34 Then Jesus called the people and his disciples, and said,
“If you want to follow me, deny yourself;
take up your cross and follow me.
35 For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it;
and if you lose your life for my sake,
and for the sake of the gospel, you will save it.
---- my own,
Everyone wants to run away from the cross and suffering, including you. But I tell you that this is the only way to be purified from your sins and to enable you to come to My Father in Heaven. The way of the cross is the winepress that crushed Me until every drop of blood and water from My Body was poured out as an oblation to the Father for the remission of the punishment of sin for the whole world. The sin of Adam separated you from My Father, and the punishment and the consequence of that sin of disobedience shut the doors to the Kingdom of God to all forever. Only one who was sinless and would willingly consent to pay the price for that damning sin could make restitution. The life of the Firstborn was to be offered up as an atoning sacrifice to take away the sins of the whole world. This is what I did, and every one of my disciples is invited to share in My suffering, by sipping My chalice and thus participating in some small measure in the one holy, perfect, and only sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to My Father in Heaven. Do not refuse the cross that is laid on you daily. Do not grumble at its weight. Do not complain. Do not carry it grudgingly and with a hard heart and a joyless and closed spirit. If you do it will avail you nothing except greater condemnation. But if you heed my invitation and take up your gross daily, cheerfully, willingly, obediently, and promptly, then I will yoke Myself to you and carry your cross with you, and you will discover that the weight of the cross and its suffering will be for you a joy and a blessing.
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