Suddenly, in Luke 9, the specter of the cross looms. Jesus asks His disciples who the crowds say he is. They have various responses. Then Jesus makes it personal by asking them a question, the same question He asks each one of us: “But you, who do you say that I am?” [v20]
Peter’s response is that He is the long-awaited King, the Messiah, the Anointed One to come. Immediately, Jesus turns their thinking in a totally new direction. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.” [vs 22]
No one ever associated the long-awaited Messiah with suffering, rejection, and death. It stunned the disciples. It was incomprehensible. Before they can even catch their breath, however, He stuns them again.
“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.’” [vs 23 HCSB]
To follow this King did not mean a cushy castle or a slew of servants. To follow this King of kings meant embracing a cross daily and going where He leads. It meant losing life in order to save it for all eternity.
The disciples must have wondered what they had gotten themselves into by following Jesus. When it became real at the betrayal, during the trials and at the cross, all but one abandoned Him, and one went so far as to deny Him three times.
They were lost, grieving, and confused as Jesus was in the tomb those three days, but then, Resurrection changed everything. I think it was at that point that they truly understood what Jesus said to them that day about picking up their cross daily and following Him. Because each one did, and because they did, the world was changed.
