Jesus Gives You a Cross
A question for you this Holy Week: have you considered that Jesus goes to a cross so that you may go there too? I don’t mean that only metaphorically or spiritually or any sense other than physically. Jesus went to a cross so that you could be nailed up there beside him.
Maybe that notion puzzles you. After all, did he not go to the cross FOR us? Did he not go to be our substitute? Yes. And so it is that we now can go right ahead and stretch out our arms for the nails.
You couldn’t do that before. Death was a bottomless pit from which no one returned - you’d scratch and claw to stay away from the edge. There was no hope for a sinner like you, damned to destruction. You wouldn’t dare.
Jesus changed that when he went to the cross. Through his death he has delivered us from the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15). Ponder that - it’s no small thing. Sometimes we forget this and needlessly remain in our chains. That’s when it becomes impossible to do everything else Jesus says. He tells his disciples that they must take up their cross, that they must die to themselves, that they should readily embrace being last. It sounds like a bunch of terrible work - which it is, if you’re afraid of dying. Jesus says that the happy ones are those persecuted for the sake of righteousness. This cannot be if we remain enthralled by the shadow of death.
We are slaves until we no longer fear dying. Some fools enjoy this freedom too. These are called fools because their freedom is a mirage. Their freedom is like escaping the gulag for the Siberian wilderness; it is without hope. Paul says the same for Christians if Christ is not raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:17). Because he is raised, the cross becomes a veritable invitation. You can now risk it all because you only have everything to gain (or as one man said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”)
The Hebrews epistle guides us accordingly:
“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
- Hebrews 13:11-14 ESV
This is no mere metaphor. The reproach is literal - you are now free to be mocked, to be harassed, to be hurt, and to be killed. You stand to lose nothing, because they cannot touch the city which is to come. You are dead to the city of Man and alive to the city of God. This is the power of Christ’s cross that breaks every sword. Those who live by the sword, die by it. Those who die by the cross, live by it.
“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” - Luke 17:33 ESV
