I realize this is kind of a basic question, but until yesterday, I always sort of glazed over this passage, equating cross to “burden.” But now I suspect there’s more meaning there. Does anyone want to drop some knowledge on me?
First of all, while modern-day English parlance typically uses the expression “to carry the cross” figuratively in the sense of “carrying one’s burden”, here Jesus is not figuratively talking about a mere burden or trial or difficulty - in a sense He’s not talking figuratively. He’s talking about real, actual death.
The cross in Jesus’ day was seen as an instrument of torture and execution, pure and simple. No one used “cross” back then to mean “burden” or “trial” as we do now. Death on the cross was shameful, excruciating, and often protracted. From the 3rd Century BC onwards there is evidence of the use of
crux as a vulgar taunt among the lower classes of society - i.e. slaves, prostitutes or others of shady reputation - the English equivalent of which might be “gallows-bird” or “hang-dog.” The cross was an utterly offensive and ‘obscene’ affair to the point that direct mention of it was at times avoided in polite company and euphemisms were often used to describe it.
“
If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24
The verb “to deny” (
arneomai) is also associated with Peter’s denial of Jesus; in context it means to disassociate oneself completely from someone, to sever one’s relationship with another. The reflexive use here (
arnēsasthō) may perhaps imply to refuse to be guided by one’s own interests, to surrender control of one’s own destiny. What Jesus calls for is thus a radical abandonment of one’s own ‘self’ (identity) and self-determination; it is not the denial of something to the self, but a denial of the self itself.
Thus, Jesus is, in effect, saying that if anyone wants to be His follower, he should not fear to surrender himself and to follow Him even if that meant being rejected by the world and dying in the process (which would most likely happen if one did “come after” Jesus) - the disciple should not be loath to take up his own crossbeam
to the place of execution like a condemned victim, with all the shame that the cross carries with it, just like Jesus.
This is made clear by the part “
whoever wants to save his life (
psychē, usually translated as “life” or “soul” but is more closer to “personhood,” “being,” “identity,” “personality,” or “self”)
will lose it”. The immediate subject of these is surely the loss of (earthly) life which the disciple is called to accept as the potential result of following Jesus. To cling to the things of earthly life by escaping persecution and death is the way to forfeit everlasting life - which may be the outcome of such a martyrdom. Only by denying our “selves” and surrendering to Jesus’ will can we save our lives in any lasting, eternal sense.
As for the tense of the verbs in the Greek:
“
If anyone wants to come (present tense, continuous action)
after me, he must deny (aorist tense, past action)
himself, and take up (aorist tense, past action)
his cross daily and follow (present tense, continuous action)
me.”
While the aorist tense carries the idea of a single, completed action in the past, in this sentence it is combined with the word “daily,” so the sense is that the disciple is to deny himself and pick up his cross at the beginning of each day, so that he might succeed in continuing to follow Jesus throughout the whole day.
