Mark 8:34, What does it mean to “pick up our cross and to follow Yeshua/Jesus”? Over the years, like you, I’ve heard many interpretations as to what, in practical terms, Yeshua meant here.
What insights from the verses surrounding this passage can we gain that will help us to understand what Yeshua was trying to convey to us by his statement?
Whenever I think of this verse I think about a day in the future when I too may have to die for what I believe in. I think about my odds of that fate increasing every time I make statements on my website that contradict the lunacy that is being passed off as truth in the churches. But my next thought is always about what is offered to Philadelphia in Revelation 3.
I think about the notion of living outside the gates, just as Yeshua was crucified outside the gates of the city. I think it has to do with living outside of our comfort zones and being ready to pick our lives up at any moment and move when he needs us too.
Good point Wolfgang. The older we get, the more comfortable those comfort zones become, since we have wife, family, home, job, friends, etc., etc. to consider. As the saying goes, only when the pain of staying where we’re at becomes greater than the pain to change, will we change. It took great faith and discomfort for the children of Israel to leave Egypt. Abraham had great faith when he left the comforts of Ur for the backwoods of Canaan. Lot had to be pried from Sodom. Leaving comfort zones isn’t easy!
I think that one can make a strong comparison to Ruth and how she became grafted into the house of Israel and worshiping the one true Elohim of Yisrael – YHVH.
Rth 1:16-17
(16) But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you; ( ..Whoever desires to come after Me)
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people, (…let him deny himself)
And your God, my God.
(17) Where you die, I will die, (take up your Cross)
And there will I be buried.
The LORD do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
Thayers defines the Greek word interpreted as “Deny” this way: to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone.
In effect walking away from ones identity/heritage or that which define who we are to ourselves. A baby raised in an orphanage has little by which they can define themselves or a history or a heritage at which they can point say this is who I am. The other extreme would be the heir apparent H.R.H. Crown Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. ( All the titles makes me think that I am around a religious person).
In a lot of ways John the Baptist, a descendant of the Cohen HaGadol Aahron, was of Priestly lineage with a rich genealogy and heritage, yet he took up “His Cross” and denied His birth right to serve as a Temple priest. (but did not deny the Truths of Torah).
In a manner of speaking Moses also lost his identity, as a result rather than by a personal choice.
What should truly define us– Who we are or Whose we are?