34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Message: Cruciform Discipleship
Time: Mark's personal connection with Peter gave him the source material for this book. This book was composed probably between AD 57 and AD 59. It's a book that is on the move, leading to the cross. 39 times is the word 'immediately' used. Mark reveals Jesus as God's servant, reaching into the lives of people and effecting physical and circumstantial change.
What the Lord is Saying:
Preface - After Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ - the Jewish Messiah - Jesus states his mission of suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. Peter rebukes Jesus over this, wanting to correct him. But Jesus sees that Peter misunderstands and exhibits tough love in rebuking Peter, calling him out as Satan because his words are motivated by man's interests instead of God's.
It seems that Jesus has arrived in Caesarea Philippi and he proclaims a direct message to the people, something I haven't seen him do much in this gospel. If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. This three-fold commandment has always seemed a little outrageous or extreme to me, to the point that I do not know at times how I can in fact live this way day in and day out.
This is not a popular message, I feel, in today's times, especially in America where we are commissioned it seems to "Be all you can be." In life, the focus so often is on me. But, Jesus specifically states that a person must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. I still find it interesting that in a way this is Jesus' second message to us. He started out in chapter 1 with, "Repent and believe." And now here is the message, "Deny and Follow." In some ways there is similarity. The desire is to turn from yourself.
Come after me
First, is the desire to come after Jesus or follow Jesus. So there is a redundant message here. If we are to follow Jesus we need to deny one self, take up my cross, and follow. So, twice he says follow. Therefore, we need to clarify what is between the follows.
Deny Oneself
To deny oneself is to relinquish your personal will and surrender that will--always to the Lord. I've been reading about this recently in the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. The first Respectable Sin he addresses is ungodliness - or having an attitude daily that is not towards God. Conversely, to have an attitude toward God is to think of God throughout the day and to seek His will in all things. Yes, that is the goal. I will fall short. But, I can still press on. I can still try to live this way.
So how? I'm a step-by-step person I suppose. I watched the movie War Room last night and it spoke to me on the subject of fighting our battles with prayer. In essence, as we navigate difficult people and circumstances in life, I first must think about how I am to treat them - with love, compassion, and if I have a problem with them - the problem should be something I am taking to the Lord. I need to be praying for God to fix that problem. For me, this is about denying myself, or denying my will or as it says in Proverbs 3:5, "Do not lean on my own understanding." That is the antithesis it seems of denying oneself.
Take up his cross
So Jesus makes this command prior to going to the cross. The cross is a horrible instrument of execution. Get ready to be treated like a criminal. It is to experience shame. Tabletalk devotional defines this as "the shame and persecution this world heaps upon believers." So, would that be take up the shame and persecution or rather, don't go along with the worlds definitions of life. Take up those things that are contrary to God. Deny yourself and deny the world's ideals. It just doesn't seem like a coincidence that he would say, "take up your cross" when he is going soon to die on a cross.
To experience self-denial is to loses his life. When I deny my self, it implies to self's. I am denying myself. The old self that wants to live opposition free, shame-free, suffering-free, death-free. The new self says, "I want Jesus more than I want to be free from opposition. I want Jesus more than I want to be free from shame. I want Jesus more than I want to be free from suffering. I want Jesus more than I want to be free from death."
There is nothing wrong with me denying myself or losing myself.
Save leads to Lose
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it - I don't want to lose my life, so don't save it. Save means I will pursue acceptance. I will pursue comfort. I will pursue my own glory. I will pursue safety. This is what it means to save my own life. John 12:25 - Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. So, whoever will save his life in this world, he will lose it forever. Whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. So I will embrace not being accepted, not being comfortable, not coming out on top, not being safe.
This doesn't mean I look for suffering or I look to be uncomfortable or I look to be unsafe. But, when these situations arise in my life, I bear my cross. I seek you to see what you would have me learn in those situations.
So, if the focus on my world is being free from opposition, getting my glory, not ever experiencing suffering, always being comfortable, then I will not experience eternal life. Those are tough words, but truth.
Summary - Jesus has just rebuked Peter asserting that he knows the way that is before him. And here he further clarifies that contrary to what Peter thinks, he has a mission and Peter will need to deny himself and what he desires to experience that mission. Jesus very clearly tells us that to follow Him is to deny oneself and take up our cross.
Promise: Following Jesus is the opposite of the old world thinking or my old self thinking to gratify myself and achieve my way in all things. Life is not about my pleasure. It is about seeking the Lord and then seeing what He provides, realizing that sometimes opposition, unsafe, suffering, and uncomfortable are things I need to experience.
Prayer: Lord, I often am living my life in opposition to your calling on my life. Rather then denying myself, I spend my day pleasing myself. I fill my appetite as I wish. Whenever suffering or heartache comes my way, I very quickly ask it to be removed from my life. Rather than waiting to see how you will rescue me, I want the problem to be gone immediately.There are things in my life that I know I need to do. You are always teaching me and reminding me Holy Spirit to do things. Too often, I ignore you and take the easy road. Too often, I ignore you and take the selfish road. I do not want to live like this anymore. Holy Spirit, as you speak to me, I want to listen and obey, even if it means experiencing shame, opposition, suffering, death. Lord, too quickly I choose a life that is all about being accepted, having comfort, getting my own glory, being safe. Lord change me. Change my thinking. Re-write the thinking in my life. Re-write this in me so that I am pursuing that which is hard. When I do hard things, I save my life. O Lord, I hate how selfish my life has become. As circumstances happen in my life, help me to accept what you are teaching me.
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/what-does-it-mean-to-take-up-our-cross
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