“Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Luke 9:23 (NAB)
We are all called to be disciples of Jesus, who told us to follow Him, but then He added that in order to follow Him, we must deny ourselves and carry our cross. If we are being honest, it doesn’t sound like a fun way to live life. I don’t think I’m the only one who’s felt some discomfort in reading those words telling us to “deny ourselves and carry our cross.”
I used to interpret it to mean that some big sacrifice is about to be required of me, which is going to make my life uncomfortable.
I realize now that there is a deeper way to understand Jesus’ words telling us to “deny ourselves,” since Jesus also said, in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Denying ourselves simply means asking for God’s will to be done first, according to His plan, before asking for our own requests. After all, there is no better place to be, than in the center of God’s will, just as there is no worse place to be than in the center of our own will.
We all know the Sinatra hit song, “I did it my way.” I heard of a priest whose parishioner requested that this Sinatra song be played at a loved one’s funeral. The priest politely declined their request. Not intending to offend any Sinatra fans, but the phrase, “I did it my way” is really not the mantra of Christian living, but opposite of what Jesus taught. Even if we fail many times over, God honors our intent to do things His way, not our way.
Everyone didn’t always adore and follow Jesus. Although crowds followed Him, He also watched multitudes walk away from Him, when He taught something they didn’t accept. People of every generation still want to do things their way. One day Jesus turned to His closest twelve friends and asked, “ Are you all going to leave Me too? “Peter answered, “How can we leave ? You have the words of eternal life.”
The disciples didn’t always fully understand what Jesus was talking about, but they were following Him because of who He is, with the intent to do His will. We also follow the person of Jesus, not just a set of rules or values. Like the disciples, we may fail, but following Jesus is a kind of commitment, that keeps us coming back. We trust Him even when we don’t understand what He is teaching us. It’s in those times that we realize, this is what carrying our cross is all about.
There’s a true story of a Japanese Buddhist soldier, during WWII, who became a traitor to Japan, was captured and thrown into the same prison camp along with other American soldiers. The prison camp guards routinely tortured that Japanese prisoner of war more than others.
One American soldier who was imprisoned with him, felt compassion for the man and would care for his wounds and share his food with him, each time he was thrown back into the prison cell, after being beaten and tortured.
One day, he was beaten so bad, the American soldier thought, “I’ve shared everything with this poor man except my faith, so he knelt over the man and said to him,” You might not make it through the night, but I want you to know that if you give your life to Jesus, He will take you to Heaven to live with Him forever.”
The Japanese soldier looked at him and said, “If Jesus is anything like you, then I can’t wait to meet Him.” That story really touched my heart. It shows that we are not here to teach or preach morals and values, we are here to be Christ to this world. It’s the essence of what discipleship was meant to be, Christ shining His light through each of us.
I’m sure that the American soldier was praying every day to survive that horrific prison camp, and to get back home to his family. He did survive and made it home, but God’s will for him was to show the love of Christ to someone else while he was there. God has a purpose in our pain, and desires to shine His light through us, even in the most horrific circumstances.
We follow Jesus in spite of our heartbreaks, tragedies, illness, pain and loss, by asking for God’s will to be done, because we believe that He is a good and loving God, in the bad times as well as the good.
Lord, make us better disciples as we follow you, seeking that your will be done, so that your light can shine through in all that we say and do. Amen
