Is following Jesus appealing? In some texts our highest Prophet and Teacher indicates that following him involves taking up your cross. In Matthew 16:24 the Saviour says to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” In Luke 9:23 Jesus adds to this the word “daily.” When we want to follow him, we daily have to take up our cross. In other texts Jesus says that “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whosoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And again: whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37, 38). Being a disciple of Jesus means following him and that means denying yourself and taking up your cross every day. So taking up your cross is mandatory and imposed.

Jesus speaks about our cross. Nowhere does he say that we have to take up and bear his cross. There is a decisive difference between the cross of Jesus and the cross we have to take up and carry after him. The cross of Jesus stands for the sacrifice he has brought out of love for his people to reconcile their sins and to take away their guilt. Instead of his own people, Jesus bore the punishment and therefore carried it away. That is his cross, not ours.

Jesus invites everyone to come after him. That involves a choice. Coming after him involves the inner acceptance of faith to always go your way with Jesus. It is impossible to fulfill our tasks as Christians in this world if we are not connected to Jesus through a living faith. To come after Jesus indicates the surrender in faith to him. He is the first and the last in our lives. His cause is higher than our cause. In Matthew 16, Peter refuses to accept the suffering of Christ. He wants to keep Jesus from bearing the cross. Peter puts his cause higher than that of Jesus’. He then is sent back. After me! Not ahead of me. I determine the way, Jesus says. If you want to be my disciple, you have to follow behind me. Jesus is going up front and the disciples only have to follow behind.

So we cannot do whatever we want to. Our own will is being made inferior to the will of Christ. We get to fight the battle against our will and against our old nature, which constantly says “no” to Christ and his kingdom. Whoever learns to follow Christ, is consequently removed from the pattern that rules this world. The normal trend of the world does not count for everyone who follows Jesus. Saying “yes” to follow Jesus means “no” to everything that hinders us in this following. Concretely, taking up our cross means that every day we bring into practice this “yes” to Jesus and his way. That is hard. We have to fight against ourselves and often against people and circumstances.

The cross we have to carry after Jesus is directly connected to many forms of suffering that approach us in this life and this world. When suffering for Jesus’ will approaches us, we may not avoid it. Then we have to take up that cross. Many Christians experience that concretely. They are persecuted, they are hated, they are slandered, they are teased, they suffer injustice.

Many have given their lives by following Jesus till the end. Jesus went ahead of them in martyrdom. Their dying glorifies him. In our society suffering is found in many small things. It is suffering when you experience how the secularization has penetrated everywhere. How the love of many is chilling. How people put themselves and their interests first, where the rich and the strong always occupy the best positions.

It is a form of suffering to see how people determine their own way and are a norm to themselves. It does not leave much room for shared norms and values. Much less that one will accept direction from the wholesome commandments and prohibitions of God.

It is of incredible importance to show the youth the wholesomeness of the ordinances and prohibitions of God for their lives. But will we be able to do so, this transfer of the good of God’s law, when we ourselves are switching to forms of self-determination in some areas? Is there not a danger that we no longer (or not so strongly) experience the union with Christ, the special bond to Jesus, and do not really know his cross? We are so quickly being ruled by the course of events in our lives.

May Jesus determine us completely? Many of us think this to be a strange question. Actually, some thin that you are not allowed to ask such a question. Because we also have a say and are also important. We have our will and our desires, we also carry our own responsibility. Are we sincerely seeking that Jesus Christ determines our will and desires? Is there prayer for being filled with the Holy Spirit? There are such rich promises in the Word of God. Are they a basis for our plea to God?

We don’t have to provoke suffering. The cross is not the indication of a work we have to do ourselves. The cross is being laid upon us. That is how the suffering came upon the apostles. See for instance 2 Corinthians 1:5-7. The suffering of Jesus came profusely over Paul, but through Christ he also received abundant comfort. Who wants to follow Jesus, must be ready to accept this suffering. But in that suffering we are not without him. Out cross is being made light through his cross. His cross is the strength and comfort in the carrying of our cross. Not everyone experiences the same. The life of the one disciple runs a different course from that of the other. Some Christians have to suffer greatly. The questions of “why” some things happen to us remain. But it is essential to discover in faith that in our suffering we see the watermark of the cross of Christ.

Following Jesus, in a deep bond with him, our lives will bear fruit. We don’t live for ourselves, neither do we die for ourselves. Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord. He bought his people with his blood and rescued us from all the dominion of the devil. He sets us free. Free to serve, with inner freedom to bear fruit. Love is the strength of that.

There is a rich blessing in daily following Jesus and the taking and carrying of our cross. The blessing is not available separately. It is permanently connected to the carrying of our cross.

This article was translated by Bert Stulp.