You may have heard the phrase “take up your cross” as a Christian. Many messages have been preached about Matthew 16:24-26 where Jesus told His disciples “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. I even had some well-meaning Christians encouraging me to “take up your cross” (my cross being the burden of the situation) in a tough season. They were convinced that I needed to show God that I knew how to wait well for “my blessing”. If that is how you were taught to interpret the passage I hope that you will allow me the opportunity to clarify the author and the Author’s intentions.
The Apostle Matthew’s Perspective
Consider the intentions of Matthew, or Levi as he was formerly known (see Matthew 9:9 and Luke 5:27-28). As suggested by his use of Greek, Matthew writes his Gospel as a Palestinian Jew to Hellenistic Jews. The Book of Matthew cites Jewish custom without any explanation. His respect for Jewish culture and history is very distinct from the other three of the four Gospels. In the opening of Matthew’s Gospel, he begins with genealogy that only goes back to Abraham. By contrast, Luke’s Gospel contains a genealogy that goes back to the very beginning of human creation, to Adam. Luke’s intention was to highlight Christ as the Redeemer of all humanity. Matthew pinpoints Christ as the King and Messiah of Israel. Additionally, he quotes from Old Testament passages more than sixty times to emphasize Christ being the fulfillment of those prophesies. Matthew appeals to Jewish messianic expectations by referring to Jesus as “the Son of David” and speaks of “the kingdom of heaven”. All historical and theological concepts in Matthew’s Gospel are centered on this. This is unique from the other authors of the Gospels who speak of “the kingdom of God”. The clash between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees is another theme that runs frequently throughout the Book of Matthew. From Matthew’s perspective, the Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed over doctrine but were united in their hatred for Jesus. They represented everyone in Israel who rejected Christ as King and Messiah. As a matter of fact, half of Matthew chapter 16 talks about the demands (and Jesus’ correction of) the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were overly concerned with external things: ceremonies, status, signs, keeping up godly appearances. Matthew wrote about Jesus’s rebukes to their lack of concern over a person’s heart and having an eternal perspective. Another thing to look at in support of this is the section just before Matthew 16:24 where he talks about Jesus foretelling His death and resurrection to the disciples. Peter told Jesus that there was no way the horrors that were to befall Jesus would happen. Peter, understandably, loved Jesus and did not want Him to be tortured and killed. Nonetheless, Peter’s sentiments were in error. However, in Matthew 16:23, the verse directly before the one where Jesus tells His disciples to take up their cross, Jesus says:
“But he turned and said to Peter, ‘ Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16:23)
Why would Jesus make such a severe statement to His disciple? He was exercising righteous anger, not at Peter whom He loved, but at the temporal, sinful nature of his statement. God’s sovereign plan was to be crushed; by being tortured and killed, Jesus the Messiah fulfills Old Testament prophecies (see Isaiah 52:10). Christ’s main purpose was to be the perfect and final atonement of Sin (see John 12:27). It was ordained in eternity past (see 1 Peter 1:20, Hebrews 9:26, Revelation 13:8).
God’s Eternal Perspective
Now, let us consider the Author’s intentions for Matthew 16:24-26. Why did God inspire his disciple to include these words in His Living Word? There is much I could say about this, but that will require a whole other blog post to delve into. The focus here are these two things:
1) God always has eternity in mind; He intends to give hope for the life to come, not this life. You can refer to Ecclesiastes 3:9-11, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Psalm 90:12, Isaiah 43:13, John 12:25 among many other verses.
- We can certainly apply God’s wisdom revealed to us in Scripture to our lives now, but that ought to be secondary. In Matthew 16:25, Jesus said that preferring your life, comfort, and preferences will “lose it”, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
- God’s heart is always for His Son’s glory. God’s Word is for us to know Jesus more deeply (alongside prayer). To know Him more deeply is to be more satisfied in Him and conform more to His image, so that He is most glorified through us. Thus, if we want to honor God we must honor His Son and His eternal perspective. We must be faithful students of the Word, understanding the Scriptures the way God intends to be known. We must avoid injecting human allegory or philosophy into His Holy Spirit breathed Word, making it about ourselves.
The Condescended God
With all of this, we know that Jesus being God has eternity in mind. We know that Jesus’s purpose for being supernaturally born on earth as a man was to die on the cross for others. The Greek for “emptying” is kenosis. What Jesus did was He emptied Himself, that is, He put His bodily and mental comfort aside and willfully condescended (humbling with no need of convincing — see Philippians 2:6-7) Himself, refusing to come down from the cross. Jesus voluntarily relied on The Spirit to trust His Heavenly Father (see John 5:19-30 and John 6:38) and drink the full cup of wrath from The Father for all humanity (great, short articles on ‘Cup of Wrath’ here and here). Contrary to many false teaching, Jesus did not set aside His deity. Anyone that believes in such a teaching is believing that Jesus was not fully man ‘and’ fully God from earthly life to death. Rather, they are making Him into a fallible human being with limitations just like the rest of mankind, and his entire ministry and work on The Cross would have far less weight and authority. In Hebrews 13:8, among many other verses, tell us that Jesus is in fact the eternal God — He cannot cease being God by nature. Jesus emptied Himself by becoming submissive The Father’s purpose for Him. As one with the authority of God because He is God, Jesus also became the ultimate example of a good and faithful servant. A servant who gives of Himself to other. A servant who is gentle, lowly, and utterly dependent on His Father in Heaven.
“Jesus is the same yesterday [eternity past], today, and forever [infinitely eternal]” (Hebrew 13:8)
To read more about Jesus’s condescension, read these articles from Bible.org and Ligonier Ministries.
Taking Up Your Cross
If you are a child of God, you love Jesus and want to honor Him in a life of holiness, led by His example and solely empowered by The Holy Spirit. With all that we have learned from this article, we know that God’s intention of gifting us with The Book of Matthew is not ‘necessrily’ to encourage us to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and follow Christ by works — being more patient, having more faith, doing more for the kingdom, etc. in order to get something out of God that is His business alone to provide, withhold, or prolong. We also know that Jesus has an eternal perspective, and that His bearing of The Cross required our Lord to empty Himself and die. What we should know about taking up our cross and follow our Lord is more than bearing our burdens until our next blessing is presented. To take up our cross is to be servants of God and to be of service to others by emptying ourselves and dying — dying to our preferences, dying to our idolatry, dying to our comfort, and if necessary, to dying bodily (martyrdom) all for His ultimate glory.
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