The Cost

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Luke 14:27 (HCSB)

 Milifred Minatrea writes, "Authentic discipleship is costly -it accepts responsibilities."  Jesus said our responsibilities were to bear our own cross, come after Him.  That is a heavy responsibility.  Jesus has a cross, or perhaps we would state differently, a plan for each of our lives.  If we are truly to bear that cross we must do two things:  Understand what the cross is.  Accept the difficulty it may bring.

Jesus never said it would be easy.  But we should remember the second part of what Jesus said, follow Me.  But Jesus went to the cross.  He was willing and prepared to lay it all down on the cross.  We too better be ready if we are claiming to be His disciple to follow Him by willingly laying ourselves on the line for His Kingdom.

It is a heavy cost.  But we are Christ followers!

No Popularity Contest

Then He went home, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. 21 When His family heard this, they set out to restrain Him, because they said, “He’s out of His mind.” 22 The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul in Him!” and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons!”

Mark 3:20-22 (HCSB)

For those of us who like to be liked I may have some bad news. Following Christ is not going to make you popular among some. We all like to be liked. I know I do. But reality is that when we commit to being a Christ follower not everyone will be happy.

This passage says it all. Jesus returned home and He was greeted with great enthusiasm and a ticker tape parade. No, hardly was the reception what we would consider grand. He was met with His family thinking He has gone mad and the religious leaders claiming He was from Satan. Jesus was ridiculed, persecuted and plainly disliked by the hometown crowd.

So what's the point? The point is that when we make a commitment to truly be a Christ follower it will make some uncomfortable. It will challenge some peoples beliefs. It will convict some of their complacent or nominal religious life. Being a Christ follower means that we are completely sold out to be like Jesus. Some would call that radical. And a Christ follower should expect some persecution and unfortunately it sometimes comes from those whom we thought would rejoice and be glad for us.