He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Cross: the place where attack seemed to reach the Son of God, and the ground where he stands untouched, the whole scene an illusion already undone
Christian Psychology lens · Luke 23:44
He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News, not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.
and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
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The self that must be denied is not the true one but the little self the ego made, the identity built on separation and defended by guilt. To lay it down is not loss but release, the setting aside of a burden the mind mistook for who it was. What follows love cannot be the fearful self, so that self is quietly let go in order to go on.
The cross that is taken up is the willingness to let this happen, to bear the undoing of the ego without turning back. It is not a call to suffer but a call to release, and what looks like a heavy thing to carry is only the weight of everything the mind is finally willing to set down.
Denying the self is the daily setting aside of the small personal mind so the christ self within can rise into its place. The cross a person takes up is the body itself, the crossbeam of flesh every one already carries, and to lift it daily is to bear the physical nature consciously instead of being dragged by it.
This union comes not by begging to be rescued from outside but by the mind loosening its grip on its own separate wanting. Following is what happens when the ordinary self steps down and the higher self within moves forward, so the person becomes led by the light rather than by the appetites of the flesh.
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