Besides the parallel passage, Luke 14:27 (vide supra), of. also (for verses 38, 39) Matthew 16:24, Matthew 16:25. and he that taketh not; doth not take (Revised Version), which calls attention to the change to the more definite mode of expression ( ὃς … λαμβάνει).
Taketh. Receives in submission when given him; contrast ἀράτω, "take up from the ground" (Matthew 16:24), and βαστάζει, "bear" (Luke 14:27). His cross. A reference to the custom (vide Meyer) of criminals carrying their cross before they were crucified upon it.
If, therefore, the figure may be pressed, the reference here is to the bearing of trials, even though they are such as point forward to greater trials in the future. Observe the torture and the ignominy of the trials that Christ expects his followers to be prepared for.
And followeth after me. For Christ's journey ended in nothing less. Is not worthy of me. "And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy of himself" (Wis.
3:5). Compare the reply of St. Thomas Aquinas to our Lord in vision after he had completed his "Summa:" "Thoma, bene scripsisti de me; Quam recipies a Me pro rue labore mercedem? Domine, non nisi Te" (Archbishop Vaughan's 'Life of St.
Thomas,' frontispiece).