What does it mean to deny yourself and pick up your cross? Part 1

This blog post was the morning devotional for my Bible study. Because it has taken to long to do the next part, so here is the first part. I want to first inform you that I am not a scholar by any means although I am in school learning to become a biblical scholar. This is using the tools that I have learned in Greek class and inductive Bible Study class to open the Scriptures more. Please discern my work for errors. Thanks.

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Lets start back on verse 13. Verse 13 starts the story where Peter proclaims to Christ that Jesus is the Son of Man. Now in verse 21, Matthew records that Jesus tells His disciples that He will suffer many things in Jerusalem at the hand of the religious elite. Jesus also says that He will be killed and raised up on the third day. This was the sign of Jonah that Jesus talked about in 16:6 to the Pharisees. Verse 22 tells us about the other side of Peter. Matthew records that Peter told Jesus to the side and rebuked Him about this foretelling of His death. Peter was denying what God had said. (This could be its own blog post on Where Theology Meets Life but I need to continue.) Peter then felt the heat when Jesus rebuked him, calling Peter Satan in verse 23. The main rebuke was about Peter not having the mind of God. (This is also another post and could relate to the saying of people who are too heavenly minded are no earthly good.)

So after this little exchange between Peter and the Lord, we come to verse 24. Jesus is now addressing all the disciples. Jesus starts with an "if, than" statement. The conditional part of the statement is, "If anyone would come after me." We will look at this first. "Anyone" in the Greek has a meaning of "certain ones." This noun gives not limits on who can follow Christ. The verb that used with it shows that it is limited. Now in the Greek, the word that is translated as "would" is actually present tense. The word used is θέλω (thelō) which means to will or intend. This includes the to desire or wish (which is how the NASB translates it.) This verb shows a current desire to come after Jesus. This verb is the main verb of the clause and show that the certain ones are the ones with a desire. This limits the people to those that will come after Jesus.

Next verb is come. It has a meaning to follow. In its location, it applies to Me. That Me is Jesus. The verb come is in the Aorist Active Infinitive. Aorist is past-tense, Active voice means that the subject is currently doing the verb, and infinitive mood is used to not limit by number and person. In this case, "to come" shows that everyone can come to Jesus who desires. This gives the sense that they are following him. "After" is an adverb and is talking about following as a guide. So both "to come" and "after" show a following after Jesus.