The Burden of the Cross
Unknown Author
Table of Contents
The Burden of the Cross
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.
The Burden of the Cross
In this paper it is proposed to consult the words of our Lord in Matt. 16:24 on cross-bearing.
And it should be observed in the first place that this condition of discipleship was laid down by our adorable Lord at a most important juncture in the history of His presentation to Israel as their Messiah. It was, in fact, the hour when His claims were definitely refused by His chosen people, and when He began to commune with His disciples concerning the death He must accomplish at Jerusalem. The Holy Ghost in the Gospel of Matthew traces very minutely the growth of the spirit of opposition to the Christ, commencing with the unuttered but malicious thoughts of some bigoted scribes, at the healing of the sick of the palsy in Capernaum. (“This man blasphemeth” is their wicked though inward comment, 10:3.) Such evil thoughts grew and multiplied exceedingly, until the chapter before us shows that men generally had entirely disavowed the true character of His person. For instance, after a double proof was given (14:15-21; 15:32-39) that Jehovah, according to the promise of old (Psa. 132:15), was in the midst of His people, abundantly blessing their provision, and satisfying their poor with bread, the Pharisees and Scribes, forgetting their mutual animosities, unite in tempting the Lord to display a sign from heaven, presumably for their own especial benefit (16:1-6). As if, forsooth, the unmistakeable signs of power and grace wrought again and again before their eyes were not from above but from beneath. To this horrid suggestion of hypocrisy and unbelief, the Lord replies only by exposing their determination to remain in unbelief, which underlay this action; and then He significantly left them in the hardness of their hearts.
But surely the hearts of His chosen witnesses, who were admitted into the intimacies of His private as well as public life, were proof against every suggestion of unbelief! Alas! the next scene shows the exact contrary (16:7-12). These men who were associated with the Lord in the miraculous multiplication of the loaves to feed the five and the four thousand, were so destitute of faith as to attribute to the Lord an anxious concern because there was no bread in the boat. If this was not sheer perversity, as in the previous ease, it was at any rate the densest and most inexcusable ignorance. And while unbelief was thus swaying His followers, as well as His foes, the opinion of the multitude at large was that He was anybody but the Person He really claimed to be (16:13-14). So that this chapter indicates in a threefold form the pregnant fact that the judgment of flesh and blood had pronounced that Jesus was not the Lord from heaven. Immediately after, however, Simon Barjona, specially illuminated by a revelation of the Father, testified that He was the Son of the living God (16:15-17). And at this same point also the Lord, after referring to the future church, began to speak of His coming death at Jerusalem. Here He entered as it were the shadow of the cross; for “from that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day” (16:21). And if the Master's life on earth was thus to terminate in a climax of suffering from the hand of man, were the disciples to expect to be entirely exempt from sharing such a painful path? Indeed, when the Lord found the religious parties of men allied in unbelief against Him, He at once looked onward to the church He was going to build, to bear His name in the world (John 17:18), to suffer with Him here, and finally to reign with Him in glory (1 Tim. 2:12). In fact if such a spiritual edifice was to be reared, against which the gates of Hades should not prevail, He, the ever living Founder and the immutable Foundation, must necessarily be crucified as a victim to the spite and envy of the chief priests and scribes. This prospect, foreign as it is to all human notions, passed the comprehension of Peter—that the way of the Son of the living God to glory and victory should be through suffering and defeat was more than he could receive even from divine lips. And, in an excess of ignorant zeal, he put forth his hand like Uzzah of old to steady the tottering ark of God (2 Sam. 6:6). But the Lord at once unmasks the true character of this rebuke of Peter, which savored of human things, and not divine. Though coming as it did in the form of a disciple's solicitude for his master, it was none the less a distinct attempt on the part of Satan to bar the progress of the Lord to the cross, where the power of darkness was to be overthrown.
The Lord however avoided the stumbling-block, and proceeded to state definitely to His disciples, and indeed to “all” (Luke 9:23), for it was a general principle, “If any man will come after Me, let him, deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” See also chap. xiv. 27.
Can it be possible to mistake the meaning of “taking up the cross,” when so closely connected as it is with self-denial, and the following of Jesus? For it is plainly manifest from the passage, that there can be no true discipleship without denying one's self, and following the Lord. But self-mortification, whipping, and other monkish habits, though they may be a species of self-denial, certainly are not the cross-bearing of the gospel. And on the other hand the cross worn by the Crusaders of old, far from being coupled with the self-denial of the text, was actually opposed to the true cross of Christ, serving only as a cloak for the indulgence of the worst and most selfish of human passions. As a matter of fact, the true character of the cross, as well as of self-denial, is sufficiently determined by the Lord's injunction, “Follow Me.” For whatever interferes with consistent discipleship is to be given up in order to follow Him. And whatever burden of obloquy falls upon one faithful to Christ constitutes the cross to be taken up for His sake.
In the Gospel of Mark a case in point is given. The virtuous youth, who earnestly sought to know from our Lord how to inherit eternal life, was a most commendable example of human morality, so much so, that “Jesus, beholding him, loved him” Surely then he would make an admirable recruit for the ranks of the disciples! Not so; for though he did not lack zeal, obedience to the, law, or appreciation of the Lord as a teacher, he lacked that which would make him a follower of Jesus. “Go thy way,” said the Lord to test him, “sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But we are told “he was sad at that saying and went away grieved; for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:21-22). Self-denial, the first requisite of a disciple, was lacking; for at any rate he loved his riches too well to discard them at the bidding of a prophet of Nazareth. Nor is it at all necessary to suppose he was a miserly man, yet, it is quite clear he did not find sufficient attraction in the person of Jesus, or sufficient authority in His words, to counter-balance his regard for his store of earthly treasure. And at this point it is important to observe that “taking up the cross” was not covered by parting with the whole of his possessions for charitable purposes. After yielding up that which men learn to love next to (if. not as well as) life, he was then to take up his cross and follow Jesus. For philanthropy is in no sense, even when extended to its utmost limits as in this case, synonymous with carrying the cross of Christ. Besides foregoing his abundance and luxury, he was called to associate himself with One Who was a reproach among men, and despised of the people (Psa. 22:6), Who was a butt and a byword for those that sat in authority, as well as the song of the drunkard (Psa. 69:12). By following such a One, he would utterly lose his position of honor and esteem in the eyes of his religious patrons and teachers. Socially, politically, and religiously, he would be regarded as a leprous outcast, whose love and good works would be rewarded, like his Master's, with hatred without a cause (Psa. 109:5; 69:4). He would be reviled, persecuted, and maligned for Christ's sake (Matt. 5:11). In short, he would become the focus of general scorn and contempt, and that simply and solely because he followed this despised and rejected Nazarene. All this and more was implied in the words “Take up the cross and follow Me.” The heart of the young man shrank from such a prospect. And who indeed could bear a cross so galling to man's nature without knowing the attractive glories of the Person Who demanded endurance of such a kind? Little wonder that he departed in sadness.
The instance however makes it very clear that the burden of the cross is inseparably connected with following Jesus, yet quite distinct from the renunciation of personal property. In fact the cross-laden disciple is he who is repudiated by the world as his Master was. (Continued from page 330.)
The Burden of the Cross
It has already been pointed out in the previous papers that the cross became the indispensable characteristic of the immediate followers of Jesus, in consequence of His rejection by those to whom He presented Himself. For the same spirit of envy and cruel malice roused by the ministry of our Lord would be roused by the faithful ministry of His disciples. As He Himself forewarned them, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). And every reference to the cross in the Gospels implies that its meaning is suffering for Christ's sake, and that it comprehends all the odium of every kind falling on those who represent Christ in the world.
It should be remarked however that a clear and definite distinction is made in scripture between coming unto Christ and corning after Him. The Lord Jesus freely invites any one in want to come to Him; but He carefully warns everyone who, desires (θέλγ) to come after Him of the burden of the cross. The condition of coming to Christ was only to have a need, bodily or spiritual: “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink” (John 7:37). On the other hand, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Where it is a question of eternal salvation, “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37); but where it is a question of following Christ, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (John 14:27). All who labor and who are heavy laden are unconditionally bidden to come to Him and receive rest from the burden of sin. Thereupon however they are to take up another burden, even the yoke of Jesus, in order to find that soul-rest which is the reward of implicit obedience to the divine mind (Matt. 11:28-30).
For after all His yoke is easy, His burden is light, and His cross is not a disgrace but a glory. The testimony of the good and pious Samuel Rutherford, who suffered not a little for Christ's sake, was, “The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that ever I bare: it is such a burden as wings are to a bird or sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbor.” The secret of such bitter water tasting so sweet lies in the attractive and superabundant glory of the Person of the Christ. For who could endure the cross, were it not to follow Him? Who could bear to suffer wrongfully, were it not for Christ's sake? And it is noticeable that the Lord, directly after warning His followers of their painful portion in this world, unveils before His chief disciples in the mount of transfiguration the majesty of His Person and the glories that were to follow (Matt. 17:1-8; 2 Peter 1:16-18). They were to tell the vision to no man. It was for them, not for those who had rejected Him. It was given to strengthen and confirm their souls in a due appreciation of the worth of the Master for Whom they were called to suffer; so that the remembrance of His excellent glory might stay them in the darkest hour. For the Lord did not call upon His disciples to take a morbid pleasure in suffering for its own sake, as if persecution were synonymous with piety. The cross was not the occasion for mere stoical indifference to pain or heroic fortitude in the presence of severe calamities. Such virtues were exhibited by many who never heard even of the name of Christ, and yet who welcomed privation and grief as opportunities to display how mental discipline had rendered them superior to distresses which otherwise would have bowed them to the ground. But such opportunities, for the practice of self-control did not constitute the cross of Christ, any more than an iron will was the power of enduring it.
It was the thought of suffering for and with Christ that effectually sustained the soul of the Christian, not philosophical abstractions showing the purely subjective nature of sorrow and woe, or sentimental aphorisms as to the temporary character of anxiety and grief. And scripture plainly declares the cross to be the outward, as eternal life is the inward, link with Christ. On this account alone believers are bidden even to rejoice in tribulation. There is no hint of such a thing as a grim delight in increasing one's burden of sorrow; but there is the command to “rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye he reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye: for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you... But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed” (1 Peter 4:13-16).
Statements similar to this abound in the New Testament, and examples too, showing that the glory of heaven is inseparably connected with that which the world least esteems and most despises. See the signal triumph of the man of faith in Acts 7. The placid joy of Stephen's spirit as he gazed on the glorified Son of man was wholly undisturbed by the missiles of religions hatred which crushed out the life of his frail body. Also, when the apostles were flogged by order of the council of canonical wisdom at Jerusalem, it served only as an occasion for their exultation that they should have been counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:40-41). The apostle of the Gentiles, too, reiterates the same intense devotion to the cross in his epistle to the Galatians: “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).
Thus it is evident that bearing the cross after Christ was a precious privilege of which the early disciples rejoiced to avail themselves. But is it to be supposed that such a privilege no longer exists? From the first to the last of the New Testament not so much as a single trace of such a thought appears. On the contrary the world and its prince are seen arrayed in deadly warfare against the saints of God to the very end (Rev. 20:9). Indeed how can we expect to find wolves making a compact of peace with the sheep of the flock, unless it he with some treacherous motive? Yet we do find, as a matter of secular history, that at the commencement of the fourth century Rome, the mistress of the world, adopted the cross to supplement the eagle as a military ensign. And Constantine sought to honor the cross to which he ascribed the success of his arms and the attainment of his ambition by putting a spear in that form into the hand of the statue erected for him at Rome. A most baleful sign indeed! The spear and the cross had met before but under totally different circumstances (John 19.14). But now a worldly policy had practically made the cross of Christ of none effect by taking it under its patronage in the most public manner. This unnatural alliance of light and darkness has not ceased even in this day. For we may still see the cross and the scepter abortively united where the divine will has not decreed them to be. See Phil. 2:5-11.
If then the world and professing Christendom aid and abet each other in the accomplishment of their own selfish aims, by a policy of mutual accommodation what is the path of the faithful disciple? Is he to vainly sigh for Diocletian persecutions and Inquisitorial tortures? Nay: let him only follow Christ, and the burden will come. For proximity to the Person, and conformity to the character, of the Lord Jesus can never be gained without shouldering the cross. Let the word and will of God be sought and obeyed in its minutest detail. Let everything compromising His name in the slightest degree he abandoned at whatever cost. Let the lowly meekness and the self-renunciation of our Lord he displayed in measure before a scoffing world. Then shall the cross be known in all its austerity. Yet he who knows most sorrow for Christ's sake shall know most glory when the Lord comes to be glorified in His saints (2 Thess. 1:10). Though joy is by no means confined to a future day: even now we glory in tribulations (Rom. 5:3). And if in the world we have tribulation, in Him we have peace (John 16:33).
But not only from the world does the faithful disciple receive a cross. The lukewarm generation of professing Christians, which has a name to live but is dead, avoids with lofty scorn and persecutes with the most refined cruelty the humble believer who by his consistency reminds them of their inconsistency. And the child of God who prefers the simple but infallible word of scripture to the diversified but bewildering creeds of his fallible fellows, bolstered up, as they are, by custom, tradition, or convenience, must expect the isolation that invariably accompanies faithfulness in a degenerate age. For certainly the church has not improved since all deserted no less a one than the apostle Paul, leaving him to stand alone in his first defense at Rome. Nevertheless the Lord stood with him (2 Tim. 4:16-17), as He will with every true-hearted follower, to give sufficient grace for the heaviest burden that may have to be borne for His sake.
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