Take Up Your Cross

After describing the suffering and death He would face, the Savior said to His followers, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23). Jacob used similar language in the Book of Mormon when he said, “That all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world” (Jacob 1:8). In our day the Lord invited us again to suffer the cross, saying to one early Saint: “Behold, I manifest unto you, Joseph Knight, by these words, that you must take up your cross.” He later said to all of the apostles: “Now, I say unto you, and what I say unto you, I say unto all the Twelve: Arise and gird up your loins, take up your cross, follow me, and feed my sheep.”  He also said more generally to us all, “And he that will not take up his cross and follow me, and keep my commandments, the same shall not be saved” (Doctrine and Covenants 23:6, 56:2, 112:14). So what does it mean for us to take up the cross? In the JST we have this explanation: “And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments” (JST Matt. 16:26). We must choose the things of God over the things of the world, we must choose charity over selfishness, and we must choose obedience over self-indulgence.

                It occurred to me today that one way we could understand this injunction to take up our cross is to seek to act as the Savior did while on the cross. He did exactly those things listed in the above scripture: He denied Himself of all ungodliness as He refused to speak evil despite His excruciating pain given Him at the hands of evil men. Instead, He said this of the Romans torturing Him: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). To offer that kind of love and forgiveness whilst in the most terrible agony is certainly the epitome of what it means to be godly. He also showed a level of unparalleled patience as He still found it in Him to reach out in sympathy and love to others whilst enduring the weight of the world’s sins upon Himself. To the thief next to Him He said in comfort, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). To His mother He also said with great love as He showed His concern for her well-being after His departure, “Woman, behold thy son!” (John 19:26) To show that kind of love in the midst of His own agony was surely a sign of His denial of His own worldly lusts. Though He had power to call down legions of angels to save Himself from suffering, He did not. He expressed His agony in the greatest understatement of one’s suffering ever recorded: “I thirst” (John 19:28). He had the power to quench that thirst and relieve Himself of all suffering, but out of obedience to His Father’s commandments He chose not to. He reached out to His Father, saying “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) And even though He felt abandoned there on the cross, He did not fail in His resolve to see it through and finish the work He had been given. He patiently suffered until He could say triumphantly, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

                So as we face our own small sufferings, as we encounter those who mock or persecute us, as we feel abandoned or in pain, we can remember what He did on the cross and seek in a very small way to similarly carry our own. We can strive to rid ourselves of ungodliness and deny ourselves every worldly lust as we work for patience and perseverance, selflessness and compassion, determination and devotion to the Father no matter what the challenges we face. Of course, He carried His cross alone, but we never do—He will always stand ready to help us bear all our burdens as we strive to carry our cross in His footsteps.