The Suffering of a Disciple (Luke 9:23-27)
Jesus’s idea of Christianity runs contrary to much of what one hears today! The “health and wealth”, “best life now” versions of Christianity differ greatly from the true, biblical way. Jesus says that His disciples, true Christians, will DENY themselves, take up their CROSS, and FOLLOW Him.
In our personal identity obsessed culture, the idea of denial is almost anathema. And yet the only way to truly find our identity and the peace that comes with that honesty lies in ceasing our self-obsession. In fact, the ways that the world tells us to find ourselves, to have everything we want and need, all lead to destruction. It is shocking but true, that today’s generation has higher levels of comfort… and anxiety, than any one before it. Countries that consistently rank as the best and happiest places to live all seems to have outsized levels of suicide.
Christianity is all about the cross, not just because it is there at the cross where we find salvation. We are all called to take up our cross, and to follow Jesus’s example of suffering. Not in some Buddhist understanding that therein lies happiness, but rather because we are called to love the world the way Jesus loves it. We are to sacrificially live for others. In a song that will certainly end up being analyzed in my formative songs series, Steven Curtis Chapman talked about the ironic joy that the believer finds in suffering because we have a hope that the world lacks and longs for.
Ultimately, Christianity is about following Jesus. Not obeying in an effort to earn merit but following God’s ways because they are the best. Gratitude and not compulsion. Preference and not prohibition. Following Jesus rather than chasing lying idols that promise things they can’t deliver.
People who live like this are not just Christians, but truly citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
In our personal identity obsessed culture, the idea of denial is almost anathema. And yet the only way to truly find our identity and the peace that comes with that honesty lies in ceasing our self-obsession. In fact, the ways that the world tells us to find ourselves, to have everything we want and need, all lead to destruction. It is shocking but true, that today’s generation has higher levels of comfort… and anxiety, than any one before it. Countries that consistently rank as the best and happiest places to live all seems to have outsized levels of suicide.
Christianity is all about the cross, not just because it is there at the cross where we find salvation. We are all called to take up our cross, and to follow Jesus’s example of suffering. Not in some Buddhist understanding that therein lies happiness, but rather because we are called to love the world the way Jesus loves it. We are to sacrificially live for others. In a song that will certainly end up being analyzed in my formative songs series, Steven Curtis Chapman talked about the ironic joy that the believer finds in suffering because we have a hope that the world lacks and longs for.
Ultimately, Christianity is about following Jesus. Not obeying in an effort to earn merit but following God’s ways because they are the best. Gratitude and not compulsion. Preference and not prohibition. Following Jesus rather than chasing lying idols that promise things they can’t deliver.
People who live like this are not just Christians, but truly citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
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