Come After Me

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24

What a revolution; to find personal fulfillment in cross-bearing; to attend to all things which are contrary to one’s old self. This cross we are to take up is neither for you, nor is it for Jesus. He bore all your sins, and He is in no need of any sin-sacrifice Himself. So for who are you to carry this cross, in which its prerequisite is self-denial and its duty is likened unto that of Jesus; “follow me” He said.

There is first in the verse a desire, a willingness, to in one sense ascend to Christ likeness but in another to descend to Christ likeness: “If any man will come after me.” It is a lofty goal of lowliness. In other word’s Christ did not just die for others, but He lived for others. And that is the point. The work of the Christian is that of carrying the faults, failings, and frailties of others through an ever-increasing life of personal subjection to the will of God in the image of Christ. That is the only true path to personal development.

Yet today, church involvement has often degraded into nothing more than self-help, self-serving, self-seeking flesh-fests, where the real work of being “others-mindedness” through a Christ-center focus has been lost in the shuffle. People come with the religious paraphernalia of “getting me a word”, “getting my praise on”, etc… They convene at the church house to be emotionally charged and intellectually stimulated, thinking this is the formula to a more pleasing walk with God. The sad reality is, it is anything but that.

And I’ve been there, confused! I thought I needed to sit and work on myself. I did not understand that serving others was the way to work on myself and persevering in the service of others will in effect be self-denial. I did not understand that loving unlovely folk was learning the love of Christ; I did not understand that enduring impossible people was gaining the patience of Christ, or that bearing with painful accusations and lies was to participate in the suffering of Christ. I did not know the work of God is people and servicing people will work you into what God wants you to be.

A more careful look at this verse reveals that the great exercise of Christianity is not building our intellect but our character and that through cross-bearing experience. The Christ-likeness formula is contained herein, the first of which is not self-service but self-denial. In fact the entire tri-fold directive may be understood as 1) forsake your desires, 2) attend to the desires of others, 3) by imitating me. Even church life can be an exercise in carnality when we don’t pay attention to Jesus’ instructions. So challenge yourself about your idea of church involvement by asking yourself, “What are you coming after?” and “How do you obtain it?” Come! Come after His will. Come after His way. Come after His work. Come after His compassion. Come after His sheep. Come after Him with a cross likened unto His.