Emulating Jesus

The Messiah of Israel submitted to a shameful death and now summons his disciples to follow his example and the same path. Jesus admonished his disciples that if anyone wished to come after him, “Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” This was more than metaphorical or hyperbolic language. It was said at the very time he was on his final journey to Jerusalem where he would demonstrate just what it meant to “take up the cross.”

The historical context shows just how challenging his words were. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus began telling his disciples that he “MUST go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and raised up the third day.”

In the preceding statement, the Greek term rendered “must” in English represents the verb dei, meaning, “it is necessary, ought, needful, obligatory, IT MUST HAPPEN.” This points to his messianic mission. He was under divine compulsion to walk into a situation that he knew meant certain death - (Matthew 16:21-23).

SUFFERING MESSIAH

To this, Peter took great exception. The very idea of a suffering Messiah was contrary to popular expectations. No devout Jew would tolerate even the suggestion that the King of Israel might suffer death at the hands of his enemies.

Adding to the offense of his statement was the idea that the machinations of the religious leaders of Israel would be complicit in the judicial murder of Yahweh’s anointed King.

Recognizing Satan’s hand in Peter’s words, Jesus rebuked him. “Get behind me, Satan!” The name “Satan” is derived from the Hebrew word for “adversary.” The Devil was using Peter to thwart Jesus from following the path set for him by his Father.

As he would show at Gethsemane, death by crucifixion was not what Jesus desired. But in the end, he submitted to it and “denied himself,” knowing it was the will of God for him to die for the sake of others (“Not my will, but yours be done!”).

It was at this very point that the Devil attempted to steer him away from his mission, that Jesus declared to the disciples:

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it” – (Matthew 16:24-25).

TAKING UP THE CROSS

An incorrect understanding of what it meant to be the Messiah would result in a misunderstanding of what it means to be his disciple.

Just as God called His Son to a path of self-denial and suffering, so also the Messiah exhorts his disciples to follow his example. The call to take up the Cross and follow the Nazarene is applicable to every disciple.

This does not mean every disciple must be persecuted or suffer martyrdom. But his use of the Roman cross to illustrate how one follows him would certainly have shocked his first-century audience where the Roman cross was a repugnant image of suffering and shame.

Furthermore, nothing symbolized the irresistible power of Rome and its oppression of the Jewish nation more than crucifixion. Yet rather than use his power and seeming popularity to overthrow Rome and liberate Israel, the Nazarene laid down his life for his friends and enemies.

Execution by crucifixion was a form of capital punishment inflicted on the lower classes, especially rebellious slaves. Romans were so horrified by it that by law citizens of Rome were exempt from crucifixion (Roman citizens guilty of capital crimes were beheaded).

Thus, to follow Jesus in THAT WAY meant submitting to something that was offensive to Jewish sensibilities and despised by the Gentile world.

In the Greek text of the passage in Matthew, Jesus uses the present tense form of the verb rendered “follow” to stress an ongoing action. This was not just a call to pick up the cross once but to do so continuously. The version of his words in Luke stresses the point by adding the word “daily” – (Luke 9:23).

The image of a disciple taking up the cross “daily” would strike a grim chord with his disciples, even more so since the Roman practice was to force the condemned man to carry the same cross on which he was to be hung to the place of execution.

Despite his explanation and the strong rebuke of Peter, the disciples did not yet grasp what it meant to follow him. Later, after the “sons of Zebedee” asked to sit on either side of Jesus “When you come in your Kingdom,” he asked in response, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” Instinctively, they replied, “Yes! No problem. We are well able. Bring it on!” However, they had no idea what his words meant. As he explained:

“You know that the rulers of nations dominate them, and their great ones tyrannize them. But it will not be so among you. Whoever would become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever would be first among you shall be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served BUT TO SERVE, AND TO GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY.”

TRUE GREATNESS

Jesus used his own impending death to illustrate the point. The Greek term rendered “servant” referred to household servants that waited on tables, a lowly position most often assigned to a slave, and the Greek noun rendered “slave” meant exactly that – “SLAVE.”

Hence, the Messiah of Israel summoned his followers to serve others in ways viewed by the world as menial and humiliating. Only in this way could they become “great” in his Kingdom.

His description of the “Son of Man” who gives his life as a “ransom for many” echoes words in the Book of Isaiah that describe the “SERVANT OF YAHWEH” who suffered for the sins of his people:

“Because he poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” – (Isaiah 53:12).

To follow Jesus necessitates humility, self-denial, and self-sacrificial service to others. For his disciple, this path is not optional.

As Jesus warned his disciples, the man who “does not take his cross and follow me, IS NOT WORTHY OF ME. And he that finds his life shall lose it, but he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.”