What did Jesus mean when He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me”?

 

What did Jesus mean when He said, “Take up your cross✝ and follow Me”? 

What does it mean to take up your cross?

BIBLE VERSES:

Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

John 19:17 (ESV)

17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

Matthew 16:25–26 (ESV)

25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Luke 19:11 (ESV)

11 As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

John 6:26 (ESV)

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

John 6:66 (ESV)

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

Luke 14:27 (ESV)

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

The Cost of Following Jesus - Luke 9:57-62 ESV

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[a] said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

SOURCE: Got Questions Ministries - https://www.youtube.com/@gotquestions

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