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24 (A)Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,[a] take up his cross, and follow me. 25 (B)For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.[b] 26 What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? 27 [c](C)For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. 28 [d]Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

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Footnotes

  1. 16:24 Deny himself: to deny someone is to disown him (see Mt 10:33; 26:34–35) and to deny oneself is to disown oneself as the center of one’s existence.
  2. 16:25 See notes on Mt 10:38, 39.
  3. 16:27 The parousia and final judgment are described in Mt 25:31 in terms almost identical with these.
  4. 16:28 Coming in his kingdom: since the kingdom of the Son of Man has been described as “the world” and Jesus’ sovereignty precedes his final coming in glory (Mt 13:38, 41), the coming in this verse is not the parousia as in the preceding but the manifestation of Jesus’ rule after his resurrection; see notes on Mt 13:38, 41.

The Conditions of Discipleship. 34 He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said[a] to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.(A) 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel[b] will save it.(B) 36 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 What could one give in exchange for his life? 38 Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”(C)

Chapter 9

[c](D)He also said to them, “Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come in power.”

The Transfiguration of Jesus.[d]

Footnotes

  1. 8:34–35 This utterance of Jesus challenges all believers to authentic discipleship and total commitment to himself through self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of suffering, even to the sacrifice of life itself. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it…will save it: an expression of the ambivalence of life and its contrasting destiny. Life seen as mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, despite earthly death, it arrives at fullness of life.
  2. 8:35 For my sake and that of the gospel: Mark here, as at Mk 10:29 equates Jesus with the gospel.
  3. 9:1 There are some standing…come in power: understood by some to refer to the establishment by God’s power of his kingdom on earth in and through the church; more likely, as understood by others, a reference to the imminent parousia.
  4. 9:2–8 Mark and Mt 17:1 place the transfiguration of Jesus six days after the first prediction of his passion and death and his instruction to the disciples on the doctrine of the cross; Lk 9:28 has “about eight days.” Thus the transfiguration counterbalances the prediction of the passion by affording certain of the disciples insight into the divine glory that Jesus possessed. His glory will overcome his death and that of his disciples; cf. 2 Cor 3:18; 2 Pt 1:16–19. The heavenly voice (Mk 9:7) prepares the disciples to understand that in the divine plan Jesus must die ignominiously before his messianic glory is made manifest; cf. Lk 24:25–27. See further the note on Mt 17:1–8.