Jesus is Given His Cross
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. – John 3:14-15
There is a mystery in Jesus’ words: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
What does it mean to carry a cross each day?
Surely Jesus is not inviting us to self-hatred or to seek out suffering for its own sake. That is not the heart of the gospel. The cross is not a call to self-loathing — it is a call to surrender. A daily invitation to embrace what we would rather avoid: our frailty, our limits, our losses… our inability to save ourselves.
Jesus did not craft His own cross. It was laid upon Him. And still, He received it. Not with protest. Not with avoidance. But with obedience. He accepted the Father’s will — the mission of redemption — knowing full well the weight it carried. In that moment, He partook in being handed something utterly unwanted. Something brutal. Something that marked Him as cursed in the eyes of the world (Galatians 3:13). Yet He carried it willingly.
We all carry crosses we do not choose. A diagnosis. A broken relationship. A grief that lingers. A weakness that humbles us. And yet, the mystery is this: God meets us in the surrender. In our giving up of control, we encounter grace. In our vulnerability, we experience strength not our own. In dying to our pride and plans, we find the joy of the true self — the self hidden in Christ. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).
This is not an invitation to despair. It is a call to freedom. To walk the way of the cross is not to lose our value — it is to lose the illusion that we ever earned it. To carry the cross is to know that our worth is secured by the One who carried His for us.
What does it mean to carry a cross each day?
Surely Jesus is not inviting us to self-hatred or to seek out suffering for its own sake. That is not the heart of the gospel. The cross is not a call to self-loathing — it is a call to surrender. A daily invitation to embrace what we would rather avoid: our frailty, our limits, our losses… our inability to save ourselves.
Jesus did not craft His own cross. It was laid upon Him. And still, He received it. Not with protest. Not with avoidance. But with obedience. He accepted the Father’s will — the mission of redemption — knowing full well the weight it carried. In that moment, He partook in being handed something utterly unwanted. Something brutal. Something that marked Him as cursed in the eyes of the world (Galatians 3:13). Yet He carried it willingly.
We all carry crosses we do not choose. A diagnosis. A broken relationship. A grief that lingers. A weakness that humbles us. And yet, the mystery is this: God meets us in the surrender. In our giving up of control, we encounter grace. In our vulnerability, we experience strength not our own. In dying to our pride and plans, we find the joy of the true self — the self hidden in Christ. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).
This is not an invitation to despair. It is a call to freedom. To walk the way of the cross is not to lose our value — it is to lose the illusion that we ever earned it. To carry the cross is to know that our worth is secured by the One who carried His for us.