What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Well, first the easy answer. We'll get to the hard one in a moment.

The word disciple comes from the Latin word, Discipulus, which means learner or follower.

A disciple of Jesus then is someone who learns from him and follows him.

Now, of course, we can't literally follow someone who is no longer walking the earth.

But following Jesus was always about more than that anyway, even when he was walking the earth.

There were plenty of people who literally followed him from temple to fishing boat to mountainside,

but they weren't necessarily disciples. His disciples were those who learned from him,

that is those who listened to his teaching and put it into practice, however imperfectly.

But there is more to being a disciple than that.

Jesus himself was quite explicit about it.

Jesus told his disciples,

if anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew chapter 16 verse 24. That is what a true

disciple does. Denies himself and takes up his cross. First then, we're to deny ourselves. A little bit later in Matthew's Gospel, we get a very clear illustration of what denying looks like when Peter denies Jesus three times.

It's exactly the same word Jesus uses when he says to his disciples, deny yourself.

You know the story, of course. Peter sits outside in the

courtyard of the high priest where Jesus is being tried. Peter's asked if he knows Jesus, and the text

says that three times he denied knowing Jesus. He said, I do not know the man. That's what denying Christ looks like. And when Jesus says

that a disciple must deny himself, it's as if he's saying, what Peter will do to me, you must do

to yourself. Then secondly, Jesus says that his disciples must take up their cross.

Now, of course, that can be a throwaway phrase for us, can't it? Oh, you know, we all have our cross

to bear. And usually we're just talking about an awkward person at the office or a

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