“The Necessity of the Cross”
(Luke 9:18-24 – Pentecost 5 – July 13, 2025)
Luke 9:18-24 – 18And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” 20He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” 21And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22saying, “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 the third day.” 23Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
Dear Redeemed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, who was crucified for us:
There are certain things that are not easy to do, but we do them because they are necessary. It may not always be easy to get up and face another day of challenges at work or school; but we do so because it is necessary to support a family or get ahead in life. It may not always be easy to serve others in our daily calling; but we do so because it is a necessary part of loving the people God puts around us. It may not always be easy to share God’s Word with certain people; but we do so because it is necessary to let that Word of God change their heart. Often, we must do the difficult thing because it is the only loving thing to do. It is Christ-like love that is willing to go out of its way and do what it takes to serve the highest good of others.
Here, Jesus speaks of such love and sacrifice. He did not come into the world to do what was easy. While we were still sinners and at enmity with Him, He came to walk the hard road to the cross and make the ultimate sacrifice for us. He did what was necessary to serve our highest good, to win our forgiveness and eternal life. Our life of faith and love is a response to His first loving us. Here we are led to see “The Necessity of the Cross”: 1) For Jesus as our Savior, 2) For us as His followers.
1) For Jesus as our Savior
Certainly, when the Son of God came into the world, He could have made it a lot easier on Himself. He could have just fulfilled the expectations of many and had a kingdom of glory on earth. Just consider how many people were thinking about Him. When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” they reported some popular ideas: “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again” (vs. 18, 19). The people had seen Jesus’ miracles, and it reminded them of the prophets of old. Maybe they thought of Jesus as a man like Moses or Elijah, to whom God gave miraculous power. They wanted more of that – the free food in His feeding of the thousands, the healing of their sick, the raising of the dead.
In contrast to popular ideas Jesus asked His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter spoke up: “The Christ of God” (vs. 20). In Matthew’s account, Peter’s answer included that Jesus was the “Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus commended this as the truth revealed to him by His Father in heaven. Yet even then, “He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one” (vs. 21). For there were many wrong ideas even about the Christ, that He would come only to bring a political kingdom. Maybe they hoped Jesus would use His power to wipe out their Roman enemies and establish a kingdom of peace and glory for His people on earth.
Ideas were growing large about Jesus… but not large enough. He did not come to bring an earthly kingdom. He came to do what was necessary to win for us an eternal Kingdom and peace in heaven. He did not come to wear a crown of jewels and walk an easy road, but to wear a crown of thorns and walk the way of the cross.
Here Jesus speaks of the necessity of His cross as our Savior: “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 the third day” (vs. 22). Why “must” the Son of Man suffer all this? Why was it necessary for the almighty Son of God to come in human flesh, only to be rejected by men and put to death on a cross? It was necessary to redeem us from sin, Satan, and eternal death.
As fallen sinners, we had come under Satan’s power. Like our first parents, we were deceived and deluded by Satan’s lies. The prince of this world ruled us through sin. We were no longer willing to deny ourselves and follow the holy will of God. Instead, we sought to save our lives by following the desires of the sinful nature, the lusts of the flesh. But instead of finding life in our sinful way, we faced the wages of sin in eternal death. We were going to share the devil’s judgment in hell.
But in love, God did what it took to save us. He did the most difficult thing to serve our highest good. He determined it necessary to send His own beloved Son into the world and to the cross, to shed His innocent blood for our sins. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). All the blood of animals, sacrificed year after year, could never pay for even one of our sins. But the once for all sacrifice of Christ on the cross has taken away all our sins and the sins of the whole world (Hebrews 10; 1 John 2:2). No blood of a mere man could pay the price to redeem us from sin and death. But as our God and Brother, Jesus’ blood paid the ransom for our souls and redeemed us from the pit of hell (Psalm 49:7-9).
Not only was it necessary for Jesus to suffer and die on the cross; He must also “be raised the third day” (vs. 22). In raising His Son from the dead, God proved that He truly had won our salvation from sin, death, and Satan (Romans 4:25). In Christ, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Through faith in our crucified and risen Savior, we have the guarantee that we too shall rise with Him on the Last Day.
2) For us as His followers
So the cross was necessary for Jesus as our Savior. And now, He says the cross is necessary for us as His followers: “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (vs. 23-24).
When the Holy Spirit brings us to faith, we undergo a kind of death with Jesus. In repentance, we deny our sinful self its unholy desires. We disown the old man, the sinful nature; we say: “I don’t want to have anything to do with you any longer!” We do not make excuses for the sinful flesh; we put it to death. Galatians 5:24 says: “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” At the same time, through Holy Spirit worked faith, we are raised to a new life in Christ. Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
This is how Romans 6:4-6 describes our baptism into Christ: “We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
As believers, we live in the power of our baptism every day. In daily repentance, we drown the sinful nature; we crucify the flesh. But in faith, we rise with Jesus in His baptismal cleansing, to walk in newness of life by the Holy Spirit.
Here many are led astray. They may point to their baptism and call themselves Christians. But instead of crucifying the flesh and dying to sin by repentance, they want to go on living in sin, excusing it, insisting on it. They seek life in the deceitful desires of the flesh. But in seeking to save their life this way, they lose it. Impenitence separates their soul from the life of Christ; they have fallen away from faith in Him. Hebrews 6:6 warns: “they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”
In our Baptism, by Holy Spirit worked faith, we renounce the devil and all his evil works and ways. Therefore, Satan constantly seeks to reclaim us by tempting us through our sinful flesh. So taking up our cross daily is necessary as Jesus’ followers, as we crucify the flesh by repentance, and we rise in Christ’s forgiveness by faith.
The cross is also necessary for us as Jesus’ followers because of the temptations of the world. The unbelieving world is under Satan’s spell. It does not call sin, sin; it applauds sin and those who live in it. As we bear witness to God’s truth in Christ, the world will reject us, hate us, and persecute us. Again, Satan tempts us to try to save our life by compromising and fitting in with the world.
But as we live by faith in Christ, we take His words to heart: “whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (vs. 24). We would rather take up our cross and follow Jesus and suffer whatever cross must come for the sake of Him and His truth. We deny ourselves and die to the world’s falsehood. By the Holy Spirit in us, we say with Galatians 6:14: “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Taking up our crosses and following Jesus is not always easy. But He who joined us to Himself in Baptism and faith, goes with us to lighten our burden and give rest to our souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” Jesus says (Matthew 11:28-30). When we stumble and fall into sin, we confess it and cast that burden on Him; and He lifts us up in His blood-bought forgiveness and gives rest to our souls. When we stumble under the burdens of life, we cast them on Him in prayer; and He lifts us up in His promise that He is working in all things for our good. Even in death, we cast our souls on Him who died and rose again to give us eternal life. We have His promise: “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4). We rest our souls in the loving hands of our God and Savior, and we say:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.