I would like to direct your attention to two scriptures.

They are both words from Christ.

They are both words of “calling.” That is, in both, Christ is calling to people: Come to me, and do this.

First, Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Christian Standard Version

Next, Luke 9:23:

If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily,  and follow me.

Christian Standard Version

These two callings seem contradictory, don’t they?

On the one hand, Jesus offers weary, burdened souls rest under His easy yoke. On the other hand, He says if you’re going to go with Him, it’ll be a grueling daily slog under the burden of a cross.

What’s going on here?

Is it a bait-and-switch, where Jesus takes away the rest He gives you with His right hand, replacing it with a cross from His left?

Or is this like some kind of Zen koan, where Christ is forcing a paradox on us, so that we find higher enlightenment by leaning into the tension?

Heavens, no! For our Lord is not the author of confusion, and He cannot lie (1 Corinthians 14:33; Titus 1:2).

The simple answer is found in a critical doctrine that has been lost to much of popular Christianity, and that is the doctrine of vocation.

More on that shortly.

But Matthew 11:28 and Luke 9:23 (and all its parallels) are two different types of callings.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, is the Gospel call.

Meanwhile, something like, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27 CSB), is a vocational calling.

In the former, Christ is calling weary, burdened sinners, strugglers, and sufferers to come and rest in Him, and in His finished work. It’s an invitation for unbelieving sinners to receive Him in faith; and for believers to take refuge in their Lord.

It is an evergreen call, for both sinners and sinner-saints. (Hint: that’s every Christian. Like Martin Luther put it, simul justus et peccator: both righteous and sinner.)

Receiving and resting on Christ and His finished work for our justification, our sanctification, and our resurrection hope is how we are saved.

But take up your cross and follow me is not about any part of your salvation. Notice, Christ addresses this call to His disciples. That is, to those who’ve already come to Him in saving faith.

So it’s a call to vocation.

What is vocation?

Michael Berg, in his wonderful book, Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing (Irvine, CA: 1517, 2020), describes vocation like this:

[V]ocation assumes freedom from the burden of pleasing God. If the Christian’s time and energy are exhausted in an attempt to earn favor with God, there is nothing left for the neighbor. It is true that vocation is in the realm of law. It is how God uses Christians to love the world. My work in vocation is not how I am saved. Vocation is not gospel [emphasis added]. Vocation is not for heaven. Yet vocation is only possible because heaven is secure …

Vocation is where I do spiritual battle. Vocation is the ring in which the old Adam and the new creation spar. This is where I bear a cross [emphasis added]. This shouldn’t surprise me, for I am Christ’s coworker. He puts me on as his mask to love my wife, my children, and all the people with whom I interact. This is really about Christ loving my neighbors, and I just happen to be part of the equation. I decrease so that he might increase. Should I not share in his sufferings? Will there not be a cross? When I live for them, I die to myself. This is a spiritual battle.

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A couple of things Dr. Berg shared that I want to draw on, and these are critical points to understand.

First, notice that he said vocation is not the Gospel. We are not saved by the works we do for others–or any works we do, for that matter. Indeed, we can only do it once we are securely in Christ, through faith.

Second, vocation is where we are called to carry our crosses and die daily to ourselves.

Vocation is what St. Paul referred to in Galatians as faith working through love (5:6).

It’s loving your neighbor as yourself, and serving them in love (Galatians 5:13b-14). It’s where the Holy Spirit cultivates and grows His good fruit in us, of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (5:22-23 CSB). It’s carrying one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ (6:2). Our vocation, as Christians, is when as we have opportunity, we work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith (6:10 CSB).

So when Christ tells us that to be His disciples, we must daily deny ourselves and take up a cross, He’s describing all the ways the Holy Spirit will guide us to die to ourselves, our comforts, our own agendas, our selfishness and self-righteousness, as we bear the burdens of others and seek to serve them in love.

He’s being straight with us that we will suffer when He puts us on as His mask to love the world. But much of that suffering is the civil war that’s constantly raging in each believer, between our fallen flesh; and the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

But hear this: This only works once we have peace with God in Christ. We can only work for the good of all, as it says in Galatians 6:10, after we have found our rest in Christ–the Lord whose yoke is easy, and whose heart is lowly and humble toward us. Only when Christ has removed forever our burden of striving to be impressive–especially impressive to God–are we free to take up our crosses and serve others in love.

By the way, this is also how it’s summed up in Ephesians 2:8-10. We’re all familiar with vv8-9, where St. Paul says:

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast.

Christian Standard Version

That’s the Gospel: we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Not by our works, but by Christ’s finished work. God alone gets all the glory.

But v10 is about vocation. What have we been saved for?

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Christian Standard Version

We have been saved in order to do good works for others on Christ’s behalf. This is where we deny ourselves and carry a cross. Precisely because we have died to our old self that was anxious to be impressive.

And one more thing: When it comes to vocation, don’t even have to go out searching for opportunities to do good. Did you notice it said God already prepared our good works for us ahead of time?

By His perfect providence, He has made you a husband or wife, father or mother, a coworker, a church member, a friend, and a neighbor.

You don’t have to travel to a developing nation or sponsor refugees or any spectacular thing like that to be carrying your cross. (Not that there’s anything wrong with those, and of course, Jesus does have people doing those things.)

In God’s eyes, the parent who loses sleep taking care of a sick baby is no less holy than someone who travels across the world to take care of someone else’s sick baby.

Whatever vocation God has prepared ahead of time for you will provide you plenty of opportunities every day to deny yourself and take up your cross.

Anyone who’s ever had to drop out of an engaging conversation to clean up a diaper blow-out for a baby who pooped up its back; or who’s been patient with a needy fellow believer who needs a lot of extra grace; or who has done the loving but inconvenient thing that needs doing knows that’s true.