The Bucket and the Thimble | "The Light Burden of the Cross"

“He told them, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. Now go; I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves.’” — Luke 10:2–3

This past Sunday, we studied Jesus’ commands to the seventy-two disciples as he sent them ahead of him to preach the gospel in the towns of Israel. Jesus warned them that their mission would not be easy. They would face rejection and opposition, going out “like lambs among wolves.” Yet despite the danger, Jesus still sends them.

The Christian life is fraught with difficulties. As we studied a few weeks ago in Luke 9, the call of the Christian is to take up his cross. This is a call to die—to die to ourselves, just as Christ took up his cross to sacrifice himself for the sake of our salvation. Still, the call to die to ourselves can feel terrifying, especially because death is something we naturally fear.

I was considering this this morning as I read a letter written by the Puritan Samuel Rutherford. Rutherford was a seventeenth-century Scottish pastor who suffered greatly for his convictions, including being removed from his pulpit and separated from his congregation. During this time, he wrote pastoral letters that have remained treasured by Christians for centuries. Each of them is full of gold, and I would encourage you to read them.

Writing to a congregant about suffering, Rutherford described the burden of the cross this way:

“I never expected anything from Christ but much good and kindness, so he hath made me to find it in the house of my pilgrimage. And believe me, brother, I give it to you undermine own hand-writ, that whoso looketh to the white side of Christ’s cross, and can take it up handsomely with faith and courage, shall find it such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird.”

Rutherford says something we often have a hard time realizing when we take up the burden of the cross, we find that it does not hinder us. Quite the opposite—it propels us forward in a way that could not be done apart from Christ.

Christ does not call us to die to ourselves because his mission depends upon our strength. He calls us to die to ourselves because he knows that true life is found not in clinging to ourselves, but in surrendering ourselves to him. The life rooted in ourselves can never withstand the trials and temptations of this world, but Christ gives us the strength to endure them.

Will the cross bring us persecution and suffering in this life? Yes, without a doubt. Yet it is also through this burden that Christ equips us to face those same sufferings—not merely to endure them, but to thrive in them.

Ultimately, we may rest in the promise Jesus gives to his people: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

Take up the burden of the cross today. Go out like lambs among wolves, trusting in the Good Shepherd to sustain you and see you through.