Following Jesus Means Sacrifice

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

    Luke 9:23

It’s not an obscure message in today’s culture…the notion that excellence, in a particular sector of life, requires sacrifice. We hear all the time that if we expect to excel in a particular athletic endeavor, that we must commit ourselves to the practice and study of that sport. It’s that same with getting a college degree. There is a certain amount of dedication, hard work, and study that goes into that pursuit. And anyone trying to start a business knows that it is incredible difficult and requires a certain dedication to the new start up. So the notion of sacrificing in order to gain something in the end (championships, degrees, or financial gain) is not unfamiliar territory in our world. So when we hear Jesus tell us that following Him will require sacrifice, we shouldn’t be surprised. Why we would think that excelling in an earthly activity requires sacrifice but growing closer in our walk with Christ doesn’t? But before we move forward, let’s all be reminded that the reward for following Christ makes all of the accolades, material wealth, and temporal gain pale in comparison. 

Jesus gives us a three-fold approach to being His followers (authentic Christians). First, we must deny ourselves. Just like athletes may deny themselves certain foods in order to stay fit, Jesus tells us that we should deny ourselves by denying the right to our own lives. We do this by understanding that He is the One who created us and that He knows the best course and direction for our lives. But this denial our ourselves goes deeper than that. In order for us to be Christ followers, the needs of others have to become more important than ourselves. The order of priority in a Christian life is then, first and foremost, pleasing God and, because of our love for Christ, possessing a willingness to serve others. This is the essence of what it means to deny ourselves. Instead of making life decisions based on what we want and desire, we go before the Lord and ask Him what is pleasing to Him. This goes completely against a self-centered culture that says, “do for yourself first.” Paul reminds us that if we are going to claim to be Christians, then we should be living our lives no longer for ourselves but for the One who saved us. Consider his words:

…and He (Christ) died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

          2 Corinthians 5:15

But secondly, Jesus tells us that we must be willing to “take up our cross daily.” The cross, in Jesus’ day, represented death, physical death. The cross, for us as Christians today, can mean the same but will most likely manifest itself as persecution from the rest of the world. If we live just like the rest of the world, with nothing to noticeably set us apart from the main flow of the culture, how can we really believe that we are following Jesus? But for those who desire to follow Christ and live superior, abundant lives in Jesus, set apart for God’s glory, for those people, their lives will look very different from the rest of the world. Consider Jesus’ words on this reality:

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

    John 15:18-19

Because there is a spiritual divide between light and darkness, good and evil, and the kingdom of God and that of Satan, because of this divide, we can rest assured that there will be a divide between those who belong to Christ and those who do not. When we look, speak, and act just like the world, they will love us as their own. But if we march to the tune of a different drummer, the cadence of Christ, we will be hated simply because of our association with Jesus. This is why we must be willing to “take up our cross daily.” 

But thirdly, Jesus tells us to “follow Him.” At the beginning of this verse, Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me…” This word “after” means that we are willing to put Jesus in front and follow Him. Practically speaking, this means that every decision that we make in our lives, big or small, should be made with eternity in mind. We should make those decisions, always asking the question, “Lord, is this what You want for my life?” Again, many (if not most) decisions made in this culture are made entirely without the council of God. But for those who claim His name, following Jesus means yielding to His desires. If we should find the prospect of surrendering of lives to Jesus daunting, we should be reminded of the character and nature of Christ. Listen to Him describe this marvelous reality to us:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

        Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus will not let us down. While we cannot say that about many (if any) of the people in our lives, we can emphatically say that Jesus will not change, that He loves and cares for us, and that He will never let us down nor misguide us. The longer that we walk with the Savior, the more He proves those realities to us personally. And the more that we see His faithfulness in our lives (even in the face of our failures), the more we know that we can trust our lives and souls to Him!

O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

  Psalm 34:8

But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

    Psalm 34:10b