Living at the foot of the cross

If coming to the foot of the cross is difficult, staying there is even more so. It is however where we find fulfillment, peace, hope and joy (joy as opposed to happiness – more later). In fact this is the very reason Jesus calls us there in our quotation from last day. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

This verse is an invitation in some sense to die, and who would want to do that? Being willing to do that starts with seeing something in Jesus that we can find nowhere else. Why would we “desire to follow” Him? Well Jesus is pretty cool, He is amazing. He is the only one who ever practiced what He preached. “Love your enemies, ” and as they drive cruel spikes through His hands and His feet He prays “Father forgive them ...” He has appropriate words for the hypocrites, He tells it like it is speaking the truth in love, as He pours out His love even to those who reject Him (Luke 13:34). He is smart, He is kind, He is humble, He heals the sick and the broken hearted, He accepts the rejected, gives help in time of need, and invites us to share His sufferings.

Most of us find things about Jesus that are attractive, but we are less enthusiastic about the suffering, about the dying daily bit (1 Corinthians 15:31). Most of us would love to have the kind of influence that Jesus had, for deep within us is the longing to make a deep and lasting positive impact. And as we become willing to see, we know instinctively that it is in following Him, and we understand when He tells us there is a cost that we need count before we do (take up our cross daily). The cost is the rub, but it is the only way to make a deep and lasting impact, the only way to produce fruit that will remain (John 15:16). This life is not all that there is. What we do down here in the here and now impacts not only the here and now, but all eternity. We will have to give an account even of every idle word (Matthew 12:36).

I am reminded of a missionary I knew who came out of Jamaica. He tells the story of an interview he had years ago back home with a firm that exported bananas. In the interview he was asked what his life goals were, and he told of his missionary longings. They thanked him for his honesty, and then told him “We want someone who will give his life to bananas”. He told of seeing this on his tombstone “He gave his life to bananas”! This was not the legacy he was looking for!

What do you want on your tombstone? At the end of your life will you wish you had spent more time in front of the TV, or had given yourself more fully to pornography, or to the pursuit of wealth, or had had more sexual partners (with the attending broken hearts) or had been drunk more often etc., etc., etc? The things that God values are not necessarily the things we value. He values a mother who stays home because she feels that there is no more important job than raising her children, He values honestly and integrity and a willingness to go against the tide. He values those who will stand for Him in a world that is going to hell in an hand basket, those who are ready to give an answer of the hope that is within, with meekness and fear. He values those who, to the best of their ability, speak the truth in love. He values those who take up their cross daily and follow Jesus. Such people will have an impact far beyond what can be seen, such people will see and understand on that day that is was worth it all. He or she who gives even as little as a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus, will not loose their reward (Mark 9:41).

There is a cost “let him deny himself and take up his cross”. There was a cost to Jesus. We see this supremely in the garden just hours before His crucifixion “If it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but Yours” (Matthew 26:39). This kind of sacrifice only makes sense in the light (perspective) of eternity, for “if in this life only we have hope, we are to be pitied ...” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

We are told about the perspective Jesus had in Hebrews 12:2 where it says of Him “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame”. Part of what this is saying is that the pain and disappointments and trials and temptations of life are a barrier, the other side of which is joy. But we do need to push through the barrier, to endure, with His help to stand up under it all. The first part of the verse in the last quote tells us how to do this “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”. We need to keep our eyes on Him, living in intimacy with Him, embracing His perspective. We need to count the cost, then set our hearts and minds to follow no matter what. This is our part. When we do this, He will meet us and He will keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day (2 Timothy 1:12). Note the balance here we commit, He keeps. The Lord always supplies, when we seek to walk in obedience, the very wherewithal to do His will (Philippians 2:13). And when we do this we “prove that His will is good and perfect and acceptable” (Romans 12:2).