Jesus said that “whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”
(Luke 14:27).
Jesus said that “whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). These are not easy words to read, and they certainly aren’t easy to put into practice. Yet, if we desire to follow Jesus truly and fully, we will seek his guidance about our own cross-carrying. We will, by grace, be able to deny ourselves and follow Jesus even when it is costly.
In 1937, German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer published a book called Nachfolge, the German word for “following.” Basing his writing on the Sermon on the Mount, Bonhoeffer explained what it means to follow Jesus as his disciple. He was especially concerned to counter the tendency among Christians to offer what he called “cheap grace,” that is, “grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate” (p. 45, Touchstone edition). When his book was translated into English and published eleven years later, it was called The Cost of Discipleship.
Bonhoeffer took seriously the hard sayings of Jesus, sayings that made clear the high cost of following him. In an oft-quoted passage from The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote, “The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die” (p. 89).
Of course, when we think of the cross, we associate it with the saving death of Jesus, with the sacrifice that brings abundant and eternal life. But when the first disciples of Jesus heard him speak of carrying the cross, they would not have envisioned its ironic and grace-filled dimensions. For them, carrying the cross was something criminals sentenced by Rome had to do on the way to their painful death. It conveyed in a powerful way the complete giving up of one’s life.
When I first read The Cost of Discipleship in bible college, I found it quite unnerving. I wanted to be a faithful disciple of Jesus, but the “come and die” part distressed me. What did this really mean for me as a college student with big hopes for my life? Did I have to give them up? Should I quit college? Should I head off to a faraway part of the world and become a missionary? Of course, my unsettledness when reading The Cost of Discipleship was really not about what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote. It was about what Jesus said. It was about sentences like “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” in Luke 14:27 and “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” in Luke 9:23.
I would confess that I’m still unnerved by the “cost of discipleship,” not the book so much as the reality. What does it mean for me to carry my cross today? What might I be clinging to that keeps me from fully following Jesus? Many years ago, when I first read The Cost of Discipleship, those questions burned in my soul. And when I reflect on Luke 14:27 and similar passages from the gospels, such questions still do.
I don’t have all the answers, that’s for sure. But I do know this. As one who truly wants to be a disciple of Jesus, I need to take seriously his call to costly discipleship. I can’t let the appeal of cheap grace keep me from wrestling with the call of Christ upon my life. And so, once again, I talk to my Lord, asking: “What does it mean for me to carry my cross today? How can I follow you more fully? What do I need to lay down so that I might take up your yoke?”
Perhaps you have some things you need to ask as well...
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