Scripture Daily

Context No. 24 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 9:23-27: in context

23He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 24For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake will save it. 25For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self? 26For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. 27But I tell you the truth: There are some of those who stand here who will in no way taste of death until they see God’s Kingdom.”

In Luke's account this saying comes at a hinge point. Just before it, Peter has said out loud that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus has told the disciples for the first time that he is going to suffer, be killed, and rise on the third day. Then he turns from the disciples to the whole crowd and tells them plainly what following him will cost.

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. To his hearers this was not a soft metaphor. The cross was a Roman instrument of execution, and a condemned man carried the crossbeam of his own cross out to the place where he would die. To take up a cross meant to walk toward your own killing. Then Jesus states the paradox at the center of it. Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for his sake will save it. What is the profit, he asks, in gaining the whole world and losing yourself in the deal?

He is not asking for the occasional sacrifice but for a settled willingness to lose. The saying puts a price on following him and says it out loud, so that no one signs on by mistake. Where am I trying to follow at a discount, keeping the whole world and my own life both, and calling it discipleship?

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