What does it take to live as a Christian in a culture that increasingly embraces values and ideologies that are against Christianity? For one thing, it takes embracing the shame of the Cross. As Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23 ESV). Those words imply that anyone who does follow Jesus has denied themselves and takes up their cross daily. It does not matter if the culture praises or persecutes Christianity, every Christian has denied self to follow Christ. But I believe that if our Christianity is to have any sort of winsomeness then the way we carry our cross matters, too.
What does it mean to take up one’s cross and follow Jesus? For one thing, it means to feel no shame for being a Christian. And why should we feel ashamed at all? The one we are following is the King of Ages. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the friend of sinners. He is the Savior of the world. He is the Light of the world and in him is no darkness at all. Since there is nothing shameful about him, there is no reason to be ashamed of him.
It is possible, however, to be unashamed and curmudgeonly. So if we are to follow Christ as we carry our cross then we must follow the way Christ carried his cross, too. “Therefore… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV). He endured the cross and despised its shame by focusing on the joy that was set before him. He bore the cross and its shame with joy. A joyful disposition was upon him as he travelled to Golgotha. It was with joy that he carried the cross, not because Jesus was masochistic but because his eye was on the joy of what His suffering would secure: His enthronement with the Father (Hb. 12:2), the joy of Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the joy of innumerable angels in festal gathering, the joy of the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, the joy of the kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hb. 12:22, 23, 28).
It is with a view to that joy that we are called to deny ourselves, carry our cross, and despise its shame. I call this a theology of bearing shame with joy. I leave you with a call to picture in your mind what it would look like for you to carry your cross with a smile on your face. Jesus’ smile is on those who have taken heed of his call to follow him. He is not ashamed of his brothers. Let us bear the shame of the cross on our shoulders with the joy of Christ on our face.
Sound Teaching, Sound Living 