Everyone went to his own town to be registered.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are safe.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures.

In the same way therefore not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions.

So he contacted his master’s debtors one by one. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

It is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the wild birds nested in its branches.”

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him.

The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’