The Cross Is Not Comfy

During Jesus’ time, you don’t want to be wearing any cross. The cross wasn’t a religious symbol or a piece of jewelry – it was an instrument of execution. When Jesus mentioned taking up a cross, His listeners would have trembled in fear and walked away. This wasn’t a metaphor they had to figure out; they knew exactly what He meant.

The cross meant only one thing: death. When people saw someone carrying a cross in first-century Judea, they knew that person was walking to their execution. There was no coming back, no changing your mind halfway. Every step with a cross was a step closer to death.

We need to understand something crucial here: Carrying our cross is voluntary. Roman soldiers didn’t carry their crosses; condemned criminals did. When Jesus said to take up our cross, He was talking about voluntarily embracing something that our flesh desperately wants to avoid. Jesus will not force you to carry it. He was describing willing surrender, not forced submission.

Let’s be honest – we don’t want to carry our cross because we know what it means. It means death to our reputation when standing for Christ costs us popularity. It means death to our comfort when serving others interrupts our plans. It means death to our rights when loving difficult people requires constant forgiveness. It means putting our preferences away and living the lifestyle of a cross-bearing, self-denying Jesus follower. Does that sound demeaning?

Not all suffering is cross-bearing. Getting sick isn’t carrying your cross. Having financial problems isn’t your cross. The cross is specifically about choosing to die to self for the sake of following Jesus. It’s voluntary. It’s purposeful. It’s about surrender. And we who claim to be Christians must make a decision.

Sometimes we try to choose our own crosses. We might pick something difficult but manageable, like giving up social media or not listening to types of music. But Jesus doesn’t let us design our own crosses. No customized crosses made from lightweight materials. He calls us to embrace the death to self that comes with following Him.

The early Christians understood this well. When they chose to follow Jesus, they weren’t signing up for a better life-management program. They were agreeing to die: to their old identities, their cultural status, their personal ambitions. Their cross-bearing reshaped everything.

Here’s what makes it harder: our cross is daily. Luke’s gospel adds this crucial detail – “take up their cross daily.” This isn’t a one-time dramatic decision. It’s choosing, every single day, to die to self and live for Christ. Every morning presents a new opportunity to either take up our cross or leave it lying there.

But here’s the paradox that changes everything: the cross is actually the path to life. As much as it sounds contradicting, it isn’t. Oftentimes, our life (e.g. character, experiences, traumas, past, desires, you name it) stops us from living a full life with God. Jesus wasn’t calling us to meaningless suffering. He was inviting us to the kind of death that leads to resurrection. When we die to our small ambitions, we find ourselves caught up in God’s bigger story.

Godseekers, the invitation to carry our cross still stands. It’s still costly. It’s still counterintuitive. It still means death. But it’s still the only path to the life we were created for. It’s not that we don’t have a cross to carry. It’s about the willingness to pick it up and to carry it.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, forgive us for trying to make the cross comfortable. Help us understand what it truly means to take up our cross daily. Give us courage to embrace the death to self that leads to true life in You. Make us willing to follow You, whatever the cost. In Your name, Amen.

Personal Reflection

1. What aspects of cross-bearing have you been trying to avoid?
2. How might your life look different if you fully embraced your cross today?

Step of Faith

Today, I will identify one specific area where I need to “die to self” and take a concrete step of obedience in that direction.