Jesus spoke about obedience toward the end of Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. He had been followed by people who made verbal profession of discipleship. They called him “Lord,” which meant that they were calling Him their master and were putting themselves forward as His servants. But they were disregarding His teaching. Jesus showed the impossibility of this intrinsic contradiction by asking pointedly: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say” (v. 46)? In other words, Jesus cannot be our Lord without obedience; and if He is not our Lord, we do not belong to Him. We are like the man whose house would be swept away by a flood.
The third part of Christ’s description of discipleship in Luke 9:23 is the command: "Follow me." We looked at this carefully in chapter 1 and do not need to repeat what was said. However, the challenge comes now in a slightly different way. Having spoken of self-denial and cross-bearing, which the first two points of this text present, we naturally find ourselves looking about for some motivation that will bring us to that kind of commitment. Knowing that the alternative is to lose our life or forfeit our very self helps. But the cost still seems high. In most cases, the only thing that will ultimately get us going along this path of self-denial and discipleship is following after Jesus, which means setting our eyes on Him as He has gone before us. Jesus is the model for our self-denial. He is the image of cross-bearing.
But it is not only that we are to say "No" to self, which is what denying self is all about. We are also to say "Yes" to God, which is what taking up our cross involves. Some speak of cross-bearing as if it means enduring the inevitable. But that is not it at all. There are all kinds of things that cannot be avoided: a physical handicap, a deficient academic background, a drunken husband, a profligate wife. People sometimes refer to such inevitable things as "my cross," but they are not crosses. They are just inescapable limitations or trials. A real cross involves the will. It means saying "Yes" to something, for Jesus’ sake.
In my judgment, the real reason why so many people do not talk about self-denial and cross-bearing as essential ingredients of Christianity is that we just do not like these ingredients. We like having our sins forgiven, at least if excess sin is destroying our lives and weighing on our consciences. We like the promises of Christianity. We want to be told that God will heal our broken relationships (especially if we do not have to do anything about them), resolve our inner conflicts (if it does not require discipline), and prosper our work. Some forms of gospel preaching actually promise prosperity. We like that. But denial? Taking up a cross? Suffering? We dislike that teaching.
