I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 9.

    Immediately after privately telling His disciples that He would be killed Jesus turned to the crowds and told them that they must be willing to deny themselves to follow Him. Those whom Jesus was addressing would have had an up-close-and-personal understanding of what He meant when He said that they needed to take up their cross. They would not have understood Him to mean “face hardships and struggles”. They would have understood Him to mean “pick up and carry the means by which you will suffer a horrible, torturous death.” If we attempt to follow Christ, but balk when it seems unpleasant or dangerous, we will suffer. On the other hand, if we embrace the unpleasantness and danger we will find the rewards more than worth it. This is one of those teachings which can easily be transformed into prosperity gospel, which completely misses Jesus’ point. I know that I have failed to live truly according to this, but my thoughts on this issue are shaped by growing up reading stories from “The Martyr’s Mirror” (if you are not familiar with it, find a copy and read the stories it contains). Those stories recount many people who experienced exactly what Jesus was talking about: people who experienced such joy while being tortured to death for their faith that the executioners had to prevent them from talking during the torture because it led others to embrace the faith for which they were dying. Imagine that, people who were so blessed by God as they suffered a painful death that others wanted to emulate them! And we worry about people thinking badly about us because we believe that Jesus died for our sins?