an admission of a shared journey. Christ put the will of the Father ahead of His own will. In so doing, He set the example for His followers to put God's will ahead of their own. This is all about getting into the proper position with God. We must see God as the Master, and ourselves as the subjects, before we can proceed any further. He is not a part time God, or an occassional God, but the one true God of all the universe, and everyone in it.
When Christians "take up their cross," they are in fact taking up their identiy within Christ. They are subjecting themselves to His Lordship and ownership over themselves. They are acknowledging that in order to be His disciples, they must deny themselves of their own will and live for the will of the Father.

What "taking up the cross daily" DOES NOT mean is:
1. A little "doing without"
2. Some temporary sacrifices
3. Looking the other way sometimes
4. Forgiving others for some wrongs
5. Putting up with some mild persecution

Taking up our cross daily, as defined by Christ, is not about us so much as it is about acknowledging the work of Christ, understanding our proper position with Him, and understanding that if we are going to share in the life He offers, we will also share in the pain, shame, and difficult obedience He offers as well.

We are always right to exalt God more, to assume everything Christ taught had spiritual implications first, and to know that our efforts and work means nothing in comparision to our devotion and obedience to our loving Lord.

And remember - we cannot love Him any more than we know Him. More on that next time.