Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 16:24

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." — Matthew 16:24 (ASV)

Then Jesus said to his disciples —Saint Mark adds that He “called the multitude with the disciples,” and Saint Luke’s phrase, “he said to all,” implies something similar.

This teaching about the unworldliness of His kingdom, which the disciples so desperately needed, was to be extended to everyone. Those who were following Him—as many were, out of idle wonder or a desire for earthly greatness—had to understand the conditions of discipleship.

If any man will come after me —The “will” here is more than a simple auxiliary verb; it means “wishes” or “desires” to come after Him.

Let him deny himself, and take up his cross —Our common understanding of “self-denial”—that is, the denial to ourselves of some pleasure or profit—falls far short of the Greek meaning. A person is to deny his whole self, all his natural motives and impulses, whenever they conflict with the claims of Christ. If he does not deny himself in this way, he is in danger of denying his Lord, just as Peter was (it is significant that the same Greek word is used in both instances).

Accordingly, the self-denial commanded here finds its ultimate example in the act by which the Son of God, in becoming man, “emptied Himself” of all that constituted, so to speak, the “self” of His divine nature (see the note on Philippians 2:7).

The words “take up his cross,” which the disciples had heard before (see the note on Matthew 10:38), were now invested with a new and clearer meaning. This new meaning came from Jesus’s words that spoke so plainly of the death for which the cross would be the instrument.