Take Up Your Cross
Matthew 16:21 – 28
If you recall from last week Jesus and the Disciples were still on a journey outside of Israel, they in the region of Caesarea Phillippi, a city named in honor of Julius Caesar. Jesus had come to this place to have a conversation with the Disciples. They remain in Caesarea for our lesson today as it is an immediate continuation of the conversation that we saw last week.
Last week Jesus asks the Disciples who the people say that he is. They tell him that some think that he is John the Baptist, some say that he is Elijah reincarnated and some say that he is one of the prophets, maybe Jeremiah, the first of the latter day prophets. It is interesting that the list includes only people that were already known to the Jews. People are so mired in the past that a new person, a new future doesn’t seem to be in their thinking.
That is interesting but Jesus is really fishing for who the Disciples believe that he is. Who do you think that I am he asks them? Peter answers for the group “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living Lord” Peter confesses. Jesus is well pleased with the answer. Their confession shows an enhanced level of understanding of who he is. This faith and belief will be the foundation upon which He will build his church.
We can imagine that the disciples must have been filled with excitement in the wake of Jesus’ comments. They are excited that theirs would be the generation that would bear witness to the culmination of so many of God’s promises.
But the excitement proves to be short lived as Jesus is not done with the conversation. While He is pleased with the confession of the disciples regarding his nature and mission, the Disciples are about to learn a difficult truth of what the future holds for Jesus and what that means for them.
Jesus changes the mood as he brings them to a harsh reality. While he is pleased with the confession it is only part of Jesus’ plan for that day. He needs to prepare the Disciples for the future challenges, Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
This was not the first awareness for the Disciples of these things, but it was the first time that He made them known so clearly to the disciples. It was the first time that He spoke of these things “openly” (Mark 8:32) and it would not be the last time.
Peter reacts to these words by taking Jesus aside and saying “Never, Lord!” “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus rebukes Peter by telling him that he only has the knowledge of man and that he doesn’t know or understand the plans of God. If Peter and the rest of the Disciples are going to follow Jesus in his ministry they need to be willing to act on the faith and belief found in their confession that he is “The Christ and the Son of the Living God.
True confession requires submission to authority, as well as the expectations and consequences that may come. “Whoever wants to be my disciple” Jesus tells them “must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Thus the cost of true discipleship is; denying yourself, taking up your own cross and following Jesus always and everywhere! Let’s see what that means to would be disciples.
“Deny Themselves”
James Hastings tells us that Jesus makes the duty of denying self a requirement of Christian discipleship. A man cannot be a follower of Jesus unless he denies himself, or, as the Greek term indicates, denies himself utterly. The requirement is not the denial of anything, either little or much, to self, but the utter denial of self.
Think of it as two objects of attention, yourself, and Christ, only one can be primary in our thoughts and desires, our object of attraction and devotedness. Jesus is saying that if you turn toward me, you must turn away from yourself. If you are accept me as the chief object of desire, you must minimize yourself as the center of your thoughts. He says if you live in My service, you must cease to live for your own pleasure and interest.
We are constantly tempted to self-indulgence, to do simply what is easy and pleasant to us, agreeable to our tastes, inclinations, and habits. Scripture teaches us that we must not consult our own ease and pleasure, that we must not make a kind of pastime of our service to Jesus rather we must consider it all the time. We must consider how we advance the work of the Kingdom rather than our own self-interest. We must choose His demand on our time and works rather than our own.
Next “Take up your own Cross”
James Hastings tells us that Cross-bearing is usually regarded as the bearing of burdens, or the enduring of trials in Christ’s service, or for Christ’s sake. In fact, it is impossible to give ourselves up to Christ without suffering some loss or trouble for the cause; rejection, retaliation, being shunned by Unbelievers. But it is important to understand that our cross is taken up voluntarily; it is in our power to refuse to touch it, to refuse to pick it up, to refuse to carry it.
We bear it, not because we cannot escape it, but because it is a consequence of our following Christ; and the good of bearing it is that it allows us to follow Jesus closely. The true Christian will bear any cross and endure any hardship that is involved in loyally following his Lord and Master.
Each of us has their own cross to bear as we follow Him. Our cross is always close at hand. Often, we may think how much easier it would be for us, and how much more devout and faithful Christian we would be, if we could “exchange” our own cross for some other that we could more easily bear. We think that we can judge of the crosses which others have to bear, and that ours is often so much heavier than theirs.
There is a poem called The Changed Cross. It tells of a weary woman who thought that her cross was surely heavier than those of others whom she saw about her and wished that she might choose another instead of her own.
As she slept, she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses of many shapes and sizes. There was a little one most beautiful with in jewels and gold. “Ah, this I can wear with comfort,” she said. So, she took it up, but her weak form shook beneath it. With all the jewels and the gold, it was far too heavy for her.
Next, she saw a lovely cross with flowers woven around its sculptured form. Surely that was the one for her. She lifted it, but beneath the flowers were piercing thorns which tore her flesh. That cross was not for her.
After much searching, at last, she came to a plain cross, without jewels, without carving, with only a few words of love inscribed upon it. This she took up, and it proved the best of all, the easiest to be borne. And as she looked at it, bathed in the radiance that fell from heaven, she recognized her own old cross. She had found it again, and it was the best of all and lightest for her.
God knows best what cross we need to bear. We do not know how heavy other people’s crosses are. We may envy someone who is rich; his is a golden cross set with jewels. But we do not know how heavy it is. Here is another whose life seems very lovely. She bears a cross twined with flowers. But we do not know what sharp thorns are hidden beneath the flowers. If we could try all the other crosses that we think lighter than ours, we should at last find that not one of them suited us so well as our own. [Note: J. R. Miller, Glimpses Through Life’s Windows, 31.]
Finally “follow me.”
Christ pictures Himself in this lesson, not as the Redeemer, but as the Leader and example. Discipleship demands perseverance. “Let him follow me.” There is no discharge in this service. It is a lifelong commitment. The disciple must follow the Master to the last limit of his self-denial and cross-bearing. But the Master lives to help us to be and to do what He shows in His own life as the highest of all goodness and nobleness.
As we continue to ponder His life and sufferings we will see Him standing out before our hearts “full of grace and truth,” and we will become gradually transformed into His likeness to prepare us for living with Him through eternity and for engaging in His sinless service.
So what is the cost of salvation for those that will believe? For Christ it is the cross, who must die for our sins. The cost for us; it is also a cross: to deny ourselves, die on it, and follow the Lord anywhere and everywhere. True confession is a commitment for a lifetime.
Hear the Good News my Friends………
Jesus Himself was committed to the cross. And He was committed to the divine necessity of the cross. He sees it as His Father’s divinely appointed purpose for Him. He approves of the divine necessity of it. He set Himself resolutely to the way of the cross. He, for the joy that was set before Him, would endure the cross—despising its shame (Heb. 12:2).
Jesus rejected the easy way; and chose instead the hard way of the death of the cross. And it was then that He turned to His followers and calls them to do the same. Jesus does not call us to do something that He didn’t do Himself first. May we live and learn from our Savior’s example, that we too will live in accordance with His purpose for us! He says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Dear ones Take Up Your Cross and prove your confession that He is your Christ, He is your Savior, He is your Messiah and that He is the Son of the Living God! Amen.