i bet you think this verse is about you
Feb. 15 2008Scripture is so great.
I was studying the passage in Luke where Jesus is talking to the disciples about picking up their cross daily and following him (Luke 9:18-27.) But it is so easy to gloss over statements like this. It’s so easy for a passage like this to lose its meaning.
When I have read this passage in the past I’ve take Jesus statement, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” as just another way of saying “you have to deny your sin.” Now I do think Jesus is saying this, but I think he is saying far more than this.
My temptation when I read the Bible is to think of myself first. Wrong. I need to think of the original audience first.
What would the 12 disciples have thought when Jesus told them to pick up a cross and follow him? I think they probably would have freaked out. These 12 men lived mostly in Galilea outside of Jerusalem. I’m sure in their lifetime they had seen a crucifixion. They probably vividly knew that if you picked up a cross you didn’t come back. The cross was a one way road to death. And that is exactly the point Christ was making to the disciples. He was saying they must die.
Christ was going to pick up his cross to save people who deserved eternal punishment for their sins and he was asking his disciples to join him--not to literally die on that day, but to die to self and live for him. He was asking them to join him in all his humiliation and rejection.
It’s no wonder in that Matthew 16:22 (Matthew’s accounting of the same event) Peter rebuked Jesus. But Jesus was right, these men did not have the things of God in mind, but the things of men.
Doesn’t that give new meaning to those words? So remember to read your Bible with the original audience in mind before you think “What does this have to do with me?”
Comments
I guess I always thought of that verse in terms of denying self (not just sin), going after God’s goals and not my own. (My dad’s spiritual leadership sure comes in handy.) But I like the idea of thinking of the original audience. Even though the Bible is meant for us, too, the life and times of the disciples give a great perspective on why Jesus’ words would have been so effective on them.
Sara on Sun Feb 17, 2008 at 10:09 pmThat is one of the verses in the Bible that makes me wish I could have seen the disciple’s faces. They must have been shocked to here the man they thought would become king of the Jews say such a thing.
Grace EC on Mon Feb 18, 2008 at 8:50 amThanks for the great post.
But I like to think I have much in common with the original audience, being part of the totally depraved human race and all.
J. K. Jones on Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 6:40 pm
thanks eric!! Your thoughts are so helpful. Little things like this totally change my perception of scripture.. almost like turning on a light in a dark room. It sheds so much much illumination.
linda on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 12:58 pm