One day He got into a boat with His disciples, and He said to them, "Let us cross to the other side of the lake." So they set sail.

They landed in the neighborhood of Gerasa, which is just across the lake from Galilee.

Then all the inhabitants of the country around Gerasa asked Him to go away from them, because they were terribly frightened. So He got into a boat and went back.

Then He said to them all, "If anyone chooses to be my disciple, he must say 'No' to self, put the cross on his shoulders daily, and continue to follow me.

Now if God so gorgeously dresses the wild grass which today is green but tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, how much more surely will He clothe you, O you with little faith?

Whoever does not persevere in carrying his own cross and thus following after me, cannot be a disciple of mine.

Besides all this, between you and us there stands fixed a great chasm, so that those who want to cross from this side to you cannot, nor can they cross from your side to us.'

Now as they led Him away, they seized a man named Simon, from Cyrene, as he was coming in from the country, and put the cross on his shoulders, for him to carry as he walked behind Jesus.

Then he took it down from the cross and wrapped it in a linen sheet and laid it in a tomb hewn out of rock, where no one had yet been laid.