A daily walk

“Then He said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’” Luke 9:23
We read in other versions of this passage (Matt. 16:24, Mark 8:34) about taking up our cross, counting the cost to follow Jesus. Luke adds a small but profound word to this: ‘daily’.
Taking up our cross is not referring to that initial decision we made to follow Jesus, be it 20 minutes, 20 days, or 20 years ago. We also need to understand what the phrase meant in that culture. The only people you would see carrying crosses were those who had been condemned to die by crucifixion. Not everybody was executed in this way, but only the worst offenders – murderers, thieves, insurgents. They would be forced to carry their cross through the city to the crucifixion site.
In our day, the symbol of the cross has become sterilised. If we were to replace it with a mental image of, say, an electric chair, we might get a bit closer to understanding how shocking it would have been for the disciples to hear Jesus talking about carrying their cross to follow Him. Taking up the cross automatically places you in a position of submission, humilitation, and condemnation. It is not something that can be done in secret, but it is very public. And Jesus tells us we are to do it every day. What does this mean for us? Every day, we must make a conscious decision to lay down our own desires, the things that the flesh would have us prioritise, and follow Jesus – even if that means public ridicule and disgrace. Jesus doesn’t want half-hearted followers. He wants us to be committed.