In this life Jerusalem’s always on the horizon
Luke 9:23-24
And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
This "walk" in Christ isn't just a casual stroll. This isn’t an elite club either; it’s an invitation to anyone willing to step up.
The taking up of the cross involves total submission to Him. Following him likewise. The rationale for this submission is seeking your own desires will inevitably come to losing your life. Now, "denying himself" isn’t about self-loathing or rejecting your personality. It’s about dethroning yourself, letting go of the "me first" instinct that drives so much of life.
ME:
"But what if I'm doing really great? I've gained the whole world. I'm successful and living how I like. And I share my blessings with others. I'm doing good, helping people, giving them a leg up."
Discipleship means signing up for a life that might cost you everything, every single day. And if your love for God isn't enough for you to accept His words and submit to them, how great is your success in comparison to the glory of God. Are your good deeds equal to his glory? When you think about answering that question does your mind immediately question whether God is real or not? Could you truly put your will and your deeds in the balance against Him and His glory?
Basically, what this gospel lesson is saying is, do you truly believe in Him, truly love Him with all your heart, mind, spirit, and strength. And is that love enough to give you the new desire to submit fully to His will? If you were to be put to the test, would your faith survive the trials? If your love for God doesn’t drive you to embrace His words and surrender to them, what’s your benchmark for success? This is a gut-check question. Comparing our "good deeds" to God’s glory is like holding a candle to the sun, it’s not even a contest.
And Jesus goes further into this self-examination that he wants the disciples to consider, but from a different angle. From the perspective of His glory on full display.
He tells them,
Luke 9:27
"But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."
And a week later some do in fact see this exact thing happen.
Luke 9:28-29
"Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white."
Jesus isn’t just talking to them about hypotheticals; he’s foreshadowing a literal glimpse of his divine glory, and Peter, John, and James get front-row seats to it eight days later. His face changes, his clothes turn dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah show up (9:30-31). This Transfiguration backs up everything he's been saying: he’s not just a teacher; he’s the Son of God with a capital "S." Just a few days earlier Jesus told the disciples he was going to face trials and death, and indeed he will die. But he goes on to say he'll rise from that death into glory. So, here he is in ALL his glory and the prophets join him. But what about this plan to go to Jerusalem and be hung on a cross? What are they supposed to do with that?
Peter knows what to do. He's gonna stay right here. Build some shelters and hang out. Leave the world behind. The kingdom glory has finally come, so let's chill with it. The Shekinah is glowing all around them. Jesus is radiant. God's confirming who Jesus is with words on the wind. Why do any of those other things? Let's stay here.
It's not unlike what we see today. If you were to go to the holy land and see these so-called holy sites, you would see that they have set up shrines and temples. Filled with all sorts of iconography and other silly superstitious things. Not unlike what Peter was trying to set up.
This Transfiguration isn’t just a flex; it’s a pivot point. It’s a preview of the resurrection, sure, but it doesn’t erase the cross from the script. That’s the rub. Peter's ready to ditch the whole mission and bask in the moment. Jesus is gearing himself and them up for what's about to go down in Jerusalem. Peter’s missing that the glory and the suffering are two sides of the same coin. Jesus’ death isn’t a detour; it’s the road to that glory being fully unleashed.
Somehow this all needs to happen as the Father has determined in order for the full force of the gospel to prevail. No disciple can change that course. No amount of doing church can stop what's coming. People may flock to these places. Shrines piled up with relics, icons, and rituals. Trying to bottle up the sacred, just like Peter with his shelters. It’s the same impulse: "This feels holy; let’s freeze it, build something, stay here." Let's create a new god out of this veneration of an event in time. So typical of all the traditions of men.
What these few disciples didn't understand was The Transfiguration wasn’t a stopping point; it was a signpost to keep going on, through the cross, not around it. The cross is the thing. It's the linchpin that pulls this whole faith thing together. The dazzle of Jesus transfigured doesn’t cancel the grit of discipleship; it fuels it. Peter learns that the hard way (and keeps learning it, check his denial later on in Luke 22).
The next day...
Straight off the high from the Transfiguration Jesus casts out a demon, heals that boy and then again Jesus moves on into dropping this heavy, cryptic line. The crowds are still buzzing, "Whoa, this guy’s unstoppable!", and then Jesus pulls the disciples aside and says, "Listen up: I’m about to be handed over." It’s like he’s slamming on the brakes off the hype train to refocus them on the mission’s cost again.
Luke 9:43-45
But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men." But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
The text says it "was concealed from them". I suppose their faith receptors weren't developed enough yet to follow what seems perfectly obvious to us. And that bit about them being "afraid to ask"? That’s so real. They’re sensing the weight, but they’d rather sit with the confusion than face the answer. Again they want to ignore the power to go forward and instead just keep the placeholder. The Transfiguration showed the glory; the demon-casting showed the power; but this moment drills down into the suffering cost of discipleship. Jesus isn’t letting them cherry-pick the good parts only.
The disciples display how unprepared they are for this faith walk. They pivot hard into arguing about who’s the top dog among them (Luke 9:46-48). It’s almost absurd how tone-deaf it feels. It's not unlike modern Christians arguing about which is the one true church.
Jesus laid out in the gospels, for every generation of believers, his betrayal and death, and they’re squabbling over who gets the gold star. Jesus says, "Take up your cross, lose your life for me," and instead of grappling with that, people get lost in denominational flexing or doctrinal one-upmanship. Today, it’s often about whose theology or traditions reigns supreme. Both miss the point: it’s not about winning, it’s about surrendering. Both need to surrender. Both need to focus on Christ. And Jesus shuts it all down quick with the child in 9:47-48. He teaches them that greatness is humility, not hierarchy.
And unfortunately, that’s the faith walk they’re unprepared for, then and now. They want Christ's glory without the submission grit, just like how some today chase after spiritual clout without the cost. It’s a powerful draw. It’s not just pride, though that’s part of it; it’s this deep itch for validation and impressions, for certainty, for a pat on the back that says, "You’ve got it figured out." Everyone fails in this. I fail in this.
The irony is, our chasing "rightness" often dodges the very thing Jesus is after, a heart that’s humble and surrendered, not a scorecard. It’s like people want the security of being correct more than the mess of actually living the faith. We all do this in some fashion. No matter how devote we are to order, and meditation, we continue to hear what we want to hear from God. It’s like we’ve got these built-in earbuds tuned to our own frequency.
Jesus says, "Deny yourself, take up your cross," and we might still hear, "Keep doing you, just tweak it a little." Pray harder, longer, louder, and make a great external show of piety. Make a business of it. Turn it into a performance, a flex of piety for all the world to see.
The disciples wanted greatness; we want influence. We want our spiritual hustle. It’s like we’re scared of the stillness that real denial of self-demands, so we fill it with noise and metrics. And it's strangely satisfying even. How natural it feels to us, making faith a demonstration.
Too often we're polishing these idols, our buildings, our brands, or our traditions get the glory instead of the cross. We make a circus of our prayers and a fashion show of our worship. Especially in social media where it’s less about following Jesus and more about winning the holiness flex-off, one viral post at a time.
And then there's our own personal junk. We set these high faith bars; prayer schedules, Bible reading plans, acts of service, hoping to measure up, but when we fall short (and we do), it’s like we’ve failed the audition for our own faith. We're not taking up our crosses, we're chasing our checklists.
What do you think pulls us back to these traps so often?
Faith feels fleeting sometimes, like a signal that fades in and out. You get dialed in, feel that connection humming, and then, bam, something shifts, and it gets fuzzy again. It’s not just that we stumble; it’s that facing sin, ours or the world’s, can dull the charm of faith real quick. The transfiguration or the cross feels inspiring until you’re staring down temptation, shame, or just the grind of life. That mountaintop experience fades fast. The disciples tuned out Jesus' cross talk for glory; and we tune out when faith stops feeling good and when it starts costing us.
Based on Luke 9:23-24 and this whole thread, it boils down to sticking with the core of what Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow him. Just keep reorienting yourself to Him. Keep dialing in. Keep on clinging to the stubborn trust. Jerusalem is coming. The trial is coming. The cross must come. Keep going to Jerusalem. It’s not about nailing it once and coasting; it’s about turning back to him over and over. In this life Jerusalem’s always on the horizon.