And having called the crowd with his disciples, he said to them, Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.
Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Christ. Then he pulled back when Jesus foretold His own suffering and death. So Jesus calls the crowd over, along with the disciples, and sets out three terms for anyone who wants to follow Him.
Mark notes that Jesus called the crowd over, not only His disciples. Commentators see that detail as deliberate: He gives the terms before anyone signs up.
Anyone thinking of becoming a disciple, and every disciple too, ought to know that the cross is the disciple's lot now. Mark adds here that He was "calling the crowd to Him with His disciples." This shows that He wants those who think of becoming disciples to know they are coming to present suffering. Unless a man really sees what Christ has to give, and what He delivers him from, he had better stop a moment before he says, "I will be your disciple." Stop and count the cost.
The crowd needed to hear this because Christ Himself was heading for rejection and death.
If Christ, the Christ of God, would meet rejection and death, then the path of true disciples could not be smooth. They must prepare for suffering — and it might be, and how often has it been, for death!
People often soften this phrase into giving something up. Writers here insist the target is the person, not his possessions.
"Self-denial" barely captures the force of "deny himself." Self-denial means denying yourself something. That is not what the Lord speaks of. He speaks of denying self — of saying "no" to yourself.
Giving things up for a season can even work in the opposite direction.
People speak of self-denial, and hold self-denial weeks. By this they mean giving up certain things for a set time to help some good cause. But this is the very opposite of denying self. In fact it feeds self-satisfaction and lifts self up. Denying self is not just giving up certain things. It is denying the man who craves them. Denying self means ignoring self altogether, so as to serve others in love.
In that world, a man carrying a cross was not having a hard week. He was walking to his death.
"Take up his cross" does not just mean bearing trials and troubles. In those days, a man who took up his cross was on his way to execution. He had to accept death at the hands of the world. Saying "no" to yourself means accepting death inside, in your own spirit. Taking up your cross means accepting death outside, at the hands of the world.
That rules out the loose way people call every setback a cross.
People often use the word "cross" loosely, for every kind of trial and suffering. Unbelievers use it too, and others use it of them. Yet in the language of Scripture it is clear that no unbeliever bears a cross… Every believer bears a cross, but he has only one… It is the reproach of Christ. Nothing counts as a cross except the suffering or reproach that flows from the unrighteous judgment of man on what is like Christ in us.
His cross and ours are not the same. One writer draws the line, then says what we can always do:
Of course this is not about His atoning sufferings, what He suffered from God's hand for sin. It is about His sufferings from man: the hostility of sinners, the opposition of men, abuse and even death. We know very little of what it means to suffer for the name of Jesus. But remember, Christians, what the Lord says first: "Let him deny himself." You can always do this by grace.
The last term sets the direction of the other two. It points to Christ Himself, not to any group around Him.
If I am to walk in the true path of Jesus, I must deny myself, take up the cross and follow — not the disciples, not this church or that church, but Jesus Himself. I must turn from what my heart likes by nature… and remember, it is a dangerous thing to believe in Jesus without following Him.
Something in us fights this call:
Nature shrinks from sharing His rejection and shame, and even resents it. Its motto, suggested by Satan, is "Spare yourself." God's motto is "Deny yourself." One writer put it well: Peter "at the last denied the Lord because he had not denied himself."
- Called — He gathers the crowd, not just His disciples. Anyone thinking of following Him hears the cost before entering, not after.
- Deny — say "no" to self, not just to some things self wants. Giving things up for a season can feed the very self it claims to deny.
- Carry — a cross meant execution, not inconvenience. The one cross a believer bears is the reproach that comes when people see something of Christ in him.
- Distinguish — we cannot share what He suffered from God's hand for sin. We share only what He suffered from men, and by grace you can always deny yourself.
- Follow — follow Christ Himself, not a company or a system. Peter denied the Lord at the last because he had not denied himself.
For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it.
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