How Heavy Is A Cross?

1) "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
2) "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and
follow Me." (emphasis added).

These two statements came from the same man. Jesus said both that the yoke he would place around our necks is an easy yoke and that if we want to be His disciples we have a cross to carry.
In saying that His yoke is easy Jesus is essentially saying that His yoke is not like the yoke of the Pharisees. It's not a yoke bound up in following a code in a legalistic way without any understanding of grace. His yoke is not burdensome like the yoke of the Pharisees. His yoke is easy.
Then, in another place we find out exactly what Jesus' yoke is. Jesus' yoke is a cross (Remember that a student is not above his teacher). But how exactly is a cross a light thing to carry? Jesus is not speaking in puns or playing with words. He makes it clear that following Him means that we must truly deny ourselves...even die daily. So how can he say that this is an easy thing? How is it easy to deny one's own passions, plans, preferences, goals, ambitions, etc.? How is it easy to consider one's own life as being nothing, meaningless, even dead?
I think the best answer comes from the Apostle Paul. Paul had been beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and nearly killed for the sake of the Gospel. When reflecting on all of his suffering Paul said "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Rom 8:18). The key word here is "compared." Paul says that whatever suffering we may endure for the sake of the Gospel is not even worthy to be placed on the same set of scales as the glory that will be revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Compared to the glory of Christ Paul testifies that his suffering (his cross) is light. And this is also what it means for our cross to be light. It is a comparison game. In view of the Beauty that is Jesus Christ...in view of the weight of His glory, our cross is light. It is only when our eyes are fixed on the world that daily death is a hard thing. But when our eyes are fixed on Jesus we can say with Paul that the weight of this cross is not even worth comparing to His Glory.