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“Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).
When we talk about bearing a cross, some people think of our having a particularly hard time in our life, such as losing our job, having a long-term illness, or perhaps having a problem in our family that lasts a long time. But in the days when this verse was written, if you saw a man carrying a cross, and walking down the road surrounded by soldiers, it meant only one thing. That man was going to die! When the Romans decided to execute a man, they usually made him carry on his back the actual cross on which he would be crucified.
What then does the Lord mean when He says that we too must carry our cross, if we want to be His disciple? He means that we must give up our own will, and die to all the things that we might wish to do, in order to do what pleases the Lord. We must be willing to give up our natural plans, and be willing to do what the Lord tells us. This might seem hard, but it is a happy path, for in doing the Lord’s will, we will have an inner joy that nothing else can give.
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