behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (v. 23). It is at this juncture that Jesus universalizes the principle that is at stake: “If anyone would come after me,” he says, “he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (vv. 24–25). This expression “to take up one’s cross” is not an idiom by which to refer to some trivial