Luke 14:27 – And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
For the longest time I took these words to mean something that was beyond my understanding, other than we need to obey Jesus and those in countries where Christianity is persecuted need to suffer for Jesus. The fascinating thing about this whole passage is that Jesus is making a point that as Christians we should expect hardship and suffering. The interesting thing about the crucifixion process, is that the carrying of your cross was the only thing you did of your own will. Everything else in a crucifixion was done to you. Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him. That means the willful walking towards something that will mean your death. Jesus did it His whole life, saying on a number of occasions that He was going to be rejected and killed by the religious rulers of the day. He even talked at one point about needing to make sure he made it to Jerusalem on time so He could be killed. When he was preaching and healing so much He didn’t have time to eat, He was carrying His cross. When He tried to get away and 5000 people followed Him into the wilderness and so He taught and fed them, He was carrying His cross. When His mom came to take Him away because she thought He was crazy and He rejected her, He was carrying His cross. It has to do with obeying God rather than men in situations where you have to choose between something that is important to you and something God has told you to do. Are you carrying your cross?