From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Matthew 16:21 (ESV)
The sixteenth chapter of Matthew contains a series of teachings that are often divided into distinct, standalone units. And while they have value to us when we do that, they have even more value when we consider them together.
In Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asked his disciples who they believed him to be. Peter responded for them by confessing that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. However, as revealed later, their understanding of what that meant was faulty.
It was once they confessed Jesus as the Christ that Jesus began to correct their misunderstanding of what that meant. “At that time,” Jesus began to teach them about his coming date with the cross. Rather than marching into Jerusalem at the head of an army to throw out the Romans, he was marching to his death.
Peter rebuked him for his foolish notion that the cross awaited him rather than a throne. And Jesus responded by rebuking Peter in turn. He was guilty of seeing things from a human perspective rather than God’s.
We Need to Take Up Our Cross
From there, Jesus began to teach his disciples that if they wanted to follow him, it would require that they deny themselves and take up their own cross (Matt. 16:24-28). This had to be shocking to them. The cross was a cruel instrument of torture and death. Who would willingly submit to that?
Jesus did. He went to the cross. And by that, he defeated the real enemy and claimed his throne. And he tells us that the way into his kingdom is the way of the cross. Dying to ourselves and our human perspective of how things should be. And following Jesus to Calvary.
The way of the cross has no more appeal to us than it did to Jesus’ original followers. And we are tempted to look for other, easier ways into the kingdom. But there is no other way. Jesus is the only way. And to follow him requires us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and join him on Calvary’s hill.
