[Jesus] called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.St. Mark 8:34, 35
Christ the Incarnate Word entered into this world with a work to complete. The Father’s will was His will. He had no other task but to do upon earth what the Father had sent him to do. The Divine Son was under orders from the Father.
And in imitation of Christ, the Christian is also a man under orders. What are those orders? First, that we must deny ourselves. What does that mean? Think of it in this way: Peter once denied his Lord. He said of Jesus, "I do not know the man." So, in a sense, to deny ourselves is to say, "I do not know myself." It is to ignore oneself. It is to treat the “self” as if it were not the most important thing to us – in fact, to treat it almost as though it doesn’t exist. Usually we treat ourselves as if our self was far and away the most important thing in the world. If we are to follow Jesus, we must put self aside.
And then, we are to take up our cross. To take up our cross means to be prepared to face sacrifice, suffering, and even death, out of loyalty to Jesus. It means to be ready to endure the worst that can be done to us for the sake of being true to Him.
The taking up of the cross is a voluntary thing. It is not something that is thrust upon us by surprise, but it is something we choose. Our Lord asks us to choose willingly whatever the cross is that has been prepared for us by God our heavenly Father.
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Image from a medieval German manuscript,
"Mercy Seat: The Pain of God"