Matthew 16:21-25 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
In general, people don’t like to talk about or experience pain, heartache, trials, hard times, persecution and death. This was true during the time Jesus was on earth and is true now. We consider those things “bad” and we do all we possibly can to avoid them for ourselves and for those we love. This is even an area that many pastors avoid talking about because they’re afraid that they will scare people away. Yet Jesus never promised us an easy life once we became His, rather, He told us the opposite would be true. Most people today brush that aside and hide from it. Instead, I’d like to examine it and see just what Jesus was talking about.
Even before His death on the cross, our Lord used the idea of carrying a cross to get across to us the seriousness of becoming His follower. Let’s see just what this word meant to Him and what it says to us.
cross, an ancient instrument of execution. Originally the ‘cross’ was an upright stake to which the corpse of an executed criminal was bound for public display or on which the living body of a condemned person was affixed to await death
The cross, in the NT, is a symbol of shame and humiliation, as well as of God’s wisdom and glory revealed through it. Rome used it not only as an instrument of torture and execution but also as a shameful pillory reserved for the worst and lowest. To the Jews it was a sign of being accursed (Dt. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). This was the death Jesus died, and for which the crowd clamoured. He ‘endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb. 12:2). The lowest rung in the ladder of our Lord’s humiliation was that he endured ‘even death on a cross’ (Phil. 2:8). For this reason it was a ‘stumbling block’ to the Jews (1 Cor. 1:23; cf. Gal. 5:11). The shameful spectacle of a victim carrying a patibulum was so familiar to his hearers that Jesus three times spoke of the road of discipleship as that of cross-bearing (Mt. 10:38; Mk. 8:34; Lk. 14:27).[1]
1 cross \ˈkrȯs\ n
an affliction that tries one’s virtue, steadfastness, or patience
None of these things sounds very pleasant you’ll have to admit. So what was the Lord saying when He indicated that we too must carry our cross to be His followers? Notice as well that there was no “maybe” or “sometimes” in what He said. If you read the above verses again, you’ll see that Jesus specifically said that we “must” deny ourselves and pick up our crosses “daily”. I don’t think that many people in advertising would suggest using something like this to gain followers either. I found though that God’s Word frequently teaches us the very opposite of what the world teaches.
The Lord obviously felt this was very important. He is someone we can really trust. He never has and never will lie to us. We know that from His Word. We can see from the above verses that He has told us from the very beginning that being a real Christian is not going to be easy. So, let’s look at that first passage and see what’s happening. Let me post it again so we don’t have to keep scrolling up to read it:
Matthew 16:21-25 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Jesus has just told the disciples about the terrible things that are going to happen to Him. Peter did what I think most of us would have done. Peter loved Him and he didn’t want Jesus to have to go through such a horrible thing. This happens in our lives regularly too. The world has taught us that some things are “bad” and some things are “good”. When “bad” things happen, we tend to think that God sees them as “bad” too, so like Peter, we do our best to avoid them for our loved ones and ourselves.
However, Jesus did the last thing they expected! He rebuked Peter for what he had said! He then explained to him that he wasn’t thinking straight—he was thinking the way the world had taught him and not the way of God. I can just imagine Peter’s shock, can’t you? How could a loving God want His Son to go through such a horrible thing??? Peter was sure he could find a better way to do things. Isn’t that a lot like all of us? I know I often catch myself telling the Lord how I want things done and how I want things to turn out.
Which of us would willingly allow our children to get sick or hurt? Yet we know that catching a cold and getting over it is one way that our immune systems use to become stronger. Our immune system learns how to fight back by practice on smaller things so that when we catch something worse, it has a chance of fighting it off. So perhaps the reason the Lord allows some sicknesses is to prevent the person from succumbing to something far worse in the future. I realize that this is a poor analogy, but it does show one small way that things we consider “bad” aren’t always really bad.
What we have to remember though is that we are not God. We really don’t know what is best for us, or for others, just as Peter didn’t know what was best. If Jesus had not gone through with the Father’s plan, none of us would be spending eternity in heaven. For the most part we simply must trust God to do what’s best, and trust that He isn’t making a mistake in spite of what things look like. God has told us:
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Since we know that we cannot really understand, at times like this we have to rely on what we do know as Truth. We know the Lord loves us, we know He will always work all things together for good for us; (even when it doesn’t look like it) we know that His plans for us are good ones, plans which include health, happiness and a good future. We know all these things and much more from His Word, and we know that He cannot and does not lie, so we know that we can trust Him. Therefore, in hard times, when things are unpleasant, we need to remember these things about our God, knowing that He is in control, and live by faith rather then by sight.
Rather then avoiding the cross then, we need to “pick it up” which is another way of saying “accept it”. We accept our cross and walk in faith knowing that the Lord is walking with us. The world may cry out at us that what we’re going through isn’t necessary, or that it’s downright wrong that we should have to go through this, but we know better. We know the Lord wouldn’t ask it of us if it wasn’t necessary for our good and even the good of others.
Will you pick up your cross today? Will you have in mind the ways and thoughts of the world, or will you fill your mind instead with the Word of God and His love for you? Will we, like Jesus, have a heart full of joy, even as we endure our various crosses? We can you know. All we have to do is fix our eyes on Him rather then on the cross we’re carrying.
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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