What It Takes To Follow Jesus Christ

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“How can I follow Christ?” A question asked often. Since the time of Jesus, people have been drawn to him. These people glare at scripture for direction. Often, they become misguided and will abandon scripture’s special revelation. This exegetical paper will discover the constant power of scripture. The saying of Jesus within Matthew 16:24-28 will be studied. The literary and historical contexts of the passage will be deduced. Finally, exegesis on all five verses will be done. How does one follow Christ? Will the literary context of this passage affect its interpretation? These questions and more will be answered below.
Literary Context
In order to properly interpret the cost of discipleship addressed in Matthew 16:24-28, a look into the literary context of the passage is a must. All three synoptic Gospels contain this similar passage. The differences in the synoptics will be discussed briefly to identify the purpose of including this passage in each context. Also, the surrounding context of the book of Matthew will be provided so as to correctly exegete the passage.
First, who does Jesus address while saying these things? In Matthew, Jesus is speaking to his disciples as stated in 16:24. In Luke, the narrative opens with Jesus speaking ‘to all.’ Glancing back will show that Jesus was talking to his disciples from 9:18. Mark’s Gospel suggests the presence of a crowd along with Jesus’ disciples in 8:34. There is a significant difference between Jesus addressing a crowd versus merely his disciples. Each of the three Gospels articulates the Messianic secret. In each one, Jesus has just finished commanding his disciples to tell no one of him being the Christ. It is unclear why Mark would have Jesus also talking to a crowd. This ...

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