Invitation: Pick Up Your Torture Device?Sýnishorn

When you first feel the love and peace given to you because of Jesus’s death on the cross, you want to share that experience. Even after time passes and you learn more about the story of Jesus, you encounter times when you feel led to share your story and the invitation to follow the Savior. These nudges from the Holy Spirit can be exhilarating and intimidating. Some of us can easily talk to friends and strangers but feel more shy when sharing such a personal decision as following Christ. Other Christians hesitate to speak openly to anyone about any subject and would rather listen than talk. How can we become more confident?

One way is to model ourselves after the apostles, regular people who didn't have communication degrees. They depended on their love for Jesus to lead them, which allowed them to talk to Him and others. They simply used conversations to share the deepest messages. Jesus used the conversations as teaching moments for the apostles and us through their stories. Here’s an example.

According to Matthew chapter 16, Simon Peter became angry when Jesus told his disciples that he would go to Jerusalem to face his death and resurrection. He declared that such a fate would never happen. Peter knew Jesus was the Christ and had watched him do miracles for Peter’s own family and others. Still, Peter dared to say no to God's plan to fulfill Jesus's destiny. In verse 23, Jesus immediately tells Peter, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Do you relate to Peter, a brave leader who sometimes lets his emotions and mouth run amuck? Maybe you’re like Peter because you see the human side of events instead of relying on Jesus to direct God’s plans. Or, perhaps you are blown away by Peter's open contradiction of Jesus, even though he wanted to protect Jesus. Through this conversation, we can learn about the sacrifice of following Jesus. We see the close relationship between the men and recognize that we can have that connection, too.

Hopefully, you are like Peter in your love and devotion to Jesus and willingness to join Him in deep conversations. Even with the difficult teachings, you can pay attention and let the Holy Spirit help you understand. For example, after Jesus rebukes Peter, he says this to the disciples (and to us):

Matthew 16:24-26, New Living Translation

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

What does Jesus mean that we will lose our lives if we “try to hang on to” them? My human, biological desire to stay alive is strong, and I want to be healthy and hang on to my life to stay around my family and friends for as long as possible. Still, I don’t ever want to lose my soul. I pray you can also answer Jesus’s rhetorical question about the value of your soul, confidently knowing that nothing is worth more.

So, to keep your soul safe, Jesus says you must “give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow [him].” We’ve just established that no object or power is worth more than your soul, so I’m guessing you are ready to take up your cross, yes?

Here’s where a short history lesson helps us understand what Jesus asks us to do.

In today’s money-obsessed and materialistic world, we see the cross as an emblem and symbol of Christianity because so many companies market them to us. We have them on our necklaces, stickers, car keys, and t-shirts. But this isn’t how folks in Jesus’s day viewed them.

To people of the first century, the Roman cross was vile, disgusting, ugly, and dreadful. The cross was a powerful symbol of shame and death, and good Roman citizens would not even whisper the word cross aloud. Our word excruciating (meaning agonizing or savage pain) comes from their word crucify. The cross was a feared tool for torture and execution, like an electric chair, a noose, or a firing squad. But worse. Romans used the cross as a torture apparatus to humiliate and kill the worst criminals.

Jesus asks his disciples and us to give up our lives and desires for comfort, privacy, and honor and pick up our means of execution to follow Him. The request is hard for us to understand on this side of Jesus’s resurrection. Can you imagine how this image landed on the people of his day? Why would anyone want to carry their electric chair around? How could that possibly help?

For Jesus, the cross was not a symbol to get as a tattoo, hang on a wall, or draw on Sunday School workbook pages for little kids to color. He knew what he was asking of the disciples and us. Following Jesus during his time on earth was asking to be persecuted, and, true to his word, his disciples died violent and painful deaths. Following Him isn’t easy or popular now, either.

Following Jesus now is a daily choice. Sometimes, an hourly choice.

This background information leads us to a big question. How do we find the courage to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus? How do we share the message of salvation with others in such a way that makes the requirement of cross-carrying appealing to our unsaved family and friends? How do we share the gospel that asks for such sacrifices?

Over the next few days, we will explore these questions and find practical ways to share the invitation from Jesus. Like Peter, we can depend on Jesus to direct the supernatural plans we don’t understand while keeping ourselves in check and explaining God’s love to others.