³⁸ If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.

²⁷ And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

³⁴ Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

²³ Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. ²⁴ If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

¹⁷ Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha).

²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

The Crucifixion

³² Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene,^[a] and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.