Crucifixion: You Must Be Lifted From Your Own Earth

"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not one of those who treat Christ's death as meaningless…" ~ Galatians 2:20-21


The Easter celebration, every year, is preceded by a Lenten journey that lasts for forty days. We begin the preparatory forty days journey with our Lord, during which time we employ various godly means of mortification to checkmate and control the interminable desires of the flesh. Yet, thoughtful and Spirit-filled believers don’t seek to get prepared; rather they stay prepared, having in mind the hour in which we live. They are not like the foolish virgins, who waited for midnight before going out in the street to buy oil for their lamps. No! They are like the wise virgins who have everything put in place and carried extra oil for their lamps. That’s what it means to stay prepared, isn’t? A believer with the latter’s spirit knows that you shouldn’t wait until the forty days Lenten period to apply measures to bring the flesh under control. The flesh is not a good friend to parley with when the spirit really wants some space to grow.


Following Jesus means walking in the same path he walked and following in his footsteps every step of the way. This also means carrying one’s cross, as the Lord himself carried his. Ever before walking down the Golgotha Avenue with the Tree on his back, the Lord had always carried the cross in his heart every day of his life. As a 12-yr-old child, he showed this when they visited Jerusalem and he stayed back in the temple to learn of his father’s commandments from the teachers of the Law. “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). Zeal for his Father’s house consumed him, Psalm 69:9, John 2:17. During his earthly ministry, he would often talk about the Hour, about his mission for coming into this world, about the suffering he would face and the ignominious death that would follow. The cross has two sides to it—the side that points us to our mission of existence and the side that leads us to the path of the Crucifixion--the glorious but highly avoided path wherein the believer’s mission of existence is accomplished. Death is a necessity in accomplishing ones purpose on earth. No one can achieve his or her life’s purpose in the kingdom who haven’t died first and resurrected to a newness of life. A seed must be sown in the ground, decay—that’s death, before it could germinate—resurrection--and bear fruit. I think this is one of the vital laws of productivity in the kingdom of Christ.

The Lord understood this and didn’t hesitate to carry his own cross, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). No one carries the cross to make a show of it. It is not an Iphone7 neither is it a Samsung Galaxy S9.Rather, the cross largely signifies sentence to death by crucifixion. Every Christian is invited to carry his or her own cross and follow the Lord. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). The statement here is an emphatic one. The believer is not allowed to choose whether or not to carry his or her own cross. The Lord says to be his disciple one MUST carry his or her cross and follow him. Nevertheless, one may ask, “and follow him to where?” “And follow him to the crucifixion, of course.” YOU MUST BE CRUCIFIED IN HIM. YOU MUST BE LIFTED FROM YOUR OWN EARTH. It is only when you are lifted from your own earth that you can accomplish the purpose for which you were created.


Crucifixion is a no-do-without for anyone who so desires to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith and Crucifixion are joined at the hip. I feel it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that without the crucifixion it is impossible to be a Christian.


The Easter celebration is made possible only because the Christ willingly accepted to carry his own cross, die on it, was buried, and rose from the dead. Likewise, the only way the Christian person can live out the Easter triumph in their lives is by willingly accepting their cross, the consequent crucifixion and death---death to sin and self, and to fleshly desires. The flesh, the old self, must die for the Spirit to exercise full control over the believer’s life; else, the Christian life is never going to work out. Living according to the dictates of the flesh is akin to living an aimless kind of life, living in the dark, for in such a situation the Christian person becomes like one running in every direction without having a specific place in mind to arrive at. Living in the spirit is the opposite, and offers the solution. The believer’s life is directed by the Spirit to focus on Christ; and by focusing on Christ, the believer discovers his or her talents/mission of existence. Hence, the Spirit guides him through the death so as to allow for its accomplishment. The Spirit guides and steadies our feet on the right path, so we don’t miss our way and lose focus. In Christ, we discover our true worth and accordingly the true meaning of life, the believer’s purpose of existence. Without the Spirit’s assistance, we are bound to be swayed by the wave of the time, unable to know our direction nor recognize our own hour, to embrace and walk into it. Each of us has got his or her own hour set by God---that’s the time set for the manifestation of one’s purpose on earth; “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Eccl 3:1).


In Jesus’ case, just a little while before the hour, before he lifted the wooden thing, he was riding on the back of an Ass in the streets of Jerusalem amidst chants of “Hosanna in the Highest…” from the mammoth crowd. That’s more like a celebrity thing, isn’t it? The euphoria was on the high side and he could have opted to remain on the back of the animal reliving the moment every step of the way. That wouldn’t have made a bad idea, you know. After all, life is about choices. We live, each of us, by the choices we make. Being guided by the Spirit, he didn’t lose focus. Of course, the praises from the crowd on the day of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem has no lasting importance. Yet, the Lord had a choice to make-- whether to remain temporarily in the Streets of Jerusalem as a celebrity or to walk the rocky path of Golgotha to the death, and obtain the kingship. This is regardless of the fact that he was born to embrace the hour.


The mandatory crucifixion for every believer—death to self—is a matter of choice. In the kingdom of God, the crown is given only after the death had occurred, and of course, the attendant resurrection that follows. As in the case of our Lord, the believer needs to submit to the death willingly and the Holy Spirit would raise him or her to a newness of life. Against what many think Christianity is, being a true follower of Christ means more than the usual notion of Christianity as merely about Church membership and recognition, ritual observance and vain lip worship. Christianity goes beyond that. It involves a binding ‘something more’---Golgotha experience, with the cross, crucifixion and death.
St. Paul is one person who understands about this well. He writes, "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not one of those who treat Christ's death as meaningless…" ~ Galatians 2:20-21. Likewise, your Christian life can only have meaning, bear much fruit, become a shining example, just like Paul’s, when you willingly submit to Death to your old self. Then would you no longer live aimlessly, but Christ, through the Holy Spirit will be the one living through you. Happy Easter celebration and God bless you.