Connecting the dots between Jesus’s cross, his sermon, and discipleship
What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does following Jesus look like? Following Jesus, regardless of when and where you live, will always look the same because it is based in God’s demonstration of love witnessed most powerfully in how Jesus died on the cross.
The cross points us to what Jesus did for us and how we are to live in response. Click To TweetThe cross points us to what Jesus did for us and how we are to live in response.
How Jesus died provides us with a pattern of how those who follow Him should structure their entire lives.
The first dot: Jesus’s cross
Embracing Jesus’s cross means receiving the salvation he provides. We identify with his death and participate in it by making it a posture that orders our lives.
Jesus told a group of people seeking to follow him that if they wanted to do so they would have to carry their own cross, which speaks primarily of identification and participation (Luke 14:27). As in baptism, we identify with Jesus in his death, participate with him in his life by the Spirit, and imitate his posture of self-sacrifice.
Jesus's death not only provides us with salvation, but with the structure on how we should order our followership. Click To TweetHowever, embracing Jesus’s cross is more than saying a prayer to have ones sins forgiven. To become a follower of Jesus demands not only embracing the salvation he provides, but embracing the posture presented in how he died as well.
His death not only provides us with salvific benefits, but with the structure on how we should order our followership.
Brian Zahnd once said,
If we make the cross entirely something Christ does for us instead of a pattern to follow, we will end up with a distorted Christianity.
We identify with Jesus by taking up our own cross in solidarity with him and allow that cross-shaped posture of solidarity to center and define our own witness.
We look most like Jesus and sound most like Jesus when we take up our cross and follow after him. In essence, we continue in the discipleship tradition of cross-bearing. Personal identification and participation with Jesus marks the life of each disciple – past, present and future.
What does Jesus's death communicate? Self-sacrificial, cross-shaped, enemy love. Click To TweetWhat does his death communicate? Self-sacrificial, cross-shaped, enemy love.
Jesus demonstrated love towards the least deserving; towards those whom he knew would more than likely not reciprocate his love.
The picture of Jesus hanging on a cross needs to become not only the place we go to have our sins forgiven, but the place we go to inform the way we follow him.
Extending love to the least deserving has as its primary goal the good of that person. And, it reflects the love God has for us; a love shaped like a cross.
When we love those who dislike us, even those who may see us as enemies, we intentionally reject the pattern of a world who extends love to others primarily on the basis of who will return it, and instead embrace the counter-story of Jesus, who demonstrated love towards those whom he knew would not return it.
When we embrace the cross as the model for what true love looks like, we are in that moment taking up our own cross and following the pattern Jesus initiated.
Following Jesus is far more than accepting his forgiveness. It also forces us to embrace Jesus’s posture of enemy love; to personally identify with it and participate in it, as the way in which the counter-story of Jesus continues to find expression and extension in our lives.
To see Jesus’ cross only as a means of personal forgiveness and not as the pattern for how his followers should live is to embrace only one-half of the story, which will not only impact the way we understand the story, but the way we live out the story as well.
It was Jesus who said that his true followers will be recognized more by their love than anything else (John 13:34-35). And, based on what we’ve concluded so far, this love resembles, yet looks very different from, the love we see all around us.
Culture promotes loving only those who will love us in return. Jesus, however, extends the parameters of love by including those who will not love in return.
His response reveals the radical nature of his love; a love that takes the shape of a cross; a love that includes the least deserving; a love that may not be returned.
Jesus revolutionized what real love is and completely transformed its meaning by loving his enemies. And, his followers are called to imitate this kind of love. In fact, enemy love will be the sign that identifies those who follow him.
The second dot: Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount
I read this quote from Brian Zahnd a short time ago and it deeply resonated with me.
If we fail to see the connection between the Sermon on the Mount and how Jesus dies on calvary, we’ll end up with a distorted Christianity.
Jesus’s keynote address, the Sermon on the Mount, is deeply connected with his death on the cross. It spells out what following Jesus looks like, and what it will require from those who follow him (Matthew 5-7; Luke 6).
Early in his sermon, Jesus began with these words, “love your enemies.” He then elaborated on what this looks like by using three real-life scenarios. All three scenarios demonstrate that followers of Jesus are to center their lives on the Jesus script, instead of the script they were given.
Jesus’s story is based in love and while it includes those who love in return, it also includes those who will not. To quote a Chris Tomlin song - "a love like this, the world has never known."
The essence of Jesus’ teaching was this – we do not give in the same manner as we have received. Click To TweetJesus not only spoke about this kind of radical love, but showcased it throughout his public ministry, culminating in his death upon the cross – which proved to be the most powerful demonstration of his love.
The essence of his teaching, in both life and death, was this – we do not give in the same manner as we have received.
We live by a different story. A story that runs counter to the story we’ve grown so accustomed to. A story that presents us with God’s alternative story; a story the world will forever be called to embrace and replicate. A story most powerfully displayed on the cross when Jesus forgave the people in front of him, those most responsible for putting him there, which includes you and me.
The third dot: Jesus’s cross as the pattern for discipleship
The cross presents us with not only the means of forgiveness and reconciliation, but the pattern for life as well; a pattern born out of God’s own life – demonstrated throughout Jesus’ public ministry, revealed most powerfully as he hung on the cross, and showcased through his words, “Father, forgive them.”
To embrace Jesus’ forgiveness also means to embrace his pattern of enemy love. Click To TweetThose who embrace Jesus’ cross are also called to continue in Christ’s love by embracing the pattern of life he demonstrated through it – a life of enemy love.
We are called to embrace the Jesus-story and to allow it to define us as his followers. And, as it defines us, we learn to let go of the our former story and embrace a new way of living; a way born out of our own experience of being forgiven – when we deserved it least.
We then allow this underserved forgiveness, displayed by Christ’s cross, to find expression in us, so that we fulfill Christ’s own words, “you will be known by your love.”
God is love. And, God’s love looks like Jesus hanging on a Roman cross, forgiving those who put him there, demonstrating how the world should live.
However, the world will see it first in Christ’s followers. And, only through them and through their enemy love, will the world catch a glimpse of what true love really looks like.
Jesus's cross
Jesus's sermon on the mount
Jesus's pattern of discipleship
These three dots need to be connected if we are to better understand and live according to the alternative story of Jesus. A story that provides forgiveness of sins, but also demonstrates a posture of forgiveness shaped by enemy love that we are all called upon to embrace and imitate.
“Follow me.”
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