He who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:38
We will divide the above verse into two parts. Part a) he who does not take up his cross.. part b) and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Let’s first see part a) What does it mean to carry our cross and follow Jesus? In my view, if not all, most of us come with a baggage of internal struggles. There is always a struggle in us to follow after the ways of Christ (paths of righteousness) versus follow after weaknesses of flesh. If we deny these struggles then we are liars and are not walking in light. Jesus Christ carried the burden of paying for the sins of all mankind yet He had to walk in righteousness so that His sacrifice is acceptable to YHWH. Imagine the struggles He encountered both internal and external.
To make it clearer let me share an example: Peter Struggles to keep the good Faith in the Lord; he wanted to walk on water but couldn’t because his faith wavered .(Matthew 14:28-31) He denied the Lord because his faith wavered(Matthew 26:69-75). Lack of faith was Peter’s cross, but the Lord discipled him and build his faith so that it becomes unwavering. This is just one of the many examples from the bible. Take the case of Jonah he too struggled with the issue of Anger and unforgiveness. He couldn’t accept how the Lord could forgive when He said He will punish nineveh! (Jonah 4)
Similarly, all of us struggle with many such issues in our everyday lives which needs Lord’s help and intervention. Another example would be when only one member of the family is saved and the rest of them are unbelievers in Christ. Will they be saved from hell, or whether they will be raptured with the rest of the believers is a cross that many carry.
Coming to Part b) of this verse which is most important in my view. It’s very easy to deny the struggles and live as if nothing in our lives needs Lord’s help and intervention. But it’s very difficult to acknowledge that we struggle in certain areas of life and need Lord’s help. Our struggles/weaknesses/inability is the cross and carrying them with endurance and still following the example set by the Lord is what makes us worthy of Him.
Some may wonder what it means to be worthy of HIM?
Meaning, He categorically choses those whom He has seen carrying their cross. for eg: He chose the 12 disciples, He chose Paul to be His disciple, Peter, John , and many more whom He wanted to teach. He must’ve seen them struggling but they were still carrying their struggles, trying to be righteous with God and with others. God chooses them and disciples them in the way of righteousness.
Let me elaborate by using an example : There’s a person called Mr. “X” who is poor in managing emotions of self and others, he completely lacks ability or the skill to manage emotions especially negative ones. So one day, Mr. “X” has a bad day at work and when he returns home from work he finds kids have made a mess of the house, toys scattered everywhere on the floor, TV’s on full volume, kids are on top of their voices, so on and so forth. Mr. “X” somehow manages to steer through all this chaos and settles himself on the dinner table. His wife serves him the same dinner that he’d been eating from last 2 days. The moment he sees the same dinner he looses control and is about to snap at wife, kids, but he instead chooses to remain quite and and tries to eat whatever is served. He wants to yell at kids but asks them to lower the volume as desires some quietness. In this case Mr “X” is well aware of his inability to manage emotions but insted of losing it he tries to remain calm. He is carrying his cross. It takes lot of strength and endurance to carry a cross be it a wooden stake or spiritual or emotional. It requires inner strength to carry the cross and the eyes of the Lord are searching for such who are willing to bear their cross.
Here Mr. “X”s cross or struggle is his inability to manage his emotions. There are many of us who have different crosses to carry and need Lord’s help to carry them while He teaches us or disciples us in learning to overcome our struggles/weaknesses/inabilities so that we become worthy of HIM. Consider what happened to Peter, Paul, John and others just few years after the Lord had discipled them. They turned the world upside down with the Goodnews of the Messiah.
Moreover, the outcome of carrying our cross is worth it; because the Lord Himself is teaching us, helping us to overcome our struggles/weakness/inabilities. Lord Jesus Himself is the reward for such people who struggle on daily basis!
If you too like many of us are struggling with carrying your cross and need prayers for the same then write to us or inbox us on our twitter handle and we will pray for you!
Author: Shivani
