Luke 9:23,24

We’ve dedicated 34 weeks (Sept 8 to Apr 20) to read, preach and discuss the Gospel According to Luke. My text last Sunday included this infamous statement by Jesus –

“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’”    Luke 9:23,24

How many times have I read those words. Yet they continue to challenge me to the core of my being every single time I read them. It’s like a mountain that you continue to run into but can never climb over. It’s just there, calling you ever upward. Has there been anything that anyone else has ever said that is anything like it? Not even close. Because He didn’t just say it. He said it, then He went and died. There is nothing in any faith anywhere at any time that is anything like this. Not even remotely close. They are ominous words that outweigh all others. They are counter intuitive. And they are immeasurable in their significance.

It occurred to me this week that this single statement made by Jesus serves as the foundation for the entire body of New Testament teaching on Christian living. It is the watershed from which flows all that it means to live FOR God; the very definition of ‘Christian service’; to deny oneself, to die as it were to oneself, and to sacrifice for Christ, only to realize that there is no such thing as a sacrifice for Christ. Because when we die is when we begin to live.