The Crucified Walk

Galatians 6:14-16 says, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

Sitting in a parking lot waiting for my wife to come out of the store, I saw a man leave the store and get in his car. Immediately, my heart was broken. He was a tall, thin, good-looking man, but something was terribly wrong. His back had been broken—or maybe he was born with a deformity. From his hips to his neck his back had a severe curve. It was almost like his spine went straight forward from his hips before swooping upward. One shoulder was much higher than the other. I couldn’t help but stare. The thing that struck me the most was how he quickly walked to his car and got in and drove off as if nothing was wrong with him. He did not have a handicap sign in his car like I do. He knew how to walk and balance. He was getting on with his day.

I bring this illustration up because this is how the world views the Christian walking the crucified walk. If you want to look good to the world, you can’t walk the crucified walk. Paul said, “…the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world…” You might say, we need to be cut off from the world. We cannot be yoked together with unbelievers in any relationships. They will embarrass us, or we them.

When we come as a sinner to the cross, we meet One who is marred beyond recognition. Isaiah 53:2&3 states, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised and we esteemed him not.” 

When we look at Jesus on the cross, we need to be sure that we want to look like Him. We may feel that He died in our place so that we don’t need to die on a cross and look like that. However, Jesus said that if we would follow Him, we must take up our cross daily. Paul said that he gloried in the cross. 

I think one of the things that stops many people from becoming a Christian is that they are afraid of what the world—or their friends—will think of them. The crucified walk looks strange to the world. The world will have pity on us. Other so-called Christians, who don’t like the crucified walk, will not want to be around us. We must become a new creature, a peculiar creature to the world, to walk the crucified walk. 

I ask you today: how is your walk? I ask myself that every day, and even now as I write this. The crucified walk leads to a bright and glorious morning. We don’t have to walk it all alone.

I like the hymn by Ira F. Stamphill, “Follow Me.” Verse one says:

I traveled down a lonely road and no one seemed to care. The burden on my weary back had bowed me to despair. I oft’ complained to Jesus how folks were treating me. And then I heard Him say so tenderly, My feet were also weary, upon the Calvary road: the cross became so heavy I fell beneath the load. Be faithful weary pilgrim, the morning I can see. Just lift your cross and follow close to me.

Let us cling to the crucified walk!