CROSS-BEARING

Pastor Jeffrey Khoo

In Mark 8:34, Jesus said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” What does it mean to bear the cross? In the Philippines, the Roman Catholics take it literally. Yearly, on Good Friday, there will be those who literally and physically crucify themselves on the cross. This they do to atone for their sins. Their crucifixion is of course not unto death. They hang there for about an hour. The nails used have been soaked in alcohol for a year, thoroughly sterilised. There is no profuse bleeding, no danger of infection or death. Lots of fanfare accompany such reenactments. They think that by doing this their sins will be forgiven. They think it is a good deed that will win God’s favour and pardon. Can sins be forgiven in this way? No, not at all! The Bible clearly states it is faith that saves, not works—not even crucifying ourselves. In order to be saved, we must look to Jesus alone, not to ourselves.

Those who crucify themselves have really compounded their sin, because by so doing they are telling Jesus that what He did on the cross was not enough to save them; that His death was not sufficient or powerful enough. This is an insult to Jesus who is the God/Man who suffered and died for us, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

So what is cross-bearing? What did Jesus mean when he said anyone who wants to follow Him must take up his own cross? It is important that we study the context of Jesus’ words. This is the key to understanding what cross-bearing means. Jesus in Mark 8:27-38 tells us that bearing the cross consists of these three requirements:

Cross-Bearing Requires Us to Know Who Jesus Really Is

Jesus asked the disciples, “Whom do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). Please know that by this time, Jesus had already spent two years in ministry. He had taught the people many things about the Kingdom of God. He had done many miracles to prove that He truly was their Messiah. As a matter of fact, He had just fed the 5,000 miraculously with five loaves and two fishes, and then the 4,000 in a similar way. But after revealing Himself in so many different ways that He was truly their Messiah and Saviour, did the people realise who He really was? Sad to say, the Jews at large failed to recognise Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Jesus lamented, “How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:21). It is because they had their minds set on the material and temporal things of life instead of the spiritual and eternal. When Jesus fed the crowds miraculously, they wanted to make Him king. Why? Because of free food! Jesus told them, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw (understand) the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life” (John 6:26-27, 47-48). The multitudes saw the bread that was miraculously produced, but were totally blind to the Producer—the True Bread which truly satisfies and saves. We read in John 6:66, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.”

Then Jesus asked the 12, “Will ye also go away?” Peter gave an excellent answer, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69). Others only saw Jesus as one of the prophets, but Peter by God’s grace managed to see Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. What does “the Christ” mean?

The Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah—the Anointed One. In the OT, only special servants of God were anointed, namely, the prophet, the priest, and the king. By calling Jesus the Christ, Peter was in effect saying, “Lord, you are Prophet of prophets, Priest of priests, and King of kings.”

Is Jesus the Christ—the Son of the living God; Prophet of prophets, Priest of priests, and King of kings to you? Is He the Lord and Saviour of your life? Some people say, “I only want Jesus as my Saviour, but I don’t want Him as my Lord.” “I want to go to heaven, but I don’t want to surrender my life to His Lordship.” If you think and behave like this, you are not bearing the cross. Jesus said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself” (Mark 8:34). You must no longer be lord of your life. Christ must be Lord. Making Jesus Lord of your life is the most basic step of cross-bearing. If you don’t then you won’t do the next thing in cross-bearing which is this:

Cross-Bearing Requires Us to Suffer for Christ in this Life

Jesus told His disciples that He “must suffer many things, and be rejected, … and be killed” (Mark 8:31). Now this is difficult to swallow for Peter. Peter rebuked Jesus openly. He did not want Jesus to go to the cross. He did not want Jesus to die. Why? Didn’t Peter just declare that Jesus was the Christ—his Lord and his God, and was commended by Jesus for so confessing Him? Why did Peter rebuke Jesus and dissuade Him from going to His death? It was probably because Peter had big plans for himself. He was Jesus’ number one disciple. And he probably thought that the confession he had just made about Jesus had put him in a good position to be Jesus’ right hand man in His kingdom. You see, Peter still thought that Jesus was going to overthrow the Roman government and set Himself up as King. He was looking forward to Jesus’ victory over the Romans. He was ever eager to fight for Jesus. Later we find him quick to draw the sword to fight the mob which came to arrest Jesus. Also, if Jesus were to suffer, be rejected, and killed, it would also mean His disciples would suffer the same fate. Peter didn’t want to suffer, to be rejected, to be killed. He showed it when he later denied the Lord three times.

Peter wanted the glory without the suffering! Jesus had to rebuke Him, “Get thee behind me Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men” (Mark 8:33). Jesus called Peter Satan here. This doesn’t mean Peter was possessed by Satan. If Peter was, the Lord would surely have cast the devil out. Jesus called Peter Satan because Peter here displayed the sinful ambition and pride of Satan. Satan was once God’s archangel Lucifer (which means “light-bearer”). He was created very beautiful and was made a chief angel. But pride entered Lucifer, and he tried to usurp God and His throne. For this rebellion, he was cast out of heaven. Like Satan, Peter wanted his will to be done, not God’s will: “for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” Peter wanted the crown without the cross. This was not God’s will. The cross must come first before there can be the crown: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross” (Mark 8:34).

Jesus must die first before He can be raised. God’s pattern of success is condescension before exaltation, humiliation before glorification, demotion before promotion. Peter was not wrong to think that Jesus must become King, that He must rule over all Israel, and over the whole world, sitting on the throne of David. The Old Testament talks about Jesus ruling over all the earth, but the time is not yet. Jesus had to come first as a Lamb, before He comes as a Lion the second time. It was not wrong for Peter to want to rule with Christ either. But Jesus had to impress upon Peter that before the crown, there must be the cross. No cross, no crown. Spurgeon rightly said, “There are no crownwearers in heaven that were not crossbearers here below.” To what extent must we carry the cross? Here is the third requirement:

Cross-Bearing Requires Us to Die for Christ if Needs Be

Jesus said, “Take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). “Follow me” in what way? Jesus was on His way to the cross. He was telling His disciples to go by way of the cross. Bearing the cross means being willing to lose one’s life for the sake of Christ. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35).

Peter and the rest of the disciples have been thinking of great things for themselves. Peter wanted power. James and John asked for power. They were very ambitious and coveted the left and right hand seats of power with Jesus. They wanted the world. But Jesus reminded them, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37). No amount of money in the world can pay the price of a soul. All the money in the world combined cannot buy back your soul from eternal damnation in the lake of fire.

The only thing that can redeem our souls from eternal punishment is the death of Christ on the cross. The blood Jesus shed is the only thing valuable and powerful enough to cleanse us from our sins. Unless we do as Jesus did, we will be lost. Jesus denied Himself by forsaking His glory in heaven, humbled Himself to put on human flesh, and died a most painful and cruel death on the cross. That was how Jesus succeeded in saving us from our sins. So also, if we want to be saved and sanctified, we must die to self (our pride, our ambition, our big plans) and everything that prevents us from believing in Christ and living for Him. Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

As Christians, if we want to be used by the Lord, we must bear our own crosses. We must not be ashamed to bear the cross. The cross is an emblem of suffering, of shame, of sacrifice. Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). In Revelation 2:10 Jesus promised, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” I would rather have crowns in heaven than crowns on earth. Earthly crowns will not last, only heavenly crowns will. But the cross must come first before the crown. Are you willing to bear the cross of Christ all the way unconditionally?

This poem describes cross-bearing well. It is entitled, “God Counted Crosses.”

I counted dollars while God counted crosses.
I counted gains while He counted losses.
I counted my worth by the things gained in store.
But He sized me up by the scars that I bore.
I coveted honours and sought for degrees.
He wept as He counted the hours on my knees.
And I never knew ’til one day at a grave.
How vain are these things that we spend life to save!

May the Lord help us to deny ourselves, take up our own crosses, and follow Him till we see Him face to face. There must be the cross first before there can be the crown. JK