Matthew 16:21-24 “Take Up Your Cross”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 11 Nov. 2012

Translation

16:21 From there, Jesus began to show His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go away into Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders and high priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be resurrected during the third day.

16:22 And after taking Him aside, Peter began to reprimand Him, saying, “Mercy on you, Lord; this should never happen to you!”

16:23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Go on behind me, Satan! You’re being [the occasion of] a trap for me, because you’re not thinking about the things of God but rather about the things of men.”

16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If someone wants to come [along] behind me, he must renounce allegiance to himself and take up his cross and keep following me.

16:25 For whoever wants to save his soul will abandon it, but whoever abandons his soul for my sake will find it.

16:26 For what is a man profited if he happened to gain the whole universe, but is penalized his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

16:27 For the Son of Man is about to come in His Father’s glory with His angels and then pay back to each man according to his deeds.

16:28 I’m telling y’all the truth, [that] there are some of you standing here who will never taste death until whenever they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Exposition

Απο τοτε ηρξατο ‘ο Ιησους^{^[1]} δεικνυειν τοις μαθηταις αυτου ‘οτι δει αυτον απελθειν εις Ιεροσολυμα και πολλα παθειν απο των πρεσβυτερων και αρχιερεων και γραμματεων^{^[2]} και αποκτανθηναι και τη τριτη ‘ημερα εγερθηναι

“We see the Anointed One, as our chief Prophet, in plain unfigurative language foretelling his own demise; as our merciful Highpriest, preparing to lay down his life, that he might ‘take away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29); and through it all, as our eternal King, being in complete control of every situation…” ~William Hendriksen
“He was stating the matter plainly,” says the parallel account in the Gospel of Mark 8:32. Jesus spills the beans and gives the whole game plan to his disciples!
Jesus knew ahead of time that He would be rejected (Lk. 9:22; Mk. 8:31) by the Sanhedrin^{^[3]} in Jerusalem, that He was going to be executed, and that He would rise from the dead within three days. In fact, this whole thing was a prearranged plan put together by Him in the counsel of God before the foundation of the earth (Rev. 13:8).

Ephesians 1:4 teaches us that before the world was created, God wanted us to be united to Him and realized that He had to do something to make us holy enough to be united to Him, “…He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him…”
And for this reason, Jesus decided to take upon Himself our unholiness and die on the cross for our unholiness, in order to make us holy and unite us to God, when we otherwise would have to die in our unholiness apart from God forever.
That is why Jesus’ death on the cross is the focal point of Christianity; that is why we must believe on the name of the Lord Jesus in order to be saved!

The word “show” is unusual for Matthew to employ in a teaching context. I suspect that this indicates that not only was Jesus explaining a truth, He was also unrolling scrolls of the Old Testament and showing passages to the disciples that prophecied of the suffering and death and resurrection of the Christ. Passages like:

Psalm 16:10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. (NASB)A prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection is followed 6 Psalms later by a detailed prophecy of Jesus’ crucifixion:
Psalm 22:6-18 …I am a worm and not a man, A reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, "Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him." ... I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots. (NASB)
And here’s another detailed prophecy about Jesus’ crucifixion: Isaiah 53:3-5 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. (NASB)
And then, of course there is the “sign of Jonah” which Jesus already alluded to up in v.4 – a death and resurrection in three days like Jonah’s ordeal in the fish.

It also says Jesus “began” to show, indicating that Jesus had not demonstrated these coming events to His disciples before, and it also indicates that Jesus did not finish demonstrating these things during their retreat in Caesarea Philippi.

We see from Luke 24 one of the concluding times when Jesus met His disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem after His resurrection: “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’” (Luke 24:44-47, NASB)

God’s plan of salvation and blessing to us came through the death of Jesus the Christ. That should be a very uncomfortable thought: that you deserve eternal punishment, and the only way to have a happy life is for the most important person in the world to be brutally killed. It makes Peter so uncomfortable that he revolts against the plan:

16:22 And after taking Him aside, Peter began to reprimand Him, saying, “Mercy on you, Lord; this should never happen to you!”

και προσλαβομενος^{^[4]} αυτον ‘ο Πετρος ηρξατο επιτιμαν αυτω λεγων ‘Ιλεως σοι κυριε, ου μη εσται σοι τουτο

Hilews soi = “far be it from you^KJV,ESV/ God forbid^NAS/ Never^NIV

The root meaning is “grace/mercy” – like we would say “God have mercy” or “or Mercy me” or “Goodness gracious” or of someone else, “Bless his heart.”
The only other place this word occurs in the N.T. is in Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (KJV)

Peter gets Jesus off in a private moment and says, “Teacher, I don’t want to embarrass you by bringing this up in front of all your students, but you’re way out of line here. God have mercy on you for teaching such an error! God doesn’t die. Shame on you for saying so! The Messiah is not supposed to get beat by the authorities; he’s supposed to overthrow them and reign as king over them. Do you see the problem, Jesus? I just don’t want you to make a fool out of yourself or anything. I want all the best for you.”
“Thoughtless enthusiasm moves men… so that they do not hesitate to subject God Himself to their will!” ~John Calvin
Instead, “When God's dispensations are either intricate or cross to us, it becomes us silently to acquiesce... It is the corrupt part of us that is thus solicitous to sleep in a whole skin. We are apt to look upon sufferings as they relate to this present life, to which they are uneasy; but there are other rules to measure them by, which, if duly observed, will enable us cheerfully to bear them” (Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. NASB) ~Matthew Henry

‘Ο δε ^{^[5]}στραφεις ειπεν τω Πετρω ‘Υπαγε ‘οπισω μου Σατανα σκανδαλον [ε^{^[6]}]μου ει ‘οτι ου φρονεις τα του θεου αλλα τα των ανθρωπων

“Those who have their spiritual senses exercised, will be aware of the voice of Satan, even in a friend, a disciple, a minister, that dissuades them from their duty... Whoever takes us off from that which is good, and would have us afraid of doing too much for God, speaks Satan's language.” ~Matthew Henry
Peter was not ready to accept that the way to conquer death is to die, and so he tried to “rebuke” Jesus, and for that, Jesus “rebukes^{^[7]}” Peter.
In his heavenly past, Jesus had rebuked Satan before for accusing Joshua, the high priest after the Exile, of sin before God (Zechariah 3^{^[8]}), but here Jesus rebukes Satan for trying to talk Him out of the very course of action by which He would save Joshua – and all the rest of us – from the guilt of our sin before God! This is why Jesus reacts so strongly. If He doesn’t die, the whole human race is doomed.
Satan knew that, and that’s why he planted this scandalous idea in Peter’s head –

Satan can do that, you know; he can float ideas your way. That’s why we have to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ^{^[9]}” evaluating every idea that comes through our heads by the standard of God’s word.
Here Jesus nails the source of Peter’s thinking as Satanic and alerts Peter to this fact, explaining that by speaking out an idea which came to him from Satan, Peter is creating an occasion of temptation – an offense^KJV/ a stumbling block^NAS,NIV/ a hindrance^ESV for Jesus.
The Greek word here “skandalon” originally meant the trip-lever on a trap for hunting animals, and eventually came to refer to the whole trap, so I used the literal meaning of this Greek word in my translation – Peter’s suggestion that Jesus not go to the cross was a Satanically-inspired “trap” laid for Jesus.
It was a trap because it’s no fun to die, and the stress of being falsely accused in court and hunted down like a criminal is naturally something that Jesus is not looking forward to. It would be a sacrifice for Him to go through with His plan to save the world. It would be tempting for Jesus to abandon this course of suffering and death.
Satan has already tried to tempt Jesus out of this course of action back in the wilderness in chapter 4, by offering an alternative: “Bow down to me, and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world [without you having to endure the cross]!”
That was the first time Jesus told Satan to “get lost,” and here He says it again. To “get behind” in this sense would be to “get out of sight^{^[10]}.”

Alternately, if we think of the skandalon as a stumbling-stone, we have an ironic situation where Peter, whom Jesus had just called a rock in His building (v.18), is now acting like a stray stone, no longer part of the building but out of place and something which would instead trip people up.
Jesus further alerts Peter as to how to correct this scandal: savor^KJV/ be mindful of^NKJ/ set our mind on^NAS/ESV/ have in mind^NIV the things of God.

How do we do that? The references to human will in the next 2 verses provide an answer:

v.24 the mind set on the things of God has a will^KJV/wish^NAS/desire^NKJ to follow Jesus. This is an act of the will, “he would^NIV,ESV come after me”
Then in v.25 this word for “will” shows up again in reference to the purpose of a person’s life. Whoever is oriented around their personal quality of life is not minding the things of God; it is those who care about Jesus’ interests – to the abandonment of their own self-interests – who are mindful of God.

Other scriptures about Christian thinking further unpack the meaning of being mindful of the things of God – especially the writings of the Apostle Paul:

Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:14-21 “…I pursue the goal to the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. As many, therefore, who are mature, let us have this manner of thinking, and if anyone has a different way of thinking, this also God will reveal to you… For many walk… [as] enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end, destruction, their god [is] their belly, their glory [is] in their shame – those who think earthly things. For our citizenship exists in Heaven, and out of which we expect the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our vile body conformed to his glorious body...” (SDCS)
Paul also addresses this antithesis in thinking in his letter to the Colossians in the 3^rd chapter: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God…” He lists earthly thinking as including “immorality… greed… idolatry… anger… malice… slander… l[ying]… it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.” But thinking on the things of God means we “… laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self” which includes getting to know our Creator and practicing “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… forgiving each other… love… Let[ting] the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you… [sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs… to God...” Having our minds on the things of God includes our home and work life: “Wives, be subject to your husbands… Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things… Fathers, do not exasperate your children… work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance…” (Colossians 3:1-24, NASB) Colossians 3 really unpacks what it means to have our minds on the things of God!

16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If someone wants to come [along] behind me, he must renounce allegiance to himself and take up his cross and keep following me.

Τοτε ‘ο Ιησους ειπεν τοις μαθηταις αυτου Ει τις θελει ‘οπισω μου ελθειν απαρνησασθω εαυτον και αρατω τον σταυρον αυτου και ακολουθειτω μοι

Mark 8:34 informs us that Jesus said this not only to His 12 disciples but also to a crowd of people present with His disciples.
Jesus is so gracious here not to reject Peter for getting out of line. Jesus says, in effect, “I’m the leader here; I know what I’m doing. Even though you have just been a tool of Satan, I welcome you to get back in line behind me.” Then in v.24 Jesus uses the same word, and says, “Now, if you really want to follow along behind me, here’s what you’ve got to do – three things:

1. Deny yourself

§ There have been times in history where Christians interpreted “denying self” as depriving or even injuring ones body, but that is not how this Greek word aparnesasthw is used in the Bible.

§ It has to do with renouncing allegiance. It is found in three other contexts in the Bible:

· (Isa. 31:7) For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made ... (NASB) Forsaking allegiance to idols and declaring allegiance to God.

· (Mat. 26:34) Jesus said to him [Peter], “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

· (Luke 12:9) “but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”

§ It’s like the throne diagram in the 4 Spiritual Laws evangelism booklet. Are you on the throne of your life, and is your life oriented around allegiance to yourself and your interests? or is Jesus on the throne of your life, with your life oriented around Him and His interests? The latter is what it means to deny self: to renounce the right to run your own life.

§ This, by the way, is a command. If Jesus was commanding just His disciples to do this, He would have used the 2^nd person imperative: “Hey you, deny yourself,” but in the Greek language, unlike English, you can give a command to someone who is not there by issuing the command in the 3^rd person, which us usually translated, “Let him do such-and-such.” This is Jesus’ way of issuing a command directly to us who were not standing there. We must deny ourselves.

§ This command is also in the Greek Aorist tense, which indicates an act with finality. In this case, is the beginning of a new way of living. I am no longer my own authority; I am now – and forever more – under the authority of Jesus, and I need to run every decision by Him through prayer and dependence on His guidance, and whatever He says is the final word for me.

§ “This denial is far reaching… renouncing our own intelligence and bidding farewell to all the affections of the flesh, we are prepared to be reduced to nothing so that God may live and reign in us.” ~John Calvin

§ However, rivals to the throne have a way of trying to sneak back into power after they are kicked out, so something even more final needs to happen. That selfish nature needs to die, and that leads us to Jesus’ second point:

2. Take up your cross

§ This is another Aorist 3^rd person Imperative – a command from Jesus directly to you to act with finality.

§ I have an acquaintance named Mitch Metzger who is a missionary in the Philippines, and he has an interesting evangelism method. He walks around the roads of various parts of the country, carrying a big wooden cross. It draws curiosity-seekers, and then he preaches the gospel to them. Now, this is a fine idea, but there is a figurative meaning to this command which goes way beyond carrying around wooden cross-beams:

§ It was generally known that the Roman custom of executing criminals was to have them carry their own cross to the site of their death. This was a startling word picture used by Jesus to talk about helping yourself die. Help carry the very instrument of your death.

§ The parallel passages in Mark 8:34 and Luke 9:23 add the word “daily.”

· “Christ means that there will be no end to our military service until we leave this world. Therefore let it be the constant practice of the godly to get ready for new endurance even after they have passed through many troubles.” ~John Calvin

§ Not only are we to renounce allegiance to our self, we are to assist in the death of our self!

§ Now, this is not talking about suicide; this is talking about putting an attitude, a way of administrating your life, a way of thinking, a fleshly nature to death.

§ The rest of the New Testament talks a lot about this:

· Colossians 3:2-5 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God... Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” (NASB)

· Romans 8:3-14 “…those who are [walking] according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace... If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God… 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (NASB)

· Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me… 5:16-25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh... Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (NASB)

· James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. (NASB)

§ 1) Renounce allegiance to yourself, 2) Support the death of your selfish nature, and…

3. Be following Jesus

§ Here’s one more 3^rd person imperative – Jesus’ command directly to us. This one is a little different, though, because it is in the Greek Present tense, which indicates continuing action – “They must keep on following…”

· Often when we begin following Jesus we don’t understand what it all means. When my 3-year-old sings “Jesus Loves Me,” she doesn’t understand all that it means, but she is following Jesus as far as she knows, and that is fine. At some point she must confront that soul-searching moment when she realizes this means dying to herself and her desires. By God’s grace, we anticipate that she will take up her cross at that point, but it will be a continuation of her following Jesus.

§ This concept of “following” did not merely mean to walk behind someone else for a little while, it was more like what we would call apprenticeship. It is the attitude of a student eager to learn from a master teacher and following him around to learn from him. It had formal and covenantal aspects – the teacher took the responsibility of providing for his student and the student couldn’t leave his teacher without penalties. It was the opposite of renouncing allegiance – it was forming a formal and enduring allegiance to someone.

· In the Old Testament, Ruth “followed” her mother-in-law, and that meant leaving her home country and adopting a foreign culture and religion.

· In 1 Samuel, when Abigail “followed” David, it meant she had become his wife.

· In Matthew 4, when James and John “followed” Jesus, it meant leaving their family and their fishing boat.

· In Matthew 9, when Matthew “followed” Jesus, it also meant a totally new job.

· In Matthew 19, Jesus called upon the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions to “follow” Him, prompting Peter to say, “Hey, we’ve left everything and followed You…"

· It wasn’t only men who dedicated themselves and left all to follow Jesus, there were women too (Matthew 27:55)

· The formal relationship of being a “follower” was covenantal, like a lamb to a shepherd (John 10:27, Rev. 14:4), like a soldier to his captain (Revelation 19:14), and like a servant to a master (John 12:26)

· John 12:26 Jesus said, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” (NASB)

§ “One ‘follows’ Christ by trusting in him, walking in his footsteps (I Peter 2:21), obeying his commandments out of gratitude for salvation through him, and being willing even to suffer in his cause.” ~William Hendriksen

Conclusion

Let us renounce allegiance to self and instead be mindful of the things of God
Let us take up our cross, deny ourselves, abandoning our quality of life interests, as though dead to sin so that we can experience the life of the Holy Spirit
And Let us keep following Jesus in faith and obedience, imitating Him.

^{^[1]} A couple of the oldest known Greek manuscripts (א, B) read “Jesus Christ,” but surprisingly it is not in the Critical Editions.

^{^[2]} The 9^th Century Theta Uncial and families 1 and 13 of miniscules add “of the people” here, but it is not in any edition of the Greek New Testament (GNT) that I know of.

^{^[3]} “…here we have the full listing of all the units that constituted this highest Jewish tribunal.” ~Wm. Hendriksen

^{^[4]} Literally “draw toward.” In some contexts this means “draw in/accept” (Rom. 15:7, Philemon 1:17), but here (as in Acts 18:26), it means to draw away to oneself. Aorist tense participle indicates action taken before Peter speaks.

^{^[5]} Several Greek manuscripts (incl. D, K, L, Θ, f¹³) add the preposition “eis-” to the beginning of this verb, but it is not in any GNT edition I know of, and it doesn’t change the meaning anyway.

^{^[6]} The epsilon, which makes the “me” more emphatic but really doesn’t change the meaning, is in the modern Critical editions, following א, B, C, Θ, f¹³, and 700, but is not in the Majority or traditional Byzantine or Textus Receptus editions.

^{^[7]} Mark 8:33 But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and *said, "Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." (NASB)

^{^[8]} Zechariah 3:1-3 (Brenton) And the Lord showed me Jesus [Joshua] the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and the Devil stood on his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said to the Devil, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Devil, even the Lord that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: behold! is not this as a brand plucked from the fire?”

^{^[9]} 2 Corinthians 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (NASB)