Stauron

The Discipline of the Cross

Jim Nance

Christ Jesus . . . made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8).

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Matt. 16:24)."

f you desire to be a disciple of Christ then you must pay this three-fold price: you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him. This is indeed a heavy price to pay, for all of these require that you forsake what you have, as Jesus said elsewhere, "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:33). Following Christ means giving up your comforts, your time, your pride, and perhaps even your life. This does not come easily to us. The world tells us to indulge the flesh: Who says you can't have it all? But we are commanded to ignore the urging of the world (1 John 2:15). Instead, like soldiers being prepared for combat, we are to undergo training in godliness (1 Tim. 4:7).

In anticipation of this training we are comforted knowing that Jesus has gone before us, "leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps" (1 Pet. 2:21). Jesus, as an exemplary Commander, Himself practiced the disciplines which we should imitate. The passage from Philippians quoted above explains how Jesus submitted Himself to a life of humility and service in preparing for His victory at the cross. That He might be fully trained for the discipline of the cross, He endured the following disciplines, among others.

First, Jesus practiced the discipline of frugality. Though as a man He had a home (Matt. 4:13, cf. John 1:39), He gave up His home that He might travel and serve. As He told one man who would follow Him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20). Having so few possessions of His own, He allowed others to provide for His needs (Luke 8:3). And so He also encouraged those who would follow Him to give up their possessions for the kingdom (Luke 12:33; Matt. 19:21).

Second, in the inauguration of His public ministry, Jesus disciplined Himself by fasting (Matt. 4:2). He disciplined Himself in this way for a number of reasons: one perhaps was as a preparation for those times later in His ministry when He would hunger and thirst (Matt. 21:18; John 4:7). This discipline allowed Him to respond to His disciples, when they "urged Him, saying `Rabbi, eat.' But He said to them, `I have food to eat of which you do not know'" (John 4:31-32). Similarly, Jesus assumed that His disciples would fast (Matt. 6:17), knowing that in His service we also would know hunger (2 Cor. 11:27).

Third, Jesus disciplined Himself in both prayer and solitude. The importance of these disciplines is especially evident when we recognize both the difficulty Jesus had in getting away from the crowds and the time it took away from His ministry to the people. Luke records that "great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed" (Luke 5:15-16). Sometimes Jesus would "continue all night in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12), submitting every aspect of His life and ministry to the Father. Thus He prepared for the lonely, agonizing prayer in the garden, where He committed the final act of ministry to the Father, saying, "not My will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42, cf. verse 44).

Fourth, Jesus lived a disciplined life of service. The gospels record how crowds of people continually surrounded Jesus wanting to be healed, taught, dispossessed of demons, and fed. Consider the following selections (there are many more) from the gospel of Matthew:

"Now Jesus went all about Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people" (Matt. 4:23, cf. 9:35);

"But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there; and great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all" (Matt. 12:15);

"And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick" (Matt. 14:14);

"Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them those who were lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them" (Matt. 15:30).

Jesus recognized these acts of service as secondary to the final act of service in the cross. "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). Jesus constantly served others with His life to prepare Himself to serve them with His death.

These disciplines, though they can be distinguished, are not to be isolated from each other. The disciplines of solitude and prayer are best done in conjunction, as Christ's examples show (Matt. 14:23). They also build upon one another, each discipline teaching what we need for the next. Even so, by using these various disciplines, Christ prepared for the final discipline of the cross, for the author of Hebrews wrote of Christ, "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him" (Heb. 5:8-9). Christ was perfected under the disciplines He endured so that He could be our perfect Savior. Because He had lived well, Christ was enabled to die well. So also if you would die well, you must live well.