Luke 14:27

Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

Long familiarity has softened the meaning of this for modern disciples, the usual notion of it being that the reference here is to a patient, submissive acceptance of the ills and misfortunes of life; but Jesus plainly meant that to be his disciple one would have to hate his own life to the extent of willingness to accept crucifixion at the hands of the Romans for the sake of fidelity to Christ. The background against which Jesus spoke these words proves this to be true. Only twenty-four years previously, about A.D. 6, "The Romans crucified hundreds of followers of the rebel, Judas the Gaulonite ... Crucifixion was a common spectacle both before and after that date."[37] Therefore, Jesus' mention of bearing a "cross" could not have failed, in the audience which heard him, to mean the most horrible of deaths.