The Lord announced more than once that the badge of His followers must he the cross. It characterized Him from Nazareth (Luke 4:28, 20), (may we not even say from Bethlehem, Luke 2:7?) to Golgotha; therefore must it of necessity characterize those who profess allegiance to His person (John 15:20). Now on the very face of it, cross-bearing implies a stern and serious undertaking. For it is well known that crucifixion was reserved for the vilest criminals, and carrying a cross through the execrations and derision of a brutal and passionate mob was the terrible prelude to that ignominious and torturing death. Yet this was divinely chosen to be the figure describing the discipleship of Christ. Clearly then such a calling would never suit mere dreamers and theorists who worship a set of ideas which they have jealously espoused as their own, and whose heaviest cross is the chagrin they suffer at the overthrow of a pet notion. In mere vision or sentiment there is absolutely nothing capable of enduring the peculiar vicissitudes attaching to the cross of Christ, any more than there is in martial prowess, mental excellence, or any other quality in which man is but too ready to boast. For the cross does not consist in the mere ordinary vexations common to outraged human susceptibilities, over which it is by no means uncommon for men to triumph. But it is of a character beyond the conception, as it is (apart from Christ) beyond the endurance, of man. So far is the burden of the cross from being a philosophic attainment that the wisdom of man has repeatedly pronounced, not without sneers, that suffering and servitude are synonymous with weakness and misery. The life, however, of our Lord exemplifies what His words also teach, that the perfection of human nature is to obey (Phil. 2:5, 8; Heb. 5:8; 1 Peter 2:2; John 15:10), while its glory, is to endure even the cross, despising the shame (Heb. 12:2; Matt. 16:24; Gal. 6:14). This lesson was learned by New Testament saints from John the Baptist in the dungeon of Herod to John the Beloved in the isle of Patmos. Though even in that day there were those, the progenitors of a numerous race, who gilded the rough cross of Calvary (1 Cor. 4:8-14), making an ornament of that which was meant to be a stigma, seeking position and fame where they should have expected persecution and shame. There was also Demas (2 Tim. 4:10) who preferred the friendship of the world, which is enmity against God (James 4:4), to that of Paul, the prisoner of the Lord (2 Tim. 1:8). And there was one, as now there are many, who doffed the Master's livery when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and, warming himself at the butcher's fire (John 18:18), falsified his boasted fidelity (Mark 14:31) with oaths and curses. May the Lord look on such enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:18, 19) as He looked on Peter, and recall them to a more faithful adherence to the principles of the Master Whom they profess to serve.
The first intimations of our Lord to His disciples with regard to bearing the cross were in no wise ambiguous or equivocal. “He that taketh not his cross,” says He, “and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:38). This is emphatic and significant, and moreover not a mere isolated statement, though, if it were, its truth and force would not be weakened thereby in the slightest; but we find from the 16th verse of the chapter to the end the tenor of the whole scripture is concerning the persecution which should befall His faithful witnesses. He, the Lord of the harvest, was sending forth His laborers into the harvest; and He forewarns them of the tremendous opposition they would encounter, not only from those who oppose every new thing on the principle of obstinacy, but from the powers that be—governors and kings—and, hardest to bear, from their nearest kindred—fathers, mothers, and children. Did they murmur at such a cheerless prospect? Surely it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord When the Pharisees saw diseases, demons, and death itself all flee even at the word of the Master of the house, they forthwith called Him Beelzebub (Matt. 9:34). Would they then pick words for those of His household? Our Lord, far from softening the stern character of His call, plainly and solemnly calls for the uncompromising disowning of even the very closest of earthly ties, where they would interfere with faithful discipleship to Himself. “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” And this is immediately followed by the weighty warning to all mere triflers whose devotion would be stifled by the first appearance of suffering for the truth's sake. “He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me.” These words plainly show that cross-bearing and Christ-following are two things joined together by the Lord; and therefore let none dare to sunder them.
It was in view of this fact that the apostle gloried in the Thessalonian saints, because of the patience and faith they exhibited in the persecutions and tribulations they were enduring for the kingdom of God's sake. By this means their allegiance was tested and their worthiness made manifest. “So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure; which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer” (2 Thess. 1:4-5). Not that this worthiness, here or in Matthew, refers to standing before God; for the ground of forgiveness of sins and of acceptance with God is grace exclusively, never merit of any kind (Eph. 2:8). The point is not relationship but discipleship. And it is insisted that suffering for Christ's sake is a prime characteristic of a true follower of our Lord. To shirk the cross is to forfeit the title of a worthy witness in the world for the Lord Jesus, just as much as to display patient fortitude under fiery trials for the name of Christ is to proclaim the unswerving loyalty which marks one worthy of the devotion he professes to his Master.
Few have the hardihood to deny that the cross colors the language and sentiment of the N. T. from the beginning to the end. But the religious age that accepts as “Christian science” the theory which sees in a Locke or a Newton only the natural development of a structureless cell, boldly teaches a progress on similar lines in the church of Christ. So that instead of the secular power of the world dominating the church as of old, the secular power of the Laodicean church now almost dominates the world. And instead of believers being considered the filth and offscouring of the world as in an early and unappreciative age, the tide of public opinion has changed and the world is now considered the filth and offscouring of believers. The cross of Christ is this reduced to an empty sign or modified to suit the convenient notions of a self-indulgent and self-complacent Christendom.
It may therefore be instructive to seek the light of holy scripture as to the true significance of the cross and as to whether its original character is lost in our day.