Luke 9:21–27 - Walking in Circles

If it seems like you're walking in circles, chances are you're going in the right direction!

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Gospels: Week 7 - The cost of discipleship

CONTEXT: Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God after Jesus asked the disciples "Who do you say that I am..." (Read)

Luke 9:21–27 (NASB95)

²¹ But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone, ²² saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”

²³ And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. ²⁵ For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

²⁷ “But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 32

Q. But why are you called a Christian?

A. Because by faith I am a member of Christ

and so I share in his anointing.

I am anointed

to confess his name,

to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks,

to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil

in this life,

and afterward to reign with Christ

over all creation

for all eternity.

Summary

In technical Bible-study jargon, it's called the "Messianic Secret". That's what Jesus' repeated emphasis is called where people who've discovered His divine nature - either because they experienced His miraculous power firsthand, or like Peter just had, by having His eyes opened to the truth of Jesus' identity by the Holy Spirit - are implored by Jesus not tell this to anyone. This goes against every grain of conventional marketing advice which prizes viral, organic word of mouth publicity above all else.

But Jesus explains His rationale here in today's passage. He tells His disciples that He didn't come to start a popular movement, rather there's a critical purpose that the Son of Man must fulfill. He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

Then Jesus makes the disciples (and us) an offer that doesn't make any worldly sense: if anyone wishes to come after me... Why would anyone want to follow where Jesus was going: to suffer, be rejected, and ultimately be killed? The only sensible answer to that question is, of course, the final clause in Jesus' mission statement: He'd be raised up on the third day.

We follow Jesus down this awful and arduous path because, as our Catechism put it, we've been promised that after we too have been raised up with Him, we will afterward reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.

But this glory will have to wait. The key word there is afterward.

  Dig Deeper  

For the time being, Jesus' prescription is anything but glorious, and has three segments to it:

1. You must deny yourself. Jesus goes on to extrapolate what this denial includes: losing your life for His sake in order to ultimately save it. Meditate on this today (chew your spiritual cud) - what aspects of yourself have you actually denied, and what parts of you life must you still lose?
   

2. Take up your cross daily. Conversion is typically thought of as the one time experience in which a non believer is converted into a believer. But conversion also has an ongoing aspect. Paul will go on to command Christians to crucify their flesh (Sarx) with its passions and desires. Since Sarx is like a zombie, in that it keeps clawing its way back to life after you've crucified it, you need to take up your cross each day.
   

3. Follow Jesus. If you're reading this, chances are you do really want to follow Jesus. But it so often seems so difficult to know where He's going! It would have been so much easier to have been one of the twelve disciples who literally followed Him around Israel. But Jesus' command here gives us some direction, and it's cyclical! This third step of following Jesus brings us right back to the first: deny yourself. So if it seems like your Christian life is just going in circles, chances are you're going in the right direction!

Jesus knows you're tempted to straighten the arc He's commanded you to follow so that you can gain a bit more of the world's profit. But He warns you that even if you gain the whole world, it will come at the cost of losing and forfeiting yourself. It's not worth it!

You will have colleagues, friends and even family members who will continually shame your circular path that takes you away from what everybody else is pursuing. But here again, Jesus warns you that if you're ashamed of Him and His words and cave to their pressures, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you and you'll miss out on the glory of Him, His Father and the holy angels!

Jesus ends His teaching here with some encouragement. The kingdom of God is so close that you can see it. He said these words eight days before He and three of His disciples will ascend the Mount of Transfiguration. But you and I can see this kingdom as well, though we often have to squint here and now. This is one of the big reasons we're called to assemble with the saints on the Lord's Day to shield ourselves from the world's distraction so we can see the kingdom of God more clearly and thereby re-energize our circular journey.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who calls us to follow Jesus into their glory;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that even though walking in circles can so often seem frustrating that you will continue to follow Jesus;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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