How do I pick up my cross and follow Jesus?

I love to read my Bible and I especially enjoy reading the Gospels in the New Testament. However, Jesus said a lot of controversial and hard-to-understand things.

Some days, I stop reading to look deeper into what is written. This can take me down a new path of discovery. For example, in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus tells His followers to “take up their cross”.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24–26, NIV)

What does this mean?

As always, we must look at a Scripture verse in context. The disciples believed Jesus to be their Messiah. And as their King, they expected Him to save them from their oppressors. They wanted Him to become the “King of the Jews” they had imagined.

Once He was king, the disciples would be honored nobles with Him. This desire was prompted by pride and a longing for personal recognition. Jesus knew this and He wanted to correct their thinking.

Jesus needed them to understand that He did not intend to take over the Roman empire by force and become a king on earth. He wanted them to see that He came to save them — but not in the way they expected.

Jesus knew that He would die. He would be killed in the most humiliating, shameful way of torture in those days. He began to share that He must suffer and be killed before being raised. He told His disciples that not only must He lose His life, but anyone who wanted to follow Him must follow His example and die as well.

To take up their cross, Jesus was asking His followers whether they were willing to follow Him to their death. To die to self. To sacrifice their own personal ambitions, dreams, and expectations.

Jesus asked His disciples whether they would take up their cross of self-denial and self-surrender.

Instead of becoming nobles and honoured in His Kingly courts, Jesus was asking them to drop all personal desires and deny themselves. To take up their cross, Jesus was asking them to deny what they wanted for themselves and live to do God’s will.

Jesus is asking all His followers —whether in the 1st or the 21st century — to “take up their cross.

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