Every Single Day

Then He said to them all, "If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

Luke 9:23 (NRSVUE)

There’s a lot to pull out of Jesus’ words here.

For example, Jesus delivers this statement to His followers right after He tells them that He must suffer greatly and be killed. To say that the disciples were constantly incredulous in response to Jesus foretelling His death would be an understatement. It is after a similar statement that Jesus rebukes Peter in Matthew 16:23 because Peter declared such a fate couldn’t possibly befall Jesus. Suffering, according to Christ, was a non-negotiable aspect of both His call on Earth, and subsequently the life of the Church.

But this suffering is not my primary focus in the scripture above. What I primarily want to draw your attention to is one simple word: daily.

As if it wasn’t enough for Christ to predict His death (but also, praise God, His resurrection in glory), Jesus tacks on a temporal dimension of self-denial and suffering at the hands of the world. This isn’t a one-time call to carry the cross of Christ for a short duration. Jesus is clear about how often this choice must be made.

Every. Single. Day.

I don’t think I need to say it, but this is not an easy call to obey. It’s no wonder that Jesus also says, “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it,” (Matthew 7:14, NRSVUE). However, we can be encouraged by Jesus’ promise in Matthew 19:26, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Believing that we, every single day, can follow the call of the cross under our own power is a fool’s errand. I can tell you from experience, trying to accomplish this under our strength alone will only lead to failure.

However, the same power that raised Christ from the grave is the same power that dwells in us as we are told in Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is this power that enables us to obey Jesus’ words, to deny ourselves, and take up our cross constantly. It is a powerful reminder that the call of the Christian life is not a one-and-done event. It is something that we must hear daily. It is an equally powerful, perhaps even moreso, reminder that we do not obey this call under our own strength, but that we meet this challenge through the power of the Spirit.

And the Spirit is there for us constantly.

Every. Single. Day.

Praise God.