The Art of Discipline (3)
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23 NASB
Take up – Ah, an easy one to remember. The Greek verb is airo. Lift off! Literally, “to lift from the ground, to lift in order to carry off.” In the New Testament, the verb is used to describe what it means to obey God’s commandments (carry your cross), taking away knowledge (see Luke 11:52), removing judgment or taking away guilt. Interestingly, the form epairo is used in the LXX to express lifting up petitions to God in prayer.
All of this only underscores the connection to the Hebrew nasa’. And nasa’ is one of the verbs used in YHVH’s self-definition (cf. Exodus 34:6-7). YHVH lifts off sin in all of its forms. He carries it away in order that we might settle comfortably under the yoke of partnership with the Son. Lift away the burden. Put on the yoke. That’s the pattern. Take off what crushes you. Put on what comforts you.
Often we think of “take up your cross” as if this is an onerous assignment filled with suffering and distress. We recall the Hollywood images of Yeshua carrying the cross, stumbling under its weight, bloodied from the lashes. We are repelled. Who would ever want anything like that? Agony! Torture! Intolerable pain! But we forget what the Scriptures say. “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” We forget that Yeshua Himself pushed the crucifixion agenda forward. He was no victim. He knew the price and the reward. If the Lord told you that you had to set aside a load that was squeezing the life out of you in order to attach yourself to Someone who would lead you into victory, would you hesitate? Doesn’t Peter exhort us to pay close attention to His example, not so that we will also suffer the same consequences but so that we will recognize the same conquest? Will you hang on to the load that pulls you under when the hand has been extended to lift you up?
Let it go! Yes, it sounds so easy. Just release your grip on the earth so that you can soar above it. Prepare for take off. It sounds easy, but the reality is often quite different. We hang on because we fear heights. We think that flying isn’t quite normal. It’s comforting to stay put on the ground with the devil we know. We can cope. We can make do. We can get by. But we will never fly. What keeps you anchored to the ground is your fear, not your grip. It’s the fear of trusting the pilot and his aircraft. It’s the fear that if we ever let go of that attachment, and things really did go wrong, we would crash. We fear the projection of a future where we aren’t in control. So we keep control by never risking the possibility of rising above this mire.
Yeshua comes along and says, “Do you want to feel air under your wings? Lift off your cross. Follow me. We’ll fly.” And you say?
Topical Index: airo, nasa’, lift off, take up, Luke 9:23
Outstanding Article! I’ve never heard “taking up your cross” explained in any other way but a necessary burden to humble a disciple. I would love to see a further teaching developed from this phrase. I’m sure theres more to this concept right?? LOL
Measured by Sacrifice
First, the cross- then the crown! (let all things be done decently and in order). Christ knew “that” cross (His cross) was necessary. It was not nice (well, hello) but it was necessary.
Young people, – are you listening? Listen to His voice and listen to the voice of “experience”- “there is NO success without suffering.” None. Nada. Zip. Either you have (or will) suffer, or Someone before you- has already “paid the bill.” (Peeps, if the lunch is “free”- somebody somewhere has paid the bill!) Bottom line (get a tat!) “Jesus Paid It All!” And yes, – all, to Him I owe. Is there more? Beyond the telling..- (is this where the songs come from?) Yes.
~ For He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all- How shall He not with Him- also freely give us all things? ~ (Romans 8.32)
What things? -you might ask? – (Only)
~ all things that pertain unto life and godliness! ~ (2 Peter 1.3)
Ima-gonna go ahead and do it! (silent shouting?). Hallelujah!- for the Word of God. The Word (both) spoken, written- and Living. Do you know Who the Living Word of God is? (better yet) – Do you know Him? Here is (but) One of His many Names. (His Name is Wonderful!)
~ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His Name is the Word of God ~ (Revelation 19.13)
Dipped in blood? Was Calvary an “afterthought?” Was Calvary necessary? What events led up to the crucifixion? When did “the Lamb of God” die in agony and blood? When was He, the Lamb of God- (who takes away the sins of the world) nailed to the Tslav- the execution stake? What? Passover, you say? What is Passover, but a time to remember, to reflect?- and to feast! To feast upon the riches of His grace!
It’s not all that difficult – really. We (already) know love can be measured. Measured by Sacrifice. (the Measure of a Man). The Man Christ Jesus.
(1 Timothy 2.5)
~ And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Your hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends ~
(Zechariah 13.6)
This is a powerful article in so many ways. The concept of God lifting our sins off of us is in sharp contrast the to false religious idea that God can’t stand sin and so is purple in the face ready-to-toss-thunderbolts angry with us, but fortunately Jesus cries out “Wait Father; he believes in me!” The effects of sin (living from a natural mind set) create the huge burden that Skip describes. God our Father sees us laboring under this burden of trying to do the impossible job of making bricks without straw (that is, please the flesh which is never satisfied) and responds to our groaning by lifting that burden.
Those who are willing to take up the cross find themselves in direct opposition to the demands of the flesh for control, security, and approval as Skip so beautifully pointed out. The earthly nature that we have will push, shove, manipulate, demand, anything it can do to keep us accepting a natural solution to life’s survival issues. In taking up our cross we come into direct conflict with the fleshly approach to life, and a death struggle ensues.
However, what is death to the flesh, what is dragging a cross, and fear, and the constant hissing of the serpent, is, from God’s perspective, a new life of being yoked together with a fellow traveler who will share the load (take the biggest share) and who has traveled this way before. The cross may be death to an old way of living, but it is also release to a new, abundant life.
(Well, I enjoy wonderful concepts but my wife just tossed a wrench into the works. If this does not reach into my life and cause me to LIVE differently, what good is it?…just fodder for a bible study or preachamony. If God is willing to lift my burden off my shoulders and place me into a training yoke with His son, how do I respond to others so that I can lift their “sins” against me? When they come to me, do I lift their burden or require that they prove themselves? Do I yoke myself to their lives or do I look the other way as they lie in the ditch? Are these religious concepts or a way of life…ouch, ouch, ouch!)