Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Take Up Your Cross

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Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it.

—Matthew 27:29–30 (NLT)

 

Knowing in his heart that Jesus was innocent, Pilate compromised his convictions to appease the people and turned Him over to the mob. His fear of people was greater than his fear of God.

 

Jewish law stated that a person was not to be scourged or flogged with more than forty lashes, so the Jews would commonly strike the victim thirty-nine times. But Roman scourging required no maximum number of lashings. Understandably, then, the Romans called scourging the “halfway death.”

 

Before the scourging began, Jesus was stripped of all his clothing and bent forward over a low, thick stump or post. At the base of the post were four metal rings to which His wrists and ankles were shackled. It was not uncommon for a man to die on the stump.

 

Silent, He stood before them as they humiliated, degraded, and mocked Him. Brutally, they vented their rage on the innocent Son of God, spitting on Him and beating Him on the head with the reed scepter.

 

It is easy to forget that Jesus was tortured, brutalized, and mistreated for an extended time before He was led to execution. Beaten, bruised, and bleeding, our Savior staggered along the longest walk of His life.

 

We now find that our Savior’s earlier words take on much deeper meaning.

 

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” —Matthew 16:24 (NASB)

 

Can you truly say that you wish to “come after Him”? He will give you sufficient grace to endure, but the decision to die to what you want—to take up your own cross—is yours alone to make. I challenge you to make it now.

 

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. —Matthew 16:25 (NLT)