The Cost of Being a Disciple

The life of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is a life of sacrifice and surrender.  We have tried to make following Jesus about everything but that.  We have tried to make following Jesus into a feel good sentimental journey.  But the truth is, a journey involving a cross is rarely about feel good sentimentality.

In today's reading from Luke 9 Jesus is in the midst of some miraculous and busy ministry.  In a moment of retreat and reflection with his disciples, he asks them who people say that he is.  In v.20, in one of his rare moments of getting something right, Peter correctly identifies him as the Messiah, the chosen one of God.  

Rather than bask in the glory of one of his friends finally getting it right, Jesus lays it on the line and tells his friends what's coming.  This was no doubt shocking and unsettling to the disciples.  As good Jews, they had an expectation that the Messiah would be a strong political figure that would overturn the evil Roman government and rule the earth in power and might.

And yet, here was Jesus talking about death.  In v.23, he really lays it on the line: "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.'"

The image of the cross was even more shocking and unsettling.  Crosses weren't used in history for the first time when Jesus hung on one.  Crosses were the tools and symbols of this evil Roman government - a punishment saved for the worst of the worst criminals.  It has been said by scholars and historians that there was probably no more barbaric means of torture and death in history than the cross.  

To take up a cross is to take up a life of sacrifice and surrender.  It's not an invitation to getting your way all of the time.  It's an invitation to come and die to yourself - an invitation to lose your life and to find true and eternal life in becoming like Jesus.  

In this Holy Week, as we head towards Easter, take some time today or in the days ahead to reflect on what this means for you.  We are fortunate because we know how the story ends.  We know that as Jesus poured out his life as a ransom for our sins, that death could not hold him.  But we also know that Jesus invites us - no demands of us - to come and die with him that we might live.  

James MacDonald, the author of Vertical Church, shared this thought on Twitter earlier this week: You can't rejoice in the empty tomb if you haven't been to the cross.

Have you been there yet?  Are you willing to continually go there?  To die to yourself and to live for Christ?  This is the cost of being a disciple.