If Anyone Would Follow Me

Hello everyone,

Tonight I am writing a continuation of the my last post, that I wrote almost a month ago.  So, a quick refresher is in order.  Jesus has asked his disciples, who they think he is.  Peter correctly responds that Jesus is the Messiah of God. Jesus tells them not to tell anyone about this, and then tells that he is going to suffer greatly, be rejected by the authorities, and be killed. This is a tough message for the apostles, one that they do not really understand. And here is where we pick the story.

Jesus follows up this tough message with another tough message for his disciples.  He has been talking about being killed, and tells them that if they are going to follow him, they too must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow. (Luke 9:23)

Darrell Bock explains it like this: “Discipleship is summed up in three commands: ἀρνησάσθω (arnesastho, deny oneself), ἀράτω (arato, take up), and ἀκολουθείτω (akoloutheito, follow). The tense sequence shows that fundamental decisions made about the self and about day-by-day bearing of the cross emerge in a continual following of Jesus.”  Bock goes on to say that in this sequence the last part ‘following’ emerges when we practice the first two: denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily. (Bock, 852.)

There is foreshadowing here, as Jesus carried his own cross, telling his disciples they must carry their own.  The difference is that Jesus carried his cross to his place of execution, but his instructions to the disciples are to carry their crosses every day.  We can only be executed once, so what Jesus is saying to his disciples is metaphor.  Dying to ourselves is part of our daily walk with Jesus. 

Luke says that Jesus made this statement to everyone that was there, not just as an aside to his disciples.  Jesus was not afraid to speak plainly to everyone about the cost of following him.  

Jesus’ description of discipleship continues by stating that in losing life, we gain it.  Holding on to this life, leads to losing it, but giving life for the sake of Christ leads to gaining life.  This is backwards thinking to us. You gain when you give?  Our self-indulgent nature thinks that we gain when we take, not when we give. 

Jesus has laid out both the risk of following him and the risk of not following him.  The cost is high in both cases. To follow him, we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily.  In other words, we give up ourselves for him. That is a heavy cost. To choose to not follow him, according to Luke 9:24, we lose ourselves. Also a heavy cost. 

Jesus goes on to say that the value of saving our life in him, is priceless. Its value is greater than all of the wealth in the world.  Here is my translation of what Jesus is saying in verse 25, “How does a man profit, if he gains the whole world, yet loses and forfeits himself?” It's rhetorical, I suppose.  We understand that we can't put a price on salvation. 

In verse 26 Jesus tells his followers that they cannot be ashamed of him, or he will be ashamed of them in return on the day of Judgment.  We cannot be ashamed to publicly acknowledge Jesus as our Lord. As disciples of Jesus, we confess his lordship and accept his teachings. Jesus deserves our full allegience. 

Tom