Take up your cross

 

The cross did not originate with Christianity. It was in existence long before Christ was crucified. It is one of the oldest symbols known to humanity which the Romans chose to use as a form of execution.

In ancient times, the cross represented the four seasons, the four cardinal directions, the intersection of time and space, the balance of opposing forces and placed within a circle, it became a map of the year by dividing the course of the sun into quarters – this was known as the solstices and equinoxes.

In that far-gone era, this symbolized life, motion and renewal not death. Then, the cross was not a religious symbol as we think of it now, it was used in a framework that determined time as in when to plant and when to reap, when animals migrated and the weather patterns.

This was the reason for the cross ages before it became associated with myth and rituals and death and theology but for Christians, it is the symbol of the freedom bought for us by Jesus Christ who shed His blood on the cross.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

What a familiar verse this has become – take up your cross, people woefully say all the time, meaning that a person must carry their burden, their pain, their suffering, their handicap, anything that bears a negative connotation is applicable. However, is that what Jesus was telling His disciples and by extension us, to do? Was Jesus exhorting His followers to bear a heavy burden?

After all, Jesus also said that anyone who’s heavily burdened must come to Him and exchange his heavy burden for His light burden and as an added benefit, he’ll find rest for his soul; that’s no ordinary 8-hour sleep. Not my words, His, read it for yourself in Matthew 11:28-30.

A similar verse is found in Luke’s gospel, but with the addition of one word,

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” – Luke 9:23 (ESV)

Now, if you really think about it, Jesus who implores us to exchange our heavy loads for His light load, could never be telling us that we need to lug around our burdens daily. So then, what are these two verses saying?

We’ve grown accustomed to fragmenting God’s Word and it’s no different in this instance where we have extracted four words from an entire sentence and made them into a whole parable.

Jesus gave us three instructions,

Deny yourself

Take up your cross daily

Follow Him

To the church in Galatia, Apostle Paul wrote,

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

As Christians, we have all been crucified with Christ and that has resulted in us being re-born or born anew or born again. To be born again is to acquire a new nature, a new self in that everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. (Ephesians 4:22-24 MSG).

This is what Jesus said must be done even before you take up your cross; denying yourself isn’t a one-time thing, it is a process that does not happen overnight but every day you must crucifying your own natural inclinations, including religious legalism and pride and your lack lustre attitude to fully apprehend the amazing power of the cross (see 2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

To deny yourself is the symbolic dying to sin and self, the old man is buried, and your walk with God begins, the new man lives (ref. Romans 8:13) – it’s your reborn spirit in harmony with God as a living sacrifice (ref. Romans 12:1).

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. – Galatians 5:24 (NLT)

Denying yourself, Jesus’ first instruction, is the key to the second, as it works in tandem with taking up your cross because your old self is being put to death on the cross that you’re taking up every day.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. – 2 Corinthians 4:16 (ESV)

Yes, by denying yourself and taking up your cross daily, your inner self, your born from above self is being renewed day by day so, you cannot afford to skip any of the steps, they must be performed in the order they appear, even though they all work together at once. However, you don’t experience complete renewal until you truly understand that your old self has been crucified through the atoning work of Jesus.

For in baptism you see how your old, evil nature died with him and was buried with him; and then you came up out of death with him into a new life because you trusted the Word of the mighty God who raised Christ from the dead. – Colossians 2:12 (TLB)

Turn to God now while there is still time (ref. Joel 2:12).

Being born again you are no longer in the realm of earth but seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, though the fullness of this experience is not yet realized (see Ephesians 2:4-7).

Beloved, if you see this verse as carrying your troubles, and being weighed down by your sufferings, then you will be carrying them weighed down forever. The time has come for you to rid yourself of that erroneous belief, set it down, so that something higher in you can rise.

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT)

Now, take a moment to think of your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, standing tall with your arms open wide, outstretched in complete surrender to God. What do you see?

A body laid open wide in surrender is a cross; a walking crucifix. You are the cross that you have to take up daily.

Jesus said,

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (John 12:32 ESV)

Jesus was lifted up on the cross in complete surrender to the will of the Father and to take up your cross is a lifting up that draws you up to Him. To take up your cross is not burdensome, it’s freedom to live the life Jesus died for you to live (see John 10:10; Romans 6:6-7; 1 John 4:9).

To take up your cross is to lift what is higher – Jesus Christ – to honour Him with your body by drawing all things up with you.

Jesus in essence is saying, I have raised you above all things of the flesh, now walk in it daily; to take up your cross is to deny yourself and follow Jesus in the finished work of the cross which you can only walk in when you accept, in complete surrender, that it is finished (John 19:30).

Amen †

 

Shelley Johnson “Take up your cross” © 2026 July 3, 2026