The Meaning of the Cross, Day 33

Welcome to day 33 of our series, “40 Days of the Cross.” Each day we are taking just a few minutes to look at a word which will help us better understand the meaning of the cross. 

Today’s word is burden. After Jesus had been betrayed, tried, beaten, and mocked, the time came for Him to be led up the path to His execution. In an act of ironic cruelty, the Roman soldiers forced Jesus to carry His cross, the instrument of His own death, up the hill to where He would be crucified. Scripture tells us that the burden of the cross was too great for His human body, and the soldiers forced a man named Simon to lift the cross and carry it for the weakened Jesus.
 

The physical weight of the cross may have been too great a burden for Jesus’ body, but the spiritual burden of the cross was not too great for Jesus to bear. Philippians 2:8 tells us that Jesus became obedient to the point of death, even to death upon the cross. God was under no obligation to redeem us from our sin. There was no requirement for Jesus to carry the burden of the cross so that our sins could be forgiven through His sacrifice. But Jesus did. Within Him dwelled the fullness of God and the Spirit within Him was more than equal to the task to carry the spiritual burden of the cross.

Jesus asks the same of us. In Luke 9:23, Jesus is talking to those who are following Him, “And He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’” Jesus asks us to carry the burden of OUR cross as well. What is this burden that Jesus asks us to carry as His followers? Looking at the context of this verse, Jesus is asking people to surrender their lives to Him. 

Our cross is the burden of surrender, just like it was to Jesus. Every day, Jesus asks us to give ourselves over to Him. That may seem to be a really big burden, and it is. But the same Spirit that dwelled within Jesus, the same Spirit that raise Him from the dead dwells in you. And He will empower you to fulfill your commitment to take up the burden of your cross, just as Jesus took the burden of His cross. The same Holy Spirit dwells in us. We’ll talk more about holy tomorrow. 

After we pray today, I encourage you to spend some time contemplating the burden of the cross that Jesus carried, and the burden of our own crosses that He calls us to carry. 

Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus and His willingness to bear the burden of the cross. Please empower me by Your Holy Spirit to bear my cross so that my life will daily be given to you. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Thanks for reading today.

Continued tomorrow