Jesus said "Take up your cross and follow me" (Matt 10:38) The cross was a horrible way to die and one that was used mainly for slaves. Death on a cross was the ultimate form of humiliation and pain. So why would Jesus say this? What did Jesus mean?
Are we to die on a cross in order to be worthy of Him? Or are we doing enough living a "Christian Life" and wearing a cross around our neck?
Jesus is telling us to "take up His yoke". We are to follow in His example, do as He did. Become a servant to others, lay down our lives for others. We often have all these plans and expectations, but are these what Christ would want?
We Americans, especially, always have such a high value on 'freedom and rights'. But the freedom the world offers isn't true freedom at all.
The only way we can find true freedom is if we become slaves to Christ!
Michael Card says "The cross, the most excruciating and pervasive symbol of death in the first century, has come to represent for the followers of Jesus the only way to peace and life. In the same sense slavery, which represents the total denial of freedom, becomes for the follower of Christ, the Servant Savior, the only means to the realization of the true freedom!!"
Becoming a slave meant giving up everything, your choices, expectations, rights....everything, to serve your master. This is what we are called to do. Christ is our Master, and if we lay down our life for His work, he will give us true Freedom!
"For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ." -1 Corinthians 7:22
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