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-- TAKE UP YOUR CROSS
Luke 9:23-26 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. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.
Jesus now reminds his disciples of the total commitment that is required of them, and of their daily duty of following him and applying his teachings.
The metaphor of a disciple taking up his cross was apparently based on the Roman custom of making a condemned person being forced to shoulder his own cross and carry it to his place of execution -- suggesting that the Christian calling is not an easy one.
Perhaps this is why Peter says: "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed" (1 Peter 4:12-13).
Perhaps Paul is also interpreting Jesus' injunction to deny the self when he says: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20) -- and again: "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires" (Galatians 5:24).
In the parable of the sower Jesus warned of the allure of the possessions and pleasures the whole world has to offer, because as Solomon discovered and describes in Ecclesiastes, all those things are an empty vanity and without lasting profit (Ecclesiastes 1:3, 3:9, 5:16) -- and as absolutely nothing, as Jesus explains, compared to the calling to eternal life and a part in the Kingdom of God.