Take Up Your Cross

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.^{(A) 25} For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.^{(B) 26} For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?^{(C) 27} For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father,^(D) and then he will reward each according to what he has done.

Following Jesus

⁵⁷ As they were traveling on the road someone said to him,^(A) “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸ Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” ⁵⁹ Then he said to another, “Follow me.”

“Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.”

⁶⁰ But he told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”^(B)

⁶¹ Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”^(C)

⁶² But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The Cost of Following Jesus

²⁵ Now^(A) great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me^(B) and does not hate^(C) his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross^(D) and come after me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost^(E) to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

³¹ “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce^[a] all his possessions^(F) cannot be my disciple.

³⁴ “Now,^(G) salt^(H) is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? ³⁵ It isn’t fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”^(I)