Mark 8:34,35 - You must take up your cross

8:34

So Jesus has just been speaking to His disciples alone, telling them about the cross and resurrection, though they understood little if anything of it. Jesus then called the crowd to Him along with the disciples and said “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. This was Jesus speaking to the crowds, how different it is from the approach we often adopt in evangelism and outreach. Jesus never hid the cost of following Him, indeed it was right up front and central. And we need to understand “take up his cross” in the context of the times. “His cross” could imply it was a cross that belonged to you, or one that you had chosen. This is not the case at all, it is one thrust upon you. The Romans condemned people to death and made them carry their own cross on the death march to the place of crucifixion. Jesus was making very sure that no one followed Him under false expectations.

8:35

The invitation that Jesus gave in the previous verse does not look very appealing! However, it is actually the wisest thing that we can do. Our natural instincts are to try and save our own life, self-preservation is an extremely strong impulse within all of us. But if we follow that line then ultimately far from saving our life, we will actually lose it. Conversely, if we do lose our life for the sake of Christ and the gospel we will save it. We are to live for Christ and the gospel. At times this will involve personal cost, maybe even the cost of our lives. There will be many emotions within us urging us not to do it, but we need to always choose Christ. That way we will truly live. This has both a temporal and an eternal aspect to it. If we reject Christ, He will reject us, and that is a terrible thing to happen. If we choose Christ we will find that our life here is of much greater value and effect, and we will find that we are living it in fellowship with Christ.