Follow me, soldier

(Matt 16:24-25, also in Mark 8 and Luke 9 – not to mention Matt 10:38)

It is one of the best known sayings of Jesus – and yet it doesn’t make sense. “If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.”

What do I mean, “it doesn’t make sense”? The statement has been made, endlessly it seems to me, that when people saw a man carrying a cross, they knew he was going out to die. I dispute this – the only reference I have been able to find anywhere of a man carrying any part of his own cross is with regard to Jesus Himself. If men carrying crosses on their way to execution was such a common sight in Judaea, why is it never mentioned (until Jesus carries His?) Nowhere in the Gospels, and perhaps more significant, nowhere in Josephus’ Bellum Judaicum nor in Antiquitates Iudaicae (Josephus being our only real contemporary reference to life in Judaea). Josephus has references to crucifixions, none to cross-carrying.

We don’t notice the strangeness of this saying (as rendered in English) because we, living after the fact, know Jesus carried His own cross. But what did the disciples, living before the fact, hear?

Here’s verses 24 and 25 in Greek:

Τότε ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· Εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι. ὃς γὰρ ἐὰν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι ἀπολέσει αὐτήν· ὃς δ’ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν.

The key phrase is this: ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ – “let him pick up his stauros“. And σταυρὸν is simply a pole or pale. I would argue we miss the meaning here because we are too religious and so every σταυρὸν is the Cross of Christ, every γραφή (writing, or even just scratched lines) is Holy Scripture, and every διώκωσιν (being pursued or chased out of town) is Persecution. But ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ simply means “let him pick up his pole”.

Since that makes no sense to a 21st Century person (fishing pole? tent pole? barge pole?) you will be wondering where this is going. But if there is no contemporary model of people carrying crosses, every inhabitant of Judaea would have recognised the reference to a man picking up his pole and following.

In the wake of the so-called Marian Reforms of 107BC, which professionalised the army, and focussed on scalability at speed, Roman soldiers were “turned into donkeys” – at least in the sense of being required to now carry their own equipment, rather than relying on baggage trains.

Each Roman soldier therefore was equipped with a baggage pole called a furca. This pole – in Greek, stauros, remember – was about four feet long and shaped like a capital T – yes, just like the typical stauros of execution – and the soldier’s pack, or sarcina, hung from the pole. Any time you saw Roman soldiers on the march, you saw men with poles over their shoulders, on which were slung their pack, cooking gear and at least some of their weapons. And that is the picture Jesus conjured up when He said ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ – “let him pick up his stauros” – and follow.

So what?

It is kind of important. Jesus was indeed saying that whoever would follow Him needed to be fully committed; and He almost certainly knew that when He came to take up His pole, it would be the pole of execution. (It was still, figuratively, the pole that enabled Him to carry His load – in this case, the sins of the whole world.) But the picture of Christians as those heading for execution, like lambs to the slaughter, is a grave perversion of the Gospel. Jesus died in our place. His death was full and sufficient. There is nothing we can add to that. But if you would follow Him, then listen to what He says:

“If anyone wishes to come after me, let him turn his back on what is his, take up his gear and follow me. For whoever cares for his life will waste it, but whoever wastes his life for my sake, will find it.” (Matt 16:24-25, my translation, for sense; both σώζω and ἀπόλλυμι have a broader range of meaning than simply “save” and “destroy”)

It is not a call to self destruction, nor an encouragement to seek martyrdom. It is the consistent invitation Jesus issues to those He meets – leave what you know, follow me, and find life.

If you want to understand more, look at the context again. Jesus tells the disciples He will be arrested and killed in Jerusalem, and rise again on the third day. Simon Peter takes Him aside to rebuke Him, saying “God bless you Lord, but this will never happen to you.” Jesus turns on Him and says “get behind me Satan, you are my stumbling block. Your thoughts are not of God’s ways but men’s.”

In other words, “of course I don’t want to be arrested and killed, who would, but I am submitted to my Father’s plan and authority – and you are really not helping with your irrelevant sympathy based on your human point of view.” And then He enlarges on this theme to the disciples: “if anyone wishes to follow after me, here’s the deal: like any soldier, you deny what is yours, you pick up your gear and you follow. That is true for me, it is true for those who follow me.”

It is an adventure – possibly a very challenging and dangerous one at times – that He calls us to. It is a call to be as single-minded as soldiers. Not a call to death row.

After all, that’s where we were when He found us…