Jesus drops a bombshell. 

From this moment he begins to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and on the third day be raised. Peter, fresh from his Spirit-given confession, takes him aside and rebukes him: “Far be it from you, Lord!” It is not just Peter speaking. Satan himself is using Peter’s mouth to try and talk the Messiah out of the cross. Jesus turns and answers with the binding key: “Get behind me, Satan.”

We so easily make the same mistake. We hear “take up your cross” and start manufacturing our own. We turn self-denial into a spiritual diet plan, a private struggle against desires, a monkish effort to prove we are serious. That is a fake cross. Jesus is not calling us to limit food, sleep or comfort so that we can feel worthy. He is linking himself to Isaiah 53. The suffering he announces is the taking on of the world’s iniquity. The law will find him clothed in our sin and kill him. That is the real cross.

To deny yourself, then, is not to manage your appetites. It is to disown the old self that still expects an inheritance by the law, status, reward, a place of honour in some restored kingdom. To take up the cross is to be put to death with him. This happens in baptism. Your old Adam is not improved or given a second chance; he is drowned. The only thing you feel is the dying. The new life is already given, though you do not yet see or feel it.

Yet the story does not end in death. The risen Lord comes to his frightened disciples with the first word of the new kingdom: “Peace be with you.” He comes with his preachers, with the promise of forgiveness spoken over you. You are not left trying to save your life. In Christ it has already been lost and found. The Son of Man has come. Your conscience is free.