In a world filled with social media snaps and reams and reams of endless reels at our fingertips, there has never been more of a desire to be a disciple. We all follow that one person or group that does interesting internet challenges, posts funny animal videos, or slowly turns to our personal stylist. For some of us, a pastor or religious channel is our pastime of preference, but in amongst it all is the theme of devotion.
We often forget that we are not the first generation to have the concept of followers. Indeed, social media may take this idea to new and exciting dimensions, but we often forget that discipleship existed long before our time.
Jesus was the social media influencer of his day: many flocked from everywhere to see him, hear him, and feel his presence. Jesus had such a large following that he would have to teach in boats and on the top of mountains just so everyone could get an unobstructed view of him and what he had to say. On one such occasion, he and his disciples withdrew to Caesarea and Jesus told them:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”- Matthew 16:24 (NIV)
Here, Jesus, though talking to the twelve disciples in his immediate midst, was also instructing his extensive network of ‘subscribers’ in the future. He was telling you and I how to be a true disciple and follow him. He commands us to “Take Up [Our] Cross.”
But what does this look like. To Jesus’ contemporary audience (and indeed us now) this would have been as illogical as it gets. Surely following Jesus should make life easier. It should make life less painful. For the Jews living at the time, crucifixion represented the most excruciating death possible. Is Jesus asking us to die to follow him?
To us in the modern age, the answer to this question is an obvious no, but how to be a true disciple of Jesus remains a task heavily misunderstood by young Christians so here is my guide, based entirely off Jesus’ own ‘carrying of the cross’, on how to be a good follower of Christ.
Embrace Persecution:
In Matthew 27:30 it says, “They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.” Jesus, the King of all Creation, was being mocked by the very being he had predated and loved from the beginning of time. It must have been a humiliating and painful moment for Jesus seeing his own people give him over to the will of these equally abusive group.
However, through it all Jesus is not recorded to have responded, or matched their abuse, even though he could have easily done so (see Matthew 25:53). This is a lesson to us too; to be a disciple, we must always respond with humility and grace, exercising self-control over our responses to other people’s hate and violence against our beliefs.
Embrace the Weight
The weight of following Jesus is not a light one. It is not a burden, but it is a considerable weight that we cannot ignore. There is an expectation that Christians should act a certain way: meek, mild, kind, non-judgemental. In fact, God calls us to be watchful of our actions in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
But in seeing Jesus embrace the weight of responsibility and sin, we are given the courage to carry our heavy crosses too, in hope that like Jesus there will be a glorious alleviation of this weight and a blissful transition into God’s Kingdom.
Embrace Help
“As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.”- Matthew 27:32. In Simon of Cyrene, we meet Jesus’ helper on his journey to Golgotha. Though Simon was forced to carry the cross, he took weight of the aching shoulders of Jesus and helped him to complete the journey to death. To be disciples.
God acknowledges that we will need help on our journey as disciples. Before this point, Jesus appointed twelve disciples to help him in his ministry. Jesus appreciates that we will need friends to carry our burdens and share in our toughest and most triumphant moments. To be a disciple we must accept that we cannot do everything alone; we need friends to help us along the way.
Embrace Purpose
In Hebrews 12:2 it states, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knew what he was carrying his cross for. He carried that cross to save all of us from a life of bondage to sin. “The joy that was set before him” is not just referring to heaven, but a heaven filled with all of us, celebrating and living together with Jesus. We must have this end-goal in sight when following Jesus and becoming a disciple too. We too must grind now for the glory to come.
In conclusion, in a world of likes and followers, it is often all too easy to take the path of least resistance. But Jesus calls us to a more challenging but equally more rewarding life. Discipleship is not an easy undertaking, but carrying the cross for Jesus was not easy either and we must accept too that carrying our cross comes with weight, persecution, help along the way and most importantly is part of our purpose.