If anyone desires to come after me ...

Lk 9,23: "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'"

What does the expression 'to take up ones cross' mean? Yeshua carried His cross to the cruxifiction side, but I have the feeling that the associative field of this expression is much wider. Is this a Hebrew or Aramaic expression whose background can be researched? Is there a connection to the yoke as in the saying of Yeshua: come and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light? Can the yoke of the torah be called a cross? Isn't this the cross Yeshua carried to His own cruxifiction?

'Let him deny himself' as Yochanan says: He must increase, but I must decrease; I'm not the one that is to come, the Messiah, but He. But it seems to me that the denial of oneself goes further, maybe as Paul says: But now not I live, but He lives in me. A denial of everything, which elevates the self, me instead of Him. A denial of every thought, will, desire and act, which elevates itself against the perfect will of G-d in His holyness, majesty, authorship and loving fatherhood. A denial of the pursuit of worldly gain and success as opposed to the building of the kingdom of G-d.

'Follow me' - 'Satan, go behind me' Yeshua says to Kephas at one point. We can not go ahead of Him and try to tell Him how to do it better and prevent Him from doing what He has to do. We can intercede and ask for mercy, we can plead, we can ask questions, if we don't understand. But no one can go ahead of Him. Even Jochanan, who came to prepare the way said to the people: He who comes after me is far greater than I, for He was before me. When Yeshua came, Yochanan just pointed to Him saying: This is He.

'Follow me' also means not to stay behind or go into the opposite direction, but to follow Him, who Himself is the way, the way to the Father, the only one. For the first disciples of Yeshua it meant to come with Him to where He goes leaving everything else behind, listen to Him, learn from Him, share life with Him and do what He says.