Carry Your Cross: From Burden to Blessing

Matthew 16:24-25

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

"Their cross."

This means we each have a "cross."

I take this to mean that we each have a flaw that is uniquely our own, the piece at the very core of ourselves that we cannot stand to look at, for shame- our worst temptation, our truest darkside. This cross is a burden, but it is meant to be carried. This means that we can not simply turn away from it, leaving our cross behind and following Jesus without it, but must rather face this flaw and carry it with us on our walk.

If we leave our cross behind it is like trying to save our life, and we will ultimately lose it, for we will always be incomplete. If we carry our cross and follow Jesus, willingly giving up the easy freedom of hiding or ignoring this deep flaw rather than facing it, forgoing the benefits of an easier life here and now which denying our cross might bring, in this way we find life.

The cross grows lighter as time goes on. I believe that the cross becomes a blessing to an equivalent degree that it was a burden previously, once healed.

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Here Jesus does not call those who have left their cross behind, but those who are burdened by it and are weary from this burden. This weary and burdened state is the one where your burden becomes blessing and Jesus will heal you, the full you, because the full you is there to be healed. At this point of reversal you will have the strength to bear your cross as if it were no longer there, to the amazement of all those who see it, an amazement that will lead them to the knowledge of God. My dad used to say "At the point of your greatest frustration you will have your biggest breakthrough." I feel this is well said, and fundamentally biblical. 

Matthew 9:12-13

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”