Audio
Youtube
Luke 9:18-27 begins, once again, with Jesus in prayer. Luke repeatedly draws our attention to this pattern – at His baptism, before choosing the Twelve, here before this crucial conversation, and shortly afterwards before the Transfiguration. Significant moments in the ministry of Jesus are repeatedly surrounded by prayer. Then He asks His disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” The answers are respectful: John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the ancient prophets risen again. People clearly recognised that there was something extraordinary about Jesus. Yet it is possible to think very highly of Christ and still fail to recognise who He truly is. Jesus therefore makes the question personal: “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answers, “The Christ of God.” The title Christ means the Anointed One – the Messiah promised throughout Scripture. Matthew’s parallel records Peter’s confession as, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter has the right answer, but he does not yet fully understand what that answer means. The disciples expected the Messiah to bring victory, restoration and the Kingdom. Jesus now tells them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected, be killed and be raised the third day. That word must matter. The cross was not an unexpected tragedy or the result of God’s plan somehow going wrong. Christ’s suffering, rejection, death and resurrection were part of God’s redemptive purpose from the beginning.
Scripture had already pointed towards this. Isaiah 53 speaks of the suffering Servant, while Psalm 22 anticipates suffering that would later be unmistakably associated with the crucifixion. Yet Jesus does not stop with death. He will be raised the third day. The resurrection is just as much a part of God’s saving purpose as the cross. Peter could accept the idea of Jesus as Messiah, but Matthew tells us that he struggled when Jesus explained that the Messiah must suffer. There is a lesson there for us as well. We must allow Jesus to correct our expectations of Him rather than trying to reshape Him around what we want Him to be.
Jesus then turns the teaching towards every person who desires to follow Him: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” This is not a special instruction for apostles, pastors or missionaries. Jesus says, anyone. To deny ourselves does not mean self-hatred or pretending we have no value. It means surrendering our claim to rule our own lives. The question gradually changes from, “What do I want?” to, “Lord, what do You want?” Paul expresses something similar in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Then comes the cross. To Jesus’ original hearers, carrying a cross did not mean putting up with an inconvenience. A person carrying a Roman cross was travelling towards death and was no longer in control of his own destination. Luke adds one important word: daily. Christian discipleship is not merely a surrender we made many years ago. It is today’s surrender. Today’s obedience. Today’s decision to belong to Christ and follow Him. Christianity is not ultimately about following a collection of religious procedures. Jesus says simply, “Follow Me.” We learn from Him, walk with Him, submit to Him, and increasingly become like Him.
Jesus continues: “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” Then comes the searching question: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” The world offers success, possessions, achievement, pleasure and approval, but none of those can give eternal life. Paul could look back upon things he once considered gain and count them as loss compared with knowing Christ. Jesus is not trying to rob us of life. He is showing us where true life is actually found. The question is not simply, “What might I lose if I surrender completely to Jesus?” Perhaps the better question is, “What might I lose if I do not?”
Finally, Jesus speaks about being unashamed of Him and His words, then directs the disciples towards His coming glory. Following Christ may bring rejection, misunderstanding, or personal cost, but today’s crowd does not have the final word on Jesus. The rejected Christ is also the returning King. Jesus then says that some standing there would not taste death until they saw the Kingdom of God. Luke immediately follows this with the Transfiguration, where Peter, James and John see Christ revealed in glory. The cross is therefore not the destination. The path passes through suffering and death, but it leads to resurrection life and the glory of Christ.
Watch or listen to this study from Luke 9:18-27 as we consider the question “Who do you say that I am?”, why the cross was central to Christ’s mission, and what it means to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him.
Scriptures Mentioned / Referenced
- Luke 9:18-27 – main passage
- Luke 3:21 – Jesus praying at His baptism
- Luke 6:12-13 – Jesus praying before choosing the Twelve
- Luke 9:28 – Jesus going up the mountain to pray before the Transfiguration
- Matthew 16:16-23 – Peter’s confession and reaction to Jesus’ prediction of suffering
- Malachi 4:5 – Elijah and the coming Day of the Lord
- Isaiah 53 – the suffering Servant
- Psalm 22 – prophetic picture of suffering
- Acts 2:23-24 – Christ’s death within God’s purpose and His resurrection
- Galatians 2:20 – crucified with Christ
- John 12:24-26 – the grain of wheat dying and bearing fruit
- Luke 4:5-8 – Satan offering Jesus the kingdoms of the world
- Philippians 3:7-8 – counting former gain as loss for Christ
- 2 Timothy 1:8 – not being ashamed of the testimony of the Lord
- Mark 9:1-8 – the Kingdom seen with power and the Transfiguration
- 2 Peter 1:16-18 – eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty
