The words of Jesus in our text for Sunday seem pretty tough on the surface. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The sentence begins with a condition, “If.” Being Jesus’ student is a choice. It is amazing to me that the Creator of the Universe and Lord of all that is would give us a choice in this matter but it is clearly His point. He values His image in us so highly that He refuses to violate our will. If we choose Him as our Teacher and Guide for life, there are some requirements. First, we must deny ourselves. That statement used to conjure up images in my mind of starvation, cold and self-depravation. Actually, Jesus is asking those who learn from Him to choose His way when other ways conflict with His ways…especially when our own desires conflict with His desires. Second, we are to take up our cross. He didn’t say His cross, He didn’t say we had to die on the cross. What did He mean? We have an equivalent phrase in our day, we would say, “Burn your bridges behind you.” It means there is no going back, there is no vacillation of will, there is commitment to Him and His ways. “Follow Me” means that we walk with Him. Walking with Him means we identify with Him, we are not ashamed to be seen with Him or to be known as His. It means we are in partnership for His purposes. We must not think that Jesus is the only one asking for such things. He is one of many who are asking for commitment, loyalty and participation. Football coaches, employers, educators and sometimes well-meaning family members ask for the same. They all know that to excel at something means commitment. They know that a choice to do one thing is a choice to not do something else. We simply can’t follow everyone and please everyone to the samedegree. So, the question is “Who will you follow?” God willing, we’ll explore this subject in more detail as we gather on the Lord’s Day.