Mark 8:34

CHRIST’S FOLLOWERS

‘And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’

Mark 8:34

Here is the one rule which binds us to-day. There are three points in it—they are not all the same—‘Let him deny himself,’ ‘Let him take up his cross,’ ‘Let him follow Me.’ A man may deny himself in no Christian spirit.

I. Self-denial is the secret of success in everything. The notion people have that the faculties of a man ripen by a certain amount of indulgence, is a mere deceit of Satan. Every one knows that the strength and perfection of a man—I do not speak now of religion, but of everything—comes out of self-denial.

II. There wants something more.—‘Let him take up his cross.’ The popular form of interpretation of this will not quite do. It is not that we should bear our sickness patiently, or our loss of fortune, or our loss of friends: it is an active something. He who presently marches before—you have it in the tenth chapter of Mark—walks before His disciples, steadfastly going towards Jerusalem, whilst they, mourning and perplexed, follow after Him; He is doing a voluntary act. And the taking up the cross must betoken, not mere endurance, but something active, and it means for us the doing our duty. That is the cross to the flesh, and the inclination, the purpose of duty, which we are bound to perform and to carry through.

III. And we are also to follow Him.—And here, again, is no repetition—to follow Him in His patient obedience to God, in His gentleness and goodness, but above all, in His love which embraces all mankind, and which ought to soften and sweeten every hour of every life that can justly be called Christian. Here, then, is the precept: ‘Deny thyself, bear thy duty, and bear it in the spirit of love and obedience in which Christ moved towards His death for us.’

—Archbishop Thomson.

Illustration

(1) ‘The Church Pastoral Aid Society’s Magazine, acknowledging a poor pensioner’s gift, says that it is touching to hear of the self-denial of the Christian poor. “We confess that we acknowledge with peculiar pleasure the gift which has just come to us from a resident in one of the slum parishes aided by the Society in South London. In itself it is only a trifling sum—three shillings—but it represents in self-denial a really large amount, and who shall say that it does not come to us big with the possibilities of blessing behind it?” The Vicar of the parish, in sending it on, writes: “I enclose herewith postal order for 3s., the gift to the C.P.A.S. from one of my parishioners, a man who has only a very small pension for himself and his wife, but who has saved this out of it from the little he usually spends on tobacco.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

TWO ANTAGONISTS

As in the natural character, selfishness and affection are two opposite principles, so in the spiritual life, self and the Divine love are the two great antagonists which do battle in man’s heart.

I. Aspects of selfishness.—It is evident that the selfishness of one man is not the same as the selfishness of another.

(a) There is a man whose self lies in his intellect. That man has to submit his own intellect absolutely to the teaching of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

(b) Another man’s self is pleasure. That is the man who must be continually learning to say ‘No’ to himself. He must put the strongest rein upon the neck of his own desires.

(c) But there is another form of self, and the more dangerous, because it takes the aspect of religion. A man lays down for himself a certain way of salvation, and begins in his own strength, goes on in his own wisdom, and ends in his own glory, turning his self-complacent virtues into saviours. That is self’s stronghold—the last to be discovered and the most difficult of all to be conquered.

II. Taking up the cross.—‘What is the cross?’ What is it which a man is to ‘take up’? Not some very great thing, which is to come by-and-by. That is what people are looking for. There is some cross to-day—there will be some to-morrow. What is it? Have not you got far enough to answer the question for yourselves? If I speak generally, I should say that it is any afflictive dispensation. As, for instance, sickness, poverty, disappointment. But if I had to define it accurately, I should say it must be a trial which has something humiliating in it; something which brings a sense of shame; something which lingers; something which is painful to the old nature—for that is exactly what the cross was.

II. Follow Me.—And this I understand not so much as a separate command as something which determines the character of the other two. For what is it worth to deny one’s self how much soever, or to take up a cross however hard, if it be not done in reference to Christ—with an express and deliberate intention toward Christ?

Illustration

‘To understand our relation to Christ we must bear in mind both His humiliation and His glory. The conjunction of these two experiences is warranted and required by our Lord’s own language of prediction, and by the recorded facts of the Gospel. He has already endured the Cross, despising the shame. He has already taken His place upon the throne; and His elevation to royal dignity is the pledge of His coming at the appointed time to judge mankind. We have to consider the twofold revelation, not only as matter of fact and belief, but as affecting our own religious position and prospects. It is made known to us that the manner in which we are related to Christ in His humiliation will determine the manner in which we shall be received by Him when He comes in His glory.’