Laying It All On the Line

A disciple: a learner, a student, a pupil; one who follows the teaching and example of someone; one whose behavior and life choices reflect the values of another person; one who has been imprinted with the character and values of his teacher.

Imprint: Like a stamp or seal embossed on a document: soft wax will take the impression...in the same way, we must be soft and pliable, that is, "teachable." Those who have their minds and their hearts already firmly set cannot be molded into a new shape. We must be "soft" so Jesus can reshape us.

Hard sayings of Jesus: where he deliberately shakes up the status quo and challenges us to consider the real cost of a total commitment to him.

We've talked (1) about getting our priorities straight (let me first go do something else before I follow you) and (2) the radical nature of extreme love for Jesus (so all other loyalties are like "hate" by comparison).     Today we're taking Jesus' teaching about discipleship one step further to look at what it means to sacrifice.

Luke 14:25-27 -- ²⁵ Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶ "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

The cross means sacrifice. Dictionary: ...the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.

You've heard people use the phrase "my cross to bear" to refer to some frustration or aggravation: noisy neighbors keeping you awake at night are a "cross to bear"...my alcoholic husband is "my cross to bear"...my disability is "my cross to bear."

Some dictionaries define the word "cross" as "an affliction that tries one's virtue, steadfastness, or patience...an opposition; thwarting; frustration...any misfortune; trouble."

But to "carry a cross" is much more than that--but it's hard for us to see because we find all kinds of crosses all around us. And they're so common that the original meaning has been diluted.

Crosses permeate our culture. Crosses are seldom ugly; they've become things of beauty. Decorations. We see them on buildings, on signs, on advertising in the yellow pages, on chains hung around necks, as pins to decorate our clothes, as ear rings, on markers in the cemetery.

Before we can fully comprehend the radical nature of what Jesus was saying, we need to rid ourselves of our misconceptions of what a cross is!

We find crosses everywhere, but we never see crosses in the way people in the first century saw them. Crosses were not used as decoration or adornment in the first century. Crosses did not signify something good or valuable or religious or inspiring.

So we have to flush those concepts out of our heads...and it's only after we've rid ourselves of our misconceptions that we can begin to grasp what a cross really meant to first-century people. Only then can we begin to understand how alarming and disturbing Jesus' words really were.

If we could get in a time machine and travel back in time to the first-century Roman Empire, we would face major culture shock...on every level. No technology (none!--not even printed books!). Limited travel (mostly walking). Our world view would be much smaller (with no media, we'd have very little awareness of events or people in other places).

We'd live under the strong domination of Rome. The Roman army was in control throughout the Empire. It was a totalitarian, police state. There were no elections, no voting, no democracy. There were no political campaigns, no candidates...but lots of taxes. Major issues would be decided for us--who our rulers would be, what laws we'd have to follow, everything.

Naturally, a lot of people didn't like living under the heavy rule of Rome. Many grumbled and complained. A few went so far as to revolt. Uprisings happened, but they were ruthlessly put down. Insurrection and rebellion were brutally repressed.

When revolutionaries were caught, capital punishment was considered too tame. The Romans didn't merely want to execute criminals, they wanted to torture them. So they used the cross as an especially cruel form of execution.

The cross was an instrument of torture as much as it was an instrument of death. The Romans weren't the first to use it. Crucifixions had occurred for hundreds of years. In fact about 100 years before Christ, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, at a dinner party in Jerusalem, a cruel king (Alexander Jannaeus) crucified about 800 of his enemies--many of them Pharisees. [Manners and Customs in the Bible, by Victor Matthews, 202] [Note: Crucifixion was in use particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. In the year 337, Emperor Constantine I abolished it in the Roman Empire... --Wikipedia]

• Romans used the cross as a warning to other potential rebels of Rome's terrible punishment; they would parade the condemned person through the streets, often carrying the very cross (typically just the 75- to 125-pound cross beam) on which he would soon be executed. If you saw a man stumbling through the streets, prodded on by soldiers, carrying a heavy beam, you knew you were looking at a man about to die. His life had come to an end. He had no future. He was as good as dead already.
• This is the image Jesus had in mind when he called his disciples to "take up" their cross. They were essentially being called to surrender their lives. Their personal plans and ambitions. By carrying a cross, a disciple acknowledged that his own life was over. He now lived a different life--a life given to him by Jesus.
• Gal 2:20 -- I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

• After being parading through the streets, criminals were then hung up on a cross to die as a public spectacle. Being displayed like this was meant to humiliate and degrade them in front of everyone. In fact, executions were not held privately, behind closed doors. Often crucifixions were held alongside the road so travelers could see how Rome dealt with those who dared to challenge their authority. 
• Historians tell about the revolt of a Roman slave, Spartacus (a leader in the slave uprising known as the Third Servile War 73-71 BC). The revolt was put down by the Roman General, Crassus, who crucified 6,000 slaves along the Appian Way in the 200 km between Capua and Rome. If you spaced them out evenly, this would have been like seeing a cross with a dying man on it about every 36.5 yards--all the way from Cloquet to Bethel University in Arden Hills.
• The Romans wanted the torture to be very public so others would respect their authority and obey. They wanted to torture the criminal in the slowest, most agonizing way possible; crucifixions could last anywhere from a few hours to several days before the criminal finally died.

In time, capital punishment was made more "humane." The quicker it happened, the less torture was involved. So the guillotine and firing squads brought death more quickly. Later, even the pain factor was minimized through innovations like the gas chamber or lethal injection.

So is there a modern equivalent for the phrase, "carry your cross"? In one respect you could modernize and paraphrase Jesus' words like Clarence Jordan did...

Quite a crowd was trailing him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone is considering joining me, and does not break his attachment for father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, indeed--for his own life--he simply cannot belong to my fellowship. Anyone who does not accept his own lynching and fall in behind me cannot belong to my fellowship. (Cotton Patch Version)

A lynching doesn't last as long as a crucifixion, however, so I wonder if there really is any modern equivalent to Jesus' saying that a disciple must carry his own cross.

Warren Wiersbe (Bible Exposition Commentary, 1:207): "In the Roman world, the cross was a symbol of shame, guilt, suffering, and rejection. There could be no more despicable way to die. Crucifixion was not mentioned in polite conversation, and the people would no more think of wearing crosses on their person than we would think of wearing gold or silver electric chairs."

So what can we learn about carrying a cross today--in the twenty-first century?

To carry a cross (in any time or any culture) means several things:

1. You have no life of your own. Your life belongs to Jesus. He calls the shots. He is in charge. He tells you where to go and what to do.

Just like the man condemned to die, stumbling through the streets, staggering under the weight of the cross he carried, prodded by soldiers toward the place he would die, forced to go their way and not his. He had no choices in the matter. His life no longer existed.

Leon Morris (Luke, p 170): A condemned criminal, carrying his cross, was "on a one-way journey. He'd not be back."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Cost of Discipleship, p 79): "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

2. You live in complete and utter obedience. Since you are "dead" to your own desires and wishes, you will not argue.

Dan Lunow, was a young German boy during WWII, a member of "Hitler's Youth." He taught me about what the Nazis called Kadaver-Gehorsam: "the obedience of a corpse." How does a corpse respond to orders? It doesn't argue or protest the assignments. There is no whining, no complaining, no resistance, and no grumbling. A dead corpse has no feelings, no opinions, no expectations, and no attitude.

Jesus said (Luke 9:23): "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

He also said (John 14:15): "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

Denying yourself means surrendering to him, obeying Jesus--with Kadaver-Gehorsam. "...we know that our old self was crucified with him..." (Romans 6:6).

3. You are willing to take a risk.

In New York subway, a man instinctively leaped on to the tracks to rescue a young man who had suffered a seizure and fallen off the platform... Click here to see the news report on this story.

It's crazy! Why would anyone do that for a stranger? Why take the risk?

1 Cor 1:18 -- "...the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."      Here is an irony: those who die to their own desires and life are "being saved"; those who see the cross as supreme foolishness "are perishing."

You risk yourself for the sake of Jesus. It's important to know why you take a risk--it's not for the sake of adventure or glory or recognition or thrill. We're not talking about Mountain Dew and extreme sports just for the fun of it.

It's about risking yourself for the sake of Jesus--for the sake of doing his will, for something eternal, for fulfilling his purpose.

Carrying a cross means you're free enough that you don't have to "play it safe." It means you're willing to put yourself in harm's way for the sake of God's higher cause.

4. You're able to sacrifice yourself. You sacrifice your own desires; you die to your own dreams, your own ambitions. To carry a cross--to sacrifice yourself--means you give yourself to God.

You hear about athletes making sacrifices so they can excel in their sport. They sacrifice their social life so they can have a chance at getting to the Olympics. You hear about musicians who sacrifice so they can excel in music. They don't play sports with the other kids because they're inside the house practicing.

Jesus talked about those who would be willing to lose their lives for him (Luke 9:24). Will we commit ourselves to go with him? All the way to the cross with him?

Warren Wiersbe (Bible Exposition Commentary, 1:207): To take up our cross "means to be identified with Him in surrender, suffering, and sacrifice."

You may remember Matthew Thomas from India who spoke here a few years ago. When I visited him in India, we heard pounding drums throughout the night. It was the JDP, he explained, the radical Hindu party who were protesting in front of the Bible school dormitories. In many places in India, it is against the law to persuade a Hindu to accept Jesus Christ and become a Christian. Yet Matthew Thomas preaches in large rallies and invites people to make that decision. But before they can be baptized as new believers, they have them sign a document which says, in effect: Convinced in my own heart and mind, without any outside influence, bribery, or coercion of any kind, I have decided to be baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ. This decision is entirely my own; no one else is responsible for it.

The statement, of course, is to satisfy the anti-conversion laws in the country. But it also serves to teach the new believers: It will cost you something to follow Jesus. You may be persecuted as a Christian. You may lose your job. Your family may reject you. Do not make this decision lightly because you may lose a great deal if you choose to follow Jesus Christ. You may be asked to sacrifice.

So let me ask you: Have you decided to follow Jesus? To be his disciple? Will you surrender your life to him? Obey him? Are you willing to take a risk and sacrifice yourself for him?