Luke 9:18 ¶ And it came to
pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them,
saying, Whom say the people that I am? 19
They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and
others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again. 20 He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Peter answering said, The Christ of God. 21
And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man
that thing; 22 Saying, The Son of man
must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. 23 And he said to them all, If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and
follow me. 24 For whosoever will save
his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same
shall save it. 25 For what is a man
advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me
and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in
his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you of a truth, there be some
standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of
God.
Peter declares that
Jesus is God’s Messiah. To prevent people from trying to make Him king, to
delay His mission of bringing human history and God’s plan of reconciling
mankind to Himself at the Cross and the empty tomb Jesus orders them not to
declare that. It is something that will come from the grass roots level as
people realize who has performed miracles among them and healed them. We are
talking about Jews here, first-century Palestinian Jews. Jesus then declares
what His end on earth must be for this plan to go into effect. God’s own blood
must be shed to save a dying humanity, lost in its rebellion, its sins, against
Him. Then, He must rise from the dead.
Verse 23 is one of the
great verses of the Bible. The true follower of Christ must push his own
demands, desires, and even needs behind and put Christ first. He then must take
up his or her own suffering, their own cross, daily, and carry it, following
Christ. We are all born in dying bodies that will eventually fail us and our
suffering at the end of our lives will be horrific typically without drugs. Our
eyes must be on eternity and on our Creator at all times. Otherwise we will
overthink our suffering, dying, and death. We must, at all times, maintain an
eternal perspective or we will wallow in our humanity and in our suffering.
Even the most spiritual minded atheist tries to justify their own suffering by
philosophizing and rationalizing to justify themselves. But, only one thing
justifies us; Christ, God in the flesh, the Word by which we were all created,
who shed His blood on the Cross for our sins and rose from the grave for our
justification. We must keep our eyes on Him.
When we struggle
carnally for our life trying to hold onto it, we lose it. When we willingly die
for Christ….
1Corinthians 15:31 I
protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
…we have eternal life
with Him. Eternity is a long, long time compared to this short biological
existence.
There is nothing that
this life has to offer that can compare to an eternity with our Creator.
At the end of this
passage Christ again speaks of persecution for our faith and how important it
is to stand fast in our faith in Him. It is absolutely essential and spoken of
in several places.
Verse 27 is about to be
fulfilled in the next passage.
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