Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
Observations and Reflections
To follow Christ means more then just declaring that you will do so. Your life and everything in it, must come second to Christ. All your possession, relationships, and accomplishments mean nothing if you do not have Jesus Christ at the forefront of your life. As Christians, we know that our life here is only temporary, therefore we should heed to this message in pursuing a desire to daily involve Christ in every aspect of our lives.
We should be taking the time to read His word, pray, and meditate on it. There should be constant evidence that we are living for a God who fulfills our desires in a way that nothing else can. Others should be able to look at us and say that without Christ, we would be completely robbed of our joy, peace and hope.
Part of being a follower of Christ is to show the world that we are living for Him. Our desire should also be to tell others about Him and to do unashamedly. To follow after anything else that this world offers, can lead us so far off the path that we end up as in verse 25 says forfeiting ourselves. We loose ourselves to the world and its temporary pleasures and tragically, we loose our relationship with God and miss out on experiencing what it means to truly be satisfied in Him.
I have watched many people in my life waste away their lives to money, relationships, education and always needing more. There is never and end goal and there is never a boundary to what they want. It keeps going and they begin to lead a life of dissatisfaction and discontentment. Jesus promises us that when we choose to follow after Him, we will be saved from experiencing eternal separation from Him.
Jesus tells us these things because He knows that the world cannot satisfy us. He also challenges those who are believers to daily examine their hearts and follow after Him. Life with Christ is eternal and life sustaining joy and happiness, even when we face the hardest of times. Life without Christ is empty, shallow and meaningless. Let us daily choose to follow after the one who is the giver of all things and the true author of satisfaction both now and forevermore.
Among the many teachings of Jesus, the passage about taking up one’s cross is not of any extraordinary interest. However, Jesus’ quick remark at the end of this proclamation is quite interesting and has perplexed many a scholar. Before moving forward one must consider the versions from Mark and Matthew.
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:27)
“For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28)
“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” (Mark 8:38-9:1)
The 3 versions of this verse help to paint a better picture of what Jesus was trying to say. If just reading Mark or Luke’s gospel one would be inclined to ask what Jesus meant by “see the kingdom of God”. However, the context and Matthew’s version will reveal the answer. Mathew likely saw the confusion in Mark’s version and added a slight adjustment. “See the kingdom of God” is changed to “see the son of man coming in his kingdom”. That leaves the reader with much more clarity.
However, the clarity in Matthew does not make the theological implications of this passage any simpler. Is Jesus saying that certain people listening to Him that day would still be live when He returns again in the end of days? It appears that Jesus was indeed making such a claim. Conservative commentators suggest that Jesus is referring to the transfiguration even which up next in the gospel story. Other biblical scholar suggest that this claim made by Jesus is not part of the original tradition. Donald A Hagner, who authored the Matthew section in the World Biblical Commentary, suggests that Jesus meant exactly what He said. Namely, that Jesus would be returning within that generation.
This view is further buttressed by Matthew 10:23 which Jesus states the following before sending out the 12 to witness in various towns.
When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. (Matthew 10:23)
Another note should be made that many first century church leaders also believed Jesus would be returning within their lifetimes. Given that Jesus did not usher in the final judgement one must conclude that the textual tradition is flawed or that most of Christian history has drastically misunderstood Jesus’ teaching. Is Jesus referring to the transfiguration event or was Jesus referring to His final return?
I will let the reader decide.