We know that Jesus bore a heavy cross for you and me, a cross that should have been ours, see John 19:17; apparently because of His physically weakened condition He could not continue to bear it alone, so they compelled Simon of Cyrene “to bear it after” him Luke 23:26. While He paid the full price of salvation which we receive as a free gift, see Romans 5:18; Ephesians 2:8, He requires that we also bear a cross to follow Him. In Mark 8:34 He said “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Personal ambitions, selfish and fleshly ways, and relationships must take second place to Him; these include earthly wealth and possessions as we see in Mark 10:17-24 where this man would have to give these up, apparently not that they were wrong, which they were not, but because he loved them more; and in Luke 14:26-27 Jesus teaches that family relationships must become subordinate to Him, He says if we do not hate family we cannot be His disciple, not meaning to detest or persecute family but using the extended meaning of the Greek word which is “to love less”. His personal example of this is given to us in Matthew 12:46-50 where His family sought to draw Him aside from ministry, with His implication being that His work of ministry was the more important and had to come first; no, He did not reject His family, He loved them as we see from His concern for His mother in John19:26-27, and that He chose two of His brothers, James and Jude, to become leaders in His church and writers in the New Testament, but nothing could postpone or deter Him from His mission, and He promises those who follow His example that they will not be lacking now or at end of day, Luke 18:29-30.
The cross is not greater
Ballington Booth (P. D.) Selected by Rose Hill
The cross that He gave may be heavy,
But it ne’er out-weighs His Grace.
The storm that I feared may surround me,
But it ne’er excludes His face.
The cross is not greater than His grace,
The storm cannot hide His blessed face;
I am satisfied to know
That with Jesus here below,
I can conquer ev’ry foe.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright …1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.