The expression "to take up one's cross" does not mean to put up with some inconvenience, like rheumatism or an irritating spouse, etc.... In the ancient world, those condemned to be crucified were usually forced to carry the crossbar of the cross on their shoulders out to the place of execution where the vertical pole was already fastened in the ground.
Thus the person who "carried his cross" was beyond all hope. All personal prospects had vanished; there was only death to look forward to, a death of maximum shame and pain.
So for Jesus to say that we have to take up our cross (elsewhere He says we have to take it "daily"!) is to say that we must renounce the very heart of our sin-self-interest, personal preference, self-promotion, self-congratulation, self-preservation, life lived around self. We die. Principally, repeatedly, we die and follow Jesus.
Only then do we begin to live the way we were designed to live. And this is what is meant by confessing Jesus as Lord. This is the profound change of mind, of perspective, of values that is often summed up under the term: R- E- P- E- N- T- A- N- C- E.
-D. A. CARSON AND JOHN D. WOODBRIDGE, Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life, Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, pp.34-35, 1993.
