Jesus Takes Up His Cross
John 19.17:
[Jesus] went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull” – which in Aramaic is called “Golgotha.”
Genesis 22.5-8:
Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey – the boy and I will go over there, worship, and come again to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife – so they went both of them, together.
Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” – so they went, both of them, together.
When Jesus took up His cross, He was carrying more than wood. Unknown to the many spectators that day, Jesus was carrying the sins of mankind, facing the punishment those sins deserved, which He was about to suffer on man’s behalf. And we see from this passage in Genesis, a story that foreshadows part of the events of Good Friday, that God’s plan has always been to take on His own shoulders the burdens of our sin.
Jesus exhorts us in Matthew 16.24, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” He also reveals that this is not an option earlier in Matthew 10.38: “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
Taking up our cross, an instrument of death, means dying to self in order to live as completely new creations in service and obedience to Christ. This means surrendering to God our wills, our affections, our ambitions, and our desires. We are not to seek our own happiness as the supreme object, but be willing to renounce all and lay down our lives also, if required by love for God and for others.