He Who Seeks to Save His Life

Of all the many difficult sayings of Jesus, one in particular troubles my soul. Versions of it appear in all four gospels (Matthew 16:24–27, Mark 8:34–37, Luke 8:23–25, John 12:24–25), and I have been able to quote it since childhood. After years of meditation, however, I’m less and less confident that I know what Jesus means. For the sake of completeness, I will give both the full Greek and my…