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If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
When is the last time we truly meditated on these words? We look at the cross, the suffering associated with it, the end result of it, and are humbled that Christ would go through such a great task for us. But then to think that Jesus turns it around and says we are to follow him – even to the cross!!! Are we prepared for such a task?
It seems that even Christ’s followers, when confronted with the reality of what he was saying in his calling, found themselves second-guessing their allegiance. At one point all but his closest disciples left him (John 6:66). Then when the going got really tough, even they would only follow… from a distance (Matthew 27:56-58). Indeed, the cost of following Christ is high. Consider these words;
Christ had no interest in gathering vast crowds of professed adherents who would melt away as soon as they found out what following Him actually demanded of them. In our own presentation of Christ’s gospel, therefore, we need to lay a similar stress on the cost of following Christ and make sinners face it soberly before we urge them to respond to the message of free forgiveness. In common honesty, we must not conceal the fact that free forgiveness in one sense will cost everything.– (J. I. Packer)
It will cost everything. Remember Paul? It was warned after his conversion that he would have to suffer greatly for the sake of Christ. Yet what does Paul say about his sufferings?
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,… (2 Cor 4:15-17)
Did you catch that? He calls the sufferings he endured light, momentary affliction. Light as if to say they were easy, simple, like the man who brags about a minor scratch. But Paul says it was worth it, because following Christ, following him in to the cross brings an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So yes, we are called to suffer, to suffer greatly. But we are not called to suffer for worthless reasons.
How do we do it? consider the remaining words of Paul from the passage quoted above;
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor 4:18)
We endure suffering by looking not at the suffering, but at something much greater. We look unto Jesus, our hope and our joy, just as Jesus looked unto the hope and joy that was set before him as he endured the cross (Heb 12:2).
