“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus Christ was convicted of treason and sedition and blasphemy and condemned to be executed. Jesus could have spoken in His defense. He did not. He could have appealed the decision, citing the many legal violations and logical inconsistencies and downright falsehoods in the case made against Him. He did not. He could have prayed to His Father and given more than twelve legions of angels to blast His accusers and would-be executioners from the face of the Earth (Matthew 26:53). He did not. When He was commanded to take up His cross, the very instrument of His execution, and make the long walk to the Hill where He was to be slain, He could have at the very least collapsed to the ground and said that He could not take up His cross, stating truthfully that He was utterly spent, in both body and spirit, for bearing the weight of the sins and pains of the world, to say nothing of the scourging and beating He had been subjected to by His Roman captors. He did none of those things. “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.” (John 19:17). Jesus was unfairly arrested, unlawfully tried, unjustly condemned, and despite all of that, He nevertheless chose to take up His Cross. He did not beg for mercy. He did not declare His innocence. He was not dragged kicking and screaming to His execution. He took the bitter cup that was laid before Him and He did not shrink. He could not commit treason or sedition because He was their King. He could not commit blasphemy because He was their God. He did not deserve to die but He took up His cross and allowed His subjects and His creations to kill Him anyway. We all have the same choice placed before us. We don’t always deserve the tragedies that befall us. It is not fair. It is not right. We shouldn’t have to go through the things that we go through. We can beg for mercy or plead our innocence or we can be dragged to the hill of Golgotha kicking and screaming and shaking our fist at a God that is cruel beyond imagining for making us go through this. Or, we can choose to take up our cross. Misery and pain are coming for us. It is unavoidable. It will seem more than we are able to bear and definitely more than we deserve. And if we have to suffer anyway, then what does it matter if we do so willingly and with dignity and grace, or if we break down and struggle against our bonds or collapse under the weight of it all? We can’t fully answer that question but one thing is clear. It mattered to Jesus Christ. He had so many justifications to not take up the cross but He did it anyway. One of those reasons, and likely not a particularly insignificant reason, was to show us the way. If one who was truly without sin could pick up His cross, then maybe we with all of our flaws and rebellions and failures can choose to take up our cross too. Jesus Christ did not allow anyone, not the Sanhedrin, not Pilate, not the soldiers who nailed His hands and feet to take His life from Him. He chose to lay it down. He was an active participant in His crucifixion. We can choose to be active participants in the trials and tribulations that come our way. We can take up our cross and stagger up the hill on our own two feet and trust that we do this for a wise purpose, rather than claw our fingers through the dirt as we let others have control over our own destiny and bring us to our appointed doom against our wishes. It is not easy to take up our cross, but it is still better than the alternative. At least when we take up our cross, we are following in the footsteps of our Savior and learning things about Him that we could learn in no other way.
