What is self-denial?
We might know that Jesus calls us to it, but what exactly is He is calling us to?
In the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus moves toward the cross, it becomes clear that He both knows what is coming and that He has a choice in the matter. When He eventually arrives in the garden of Gethsemane, His prayer to God is simply this: “Not what I want but what you want” (Mark 14.36). Those don’t sound like the words of someone being coerced; those sound like the words of someone being obedient.
As the passion scene unfolds Jesus’ resolve to the Father’s will remains, even though He has full knowledge of what it entails. When the mob shows up to arrest Him, He welcomes them (14.43-50); When He is accused by the chief priests before Pilate, He stays silent. All of this occurs with Jesus knowing not only the suffering that awaits Him, but also knowing that He is perfectly innocent and undeserving of it all.
Execution by cross was not akin to getting lethal injection. There was no more degrading way to die in the ancient world than by crucifixion. New Testament Professor Helen Bond describes it in detail in her article, “A Fitting End? Self-Denial and a Slave’s Death in Mark’s Life of Jesus.” She writes:
“Stripped naked, the victim was humiliated and shamed as he suffered extreme agony, perhaps for several days, until, overcome by suffocation and exhaustion, he met his merciful end. So offensive was the cross that civilized people preferred not to talk about it, and few Roman writers ever dwelt on any of the details. Cicero described crucifixion as ‘the greatest punishment of slavery,’ while Josephus labelled it ‘the most pitiable of deaths.’”
Becoming a Slave
Several chapters before the passion narrative, in Mark 9, Jesus sits his disciples down and He tells them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9.35). Perplexing words to hear. I have to imagine that the disciples were left wondering in that moment what Jesus meant and what a servant of all really looked like. Thankfully, they would not have to wonder for long.
Remember Cicero’s words, quoted by Bond, “The greatest punishment of slavery.” What happened on the cross was not Jesus simply dying the death of a citizen. He was dying the death of a slave, and that for the sake of others. He was innocent of all charges and unworthy of the death he was being served, and yet in obedience to the Father’s will He embraces all of it.
In other words, Jesus doesn’t just teach the disciples, on the cross He fully embodies for them what He’s been teaching. He becomes His teaching. He teaches the disciples that to follow them they must become a least of all, and then on the cross He becomes the least of all. He teaches them that to be his disciples they must be a slave to all, and than on the cross He becomes a slave to all.
Becoming Like Jesus
If we ever wonder what self denial looks like, here it is. It is to become a servant to all.
If we ever wonder what it is to be a servant to all, here it is. It is to choose obedience to the father, over and above obedience to ourselves.
And if we ever wonder where we look to see the servant-of-all-self-denial, here it is. Not only is Jesus our Savior, who denied Himself for us. He is our model now for what it looks like to deny ourselves for Him.