Take up your cross
Mat 16:24 ¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
The phrase “take up his cross” is often interpreted as “take or bring your burdens and cares to the Lord”. While this is good advice, this isn’t what Jesus is referring to in this passage. One need only look at the other verses to see what Jesus really meant.
Jesus had just told His disciples “…that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. (verse 21). Peter began to “rebuke” Jesus for what He had said (Can you imagine having the audacity to rebuke the Lord?). What Peter did not know was that the death of Christ was God’s plan. Then Jesus made it clear that, not only was God’s Plan that the Savior be killed, we, too, who follow the Lord, would have to be willing to lay down our lives for the Lord.
The Jews knew full well what Jesus meant when He said “…take up His cross….” Israel, at that time, had been under Roman rule for a long time. The Romans had a particularly cruel way of dealing with law-breakers. They were executed by crucifixion. The condemned was sentenced to death and were compelled to drag the crosses they would die on through the city streets. When the people saw a man dragging his cross down the street, they knew that person was about to die. This visual illustration Jesus gave here meant 2 things:
1. It meant that we must be willing to die for our faith. Jesus said in verse 25 “….whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” To follow the Lord, we must be willing to lay down our life for the Master. Actually, Jesus was speaking prophetically that, in fact, many would be killed for the faith. Peter, and all of the disciples except for John, eventually gave their lives for the faith.
2. It also means that we must die out to the flesh. When we, as Paul said, “die daily” 1Cr 15:31, we die to the things of this world. Paul also wrote, in
Gal 2:20- “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me“ When we follow Christ, we “take up our cross, by dying out to self, to sin, and to the world..
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. By coming to Jesus, we are new creatures in Him. 2Cr 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Our old sinful life died the moment we made the decision to follow Christ. And, as we follow Him, the Holy Spirit teaches us a new way of living.
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