Take Up Your Cross

I’ve wondered what it means to say, “Take up your cross;” whether it means doing something similar to what Jesus did when He carried His cross to Calvary, or if there’s another meaning. Being forced to carry it, He suffered beyond comprehension. He had already endured a cruel beating. Now the heavy timber lay upon his injured body and it was almost impossible to carry it all the way to Golgotha. Simon of Cyrene helped Him. Being crucified was a horrific torture. Scripture alludes to carrying one’s cross as somewhat comparable to Jesus having had to bear His to Calvary. Whatever it means, it is not something to be done easily.


Mark 8:34 tells us that Jesus said, “ Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Consequently, asking us to follow Him would mean we are not be indulgent upon our own comforts, but to help others first and that to take up one’s cross is to lead a life that denies self-indulgence. He cared more for everyone else in the world than for Himself, and that’s why He took our sins upon Himself. He received our punishment so we could be forgiven.


Again, in Matthew 10:38, Jesus advised us to take up our cross and follow Him. Those who would follow Him must inspect their crosses and take them up. In so doing, an individual must follow Christ’s example and “bear his own cross” as He carried His. All of us will surely meet with “crosses,” of one kind or another, and we are to be encouraged to know that Christ bore His own cross. In bearing "crosses," or “hardships,” we follow Christ who showed us the way. If we follow Him faithfully, He will lead us through sufferings just as He was able to go through suffering Himself, to His glory. Similarly, it will be to our own glory to trust in Christ to carry us through times of hardship. He will not only give us the ability but the reward of eternal life for having put our trust in Him.


From Luke 9:23, we must become accustomed to self-denial and be patient, not indulging in comfort and appetite because that will make it more difficult to bear toil and fatigue. We frequently meet with crosses in the line of duty. When they are laid before us, we must take them up and carry them, as did Christ, making the best of the situation. An example is a friend of ours, who lovingly cares for his dear wife who has cancer in her bones, and we have another friend who, for years, devoted his attention to the needs of his wife who was invalided by multiple sclerosis. Friends of ours have a son with Down’s syndrome. From the love and care his parents have given him over the years he has grown up with such self-confidence that he can hold a job in a grocery store, stocking shelves. These are examples of the crosses people have to bear and they have done it with the strength with which God has enabled them.


Taking up one’s cross can also mean the extent to which we will support our faith in Jesus in times when others are denouncing and berating Him. It means professing the reason why our standards are high and that we will not allow ourselves to degrade them so we will fit in with sinful society.