John 19:17a “They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross.”
The Roman soldiers took Jesus out of the Praetorium. Who came up with the idea that Jesus should bear His own cross? God did. That’s what love did. Since God loves us, it was His will that Jesus carry our crosses as one unit. Our cross became His cross. We should die for our sins and every weight we carry in this life, we deserve more. We are the sinner in God’s view. Yet our cross was put upon Him before He was put upon our cross.
He bore our cross with its shame so that we might live. If we follow Jesus, we may expect God to continue revealing His love to and through us by putting what someone else deserves upon us and then crucifying our selves upon it. We must follow in His steps to know Him and to live to love with Him.
Jesus told His followers of this life recorded in Luke 9:23. “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’”
Jesus took up His cross once and for all to put sin to death. We are to take up our crosses daily to put self to death. It is a testimony that we died to this world when Jesus died and that we have been raised to live to love with Him. Will you carry your cross today or will you refuse to? What did love do for you?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
