Why did Jesus say to the young man, “go , sell your possessions, take up your cross , and follow me” ..
I’m more interested in the fact he says “ to take up the cross and follow him , since he was not yet crucified yet .
I find it interesting.
Would love to hear on this.
Cross was symbolic ….it wasn’t written to be literal in that scripture verse
That’s a good question. Since the cross would be a meaningless symbol at that point
It is hard to follow Christ when you love the possession of this world. It is easy to indulge with material wealth but don’t realized this world is temporary and will eventually burned up. You cannot take any possession with you when you die. So why bother love this world when Christ offers you eternity. Sometimes our eye blind us because we want to feel comfortable and not paying the price for preaching God’s word.
Taking up your cross is dying to self. The cross was already the death penalty for? criminals. This is explained by Paul the reality of how to live and follow Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
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There is still much to give up and a real burden to follow Jesus and that burden is the cross that Jesus is referring to. Following Christ is NOT easy for some who are not always on the mountain top of praising God and victory in Christ. Some of us spend more time in the valleys than others. But the burden and sacrifice required to follow Jesus IS the cross Jesus is referring to, not the cross for a crucifixion that hasn’t taken place yet, IMHO.
Jesus actually offered the young ruler the same offer as he did the disciples to follow him.
Being that Revelations says that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world, you could say that he was speaking from that aspect.
Remember that death on a stake/tree/the cross was considered as shameful. Think about it. L&P
Cross is a pagan symbol of sun worshipers used Babylonian. Initial T t for Tammuzi was used. It was used in their Temples and for crucification .When Jesus said take your cross ,he ment carrying his sins as they are to Him.When the Bible says look at the cross it means you have to look at your sin and you see Jesus dying for you.
It is referred to as a “type” and “shadow”. Used throughout the Old testament, there are prophetic precursors. This was one of them in the NT. Jesus knew what was coming as he continually told of it.
I agree with you. It’s very interesting.
He was God manifest in the flesh. Remnants of his omniscience resulted in Jesus’ speaking prophetically.
The young man had a lot of strength but Jesus knew his weakness for wealth n tested him
It’s a call to repentance, death to self desire
Take up your cross is not to be taken literally…it’s all about denying yourself. Surrending your everything to God even to the point of death. God knew that young man was half-hearted. He can’t live w/o his earthly possessions.
What means is what is holding you back from serving him
Multitudes were killed on a cross. The culture of the time was very familiar with death on a cross. It was a call for radical commitment.
As always with the Israelites, Jesus was revealing their heart.
Discipleship. The disciples left their lives behind to follow Christ, on foot. They went with him everywhere and gave up their lives to follow him. Please people, don’t call yourselves disciples because you have up playing poker and drinking beer. Jesus is not physically on earth for you to follow. You adhere to his laws and follow him spiritually, but you haven’t given up your lives to follow him. The only people that can even come close to making that claim are missionaries.. And it’s not a requirement to be saved.
To take one cross it’s to deny yourself of any worldliness
John 11:4
Death to what?
You can’t serve 2 master’s it is impossible 2 kingdom’s don’t mix .he couldn’t do it because his Richie’s were his God
Enrique Moreno
Jesus meant===the CROSS is the symbol of Jesus’ death—means JESUS willingly to OBEY GOD even unto death—no longer the will of JESUS — rather he obey the will of GOD
no longer you LIVE FOR YOUR LIFE—rather YOUR LIFE NOW ONLY LIVE FOR THE WILL OF GOD
same as all who BELIEVE in JESUS
There’s actually a very deep meaning to this that’s kind of lost to our English audience. Though Christ had not yet been crucified, many people had, and it was a VERY big deal. The ultimate symbol of shame. But prior to that, the victim was actually made to CARRY the cross that would hang them. The message was effectively “you have rebelled against the government, and so now you are going to perform one final act of submission to them in complete shame”.
When Jesus says “take up your cross”, it’s sort of the same principle. We’ve rebelled against God. Therefore, we must also “take up our cross” in submission to Him. Being a Christian isn’t (always) easy. In that culture, it could cost your life. Though repentance begins as a burden, we MUST do it.
With the rich man, his possessions were his idol. He served them, not God. Thus, selling them all was a great burden. One it doesn’t even seem he took up (though maybe he did). This would have been, in effect, “taking up his cross”, as it is a final act of submission before he “died to sin” (another deep concept in our faith).
So basically, Jesus was telling this guy he isn’t as good as he thinks, he has some idolatry to repent of, and he must turn and submit to God, even though it would require some pretty tough decisions. Repent, repent, repent, Jesus simply cannot stress the importance of repentance enough. It means removing the things that keep us separate from God. Riches, pleasures, power, we all have these idols. What’s the biggest thing you had to sacrifice to serve God? Or perhaps (not accusing you, this is purely hypothetical), you haven’t even done that. When you chose Christ over that thing, that’s your cross taken up. For me, it wasn’t money, it was homosexuality. Not easy to give up by any means. It becomes a deep rooted part of your identity. Getting rid of it hurts. But I am crucified with Christ.
Pick up your cross means to deny yourself of earthly things that keep you from obedience to God
The problem of the man is his heart on things.
Take up your cross and follow me is not in the same verse, is it?
Everything Jesus spoke of in parables spoke of what was to be. The young mans cross was his sin, for you can not love money and love God.
I think what you are looking for is that everyone in that time knew what it meant to drag a cross to your own death. Jesus was not the only one to go through that.
Well first you have to believe in Him, and then believe who He is. He is God and all knowing. Second, the form of crucifixion was known, so the guy knew He was talking about self sacrifice. We have to die to self. We just can’t go about live letting our flesh have its way. It’s a growth process the whooole time.
So you got the first thing down… You believe ?
Next you repent by acknowledging to God that you are a terrible sinner against Him and you’re sorry for it. You ask Him to forgive you and you commit to a lifetime battle against your flesh and it’s continued desire to sin.
Then you go down in the watery grave of baptism…. you call a Church of Christ and they WILL take you REGARDLESS of the COVIDS? If they don’t, then move on to next one. But be sure you take your whole body completely under the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Then you Get up and you love God with all your mind, body, and soul by Hanging on EVERY word that Christ utters. Don’t let ANYONE tell you ANYTHING that contradicts Christ. Don’t let anyone add anything or take anything from what Christ has said. HE is the ONLY one who says what you must do to be saved or not saved. The disciples and everyone else are allowed to say ONLY TOTALLY what Christ said. He is the end all be all.
You love your neighbors as you love yourself, you love EVERYONE BY treating them as you want to be treated. The best way to do that is to MAKE COPIES of yourself by making sure everyone else knows what they must do to be saved…. You become a priest under CHRIST. No one between you and Christ.
Study His word and become an expert before you move on to Acts-Jude. – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is where you live until death if necessary.
And you will not plan, and desire, and look forward to sin. You regret the sin and you fall and get up asking for forgiveness each time.
God will forgive you as far as the East is from the West. He is Faithful and true!
Take up cross means making sacrifices. To endure the challenges coming your way as a Christian. So it’s a symbolic meaning of the real cross bearing and cross carrying of Jesus. Crucifixion was common in those days that Jesus lived. People were familiar with what they saw happened to others around them in opposing the Roman Empire rule of the day. Selling your possessions is literally to give… to the poor and not ruled or holding back by the temporary earthly possessions in life. To follow Christ at any costs. Find the book from Diedrich Bonhoffer. “The cost of discipleship.” Read up on his sacrifices under the Hitler rule.
It means to give your heart to him. He didn’t need the money, Jesus needed God to be his first love above all things man has in place of Him, they call “gods”
You will be more amazed once you sell all your possessions ☺️
The cross are the burden of Christ taking all our sins.
“In the case of Mark 10:21, these scholars consider the weight of evidence to indicate that the phrase αρας τον σταυρον (“taking up the cross”) to be an addition by scribes who have borrowed the phrase from Mark 8:34. This is based on the weight of manuscripts where the phrase is missing.”
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/24750/omission-of-take-up-the-cross-mark-1021
To take up one’s cross, means to die to one’s self…. in exchange for the beauty and radiance of knowing and following God. Dying to oneself, we end up finding LIFE personified.
Because with that individual his money was his god.
Those words were written long after the actual crucifixion. Jesus probably did not actually say it.
Well, it seems like you guys are focusing on a peripheral here when the elephant in the room is that the man asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life and Jesus tells him to keep the law and do good works.
Not one mention of the Pauline gospel here whatsoever.
How can that be? Was Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom different than Paul’s?
Known as The Sermon on the Mount Jesus audience here is Jews and Pharisees, tge supposed experts on the Law, touting how much they have done for the Lord. So Jesus out which of you has plucked out your eye or cut off your arm because it offended, sold all your possessions, looked on a woman with lust(adultery), face a stranger the shirt off your back, turned the other cheek. All these points demonstrate how humans cannot keep the Law which required perfection and so they need a better covenant and a Savior to redeem them.
Enrique Moreno I believe Jesus was intending for the full impact of His words to hit after His death and resurrection (including the other instances where He spoke of carrying your cross, like in Mark 8:34-38). People (e.g. the disciples) would have remembered He said this, and the deeper revelation of what Jesus meant would have pierced their hearts.
Taking up the cross could mean that we are to die Daly as like Paul said he does . To carry a cross like Christ did is nothing we could do but we are to try and follow by example to be more like Christ.
It could mean whatever your circumstances he can use us
Crucifixion was a common practice with the Romans. It was their death penalty. Jesus was telling the young man that he needed to die to self will to follow Him. Jesus’s crucifixion was far from the first one. Remember, Israel was conquered and under Roman domination at this time.
every body have trials and persicution just like jesus if you suffer with him you will reign with him.we that is called to be cristians will suffer insome kind of way. the psalmist said many are the affliction of the righteous the lord deliver him out of them all. he keep all of his bones and not one of them is broken.
To take up the cross. to bear troubles and afflictions with patience from love to Christ.
Great observation. Bravo
When a person asks, “WHY does the Bible say…”
We have the answer of:
It is a historical retelling of an event.
But
When it is the motive of why a person in scripture says something, we have less license to respond. Our response will be opinion, unless the motive is given or painfully obvious.
In this case, MY Opinion is that this person came prefessing how spiritual he was, and Jesus exposed his love of mammon over God and his worldliness, instead of spirituality.
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