Too Close to the Cross

by Clint Wagnon


"He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not." - Isaiah 53:3

Occasionally someone will speak into my life words that clap like thunder. Recently, those words were "too close to the cross." They have reverberated in my soul for days now.

The closer one climbs to the cross, the higher the cost of following hard and the lonelier the chosen path becomes. It was this truth the prophet predicted for the One, and it was this agonizing truth that fleshed itself out in the closing weeks of Jesus' earthly ministry.

The once-massive multitudes waned as he climbed closer to the cross. (John 6:66) Sign-seekers, freeloaders and fair-weather friends stopped following when the new wore off, the food stopped flowing and the shallow were shown for what they were.

At a time when he could really use some encouragement, none was to be found.

Betrayed by a friend. Denied by another. Abandoned by the rest.

Travel too closely to the cross and you will eventually feel that sting too. There is a risk in following hard after Jesus... you become like him.