Luke 9: The Way of Christ Has Become Our Way

Introduction

To open this message, Florian Vanlaethem, an intern and member of the Église Protestante Évangélique Bruxelles-Woluwe and a first-year student at the Institut Biblique de Bruxelles, starts with a familiar picture: a child at the doctor's office. The vaccine is not pleasant, but the child goes in with a certain confidence. Their parents explained that it is good for them, that they went through it too, "and the best proof is that they are still alive."

God treats us the same way. The path he invites us to take is far from comfortable, but it is the one his Son walked for us and opened up. So you can take it "with absolute confidence," because Jesus is alive and has conquered death.

Starting from Luke 9:18-27, the preacher follows three steps: who Jesus is, what the way of Christ looks like, and why his way has become ours.

Outline of the Message

1. "Who Do the Crowds Say That I Am?" The Question of the Crowds

One day, while Jesus is praying alone, he asks his disciples: "Who do the crowds say that I am?" The answers come quickly: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the old prophets risen from the dead.
The previous Friday, thousands of people attended Guillaume Pley's Legend tour at Forest National, a show where each person comes to tell their story. The promotional videos show deeply moved spectators, supposedly leaving transformed.
Jesus also drew crowds. They came to see miracles, receive healing, or simply watch him at work. They were full of admiration, to the point of seeing in him a figure who points to the Messiah.
Yet they were "completely off the mark" on a question that was vital for them. They represent what most people do with Jesus: a fictional character, a great sage, a prophet, or a madman full of fantasies.
The preacher also thinks of Islam, which sees Jesus as a prophet born of a virgin, but not the Son of God, and not the one who went to the cross and rose again.
Billions of people are mistaken in this way on a question that concerns them first and foremost. This question reveals what we really are, lost sheep, and the answer determines where we are going. It is an encouragement to talk about Jesus around us: people's salvation depends on it.

2. "The Christ of God": The Answer That Founds a Life

In verse 20, Jesus is not satisfied with the opinion of the crowd. He wants to know what his disciples think. Peter answers: "The Christ of God."
The Messiah is nothing new for Peter: he is the one Israel was impatiently waiting for. Peter is saying, in effect: "Are you the one we have been waiting for?"
Emotions and opinions are not enough to tell whether you are in the truth. "Being moved by Jesus certainly does not mean knowing him," just as respecting him for his wisdom is not enough.
It is knowing who he really is that reveals what we really are. Faced with that knowledge, there are only two options: welcome him or reject him.
"What happens in the room stays in the room," as the saying goes. Jesus' question, however, did not stay in that remote place in the region of Caesarea Philippi mentioned by Matthew and Mark. It crosses the generations and has been challenging us for 2,000 years. And you, who do you say Jesus is?

3. A Messiah Who Must Suffer

In verse 21, Jesus sternly orders his disciples not to tell anyone. Peter understood the title, which is huge progress, but not yet what kind of Messiah Jesus is. Saying the right title is not enough: the demons did it too (Luke 4).
For the people of that time, the Messiah was not associated with suffering. He was a liberator, a conquering king sent by God to establish his throne in Israel and drive out the Romans. If the disciples had announced the news, the crowd would no doubt have "sounded the horn" and declared war on the Romans.
This expectation reveals what the crowd thought of itself: an oppressed nation in need of a liberator. If we think we are righteous and good, forgiveness of sins makes no sense to us. If we see ourselves as victims, we look for a judge who will condemn those who wronged us. But if we know we are seriously ill, we urgently need a recognized and competent doctor.
In verse 22, Jesus announces that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.
This verse is a key: it keeps us from misunderstanding what Jesus came to do. It is also a mirror: we are not only victims, we are deeply sick with an illness called sin.
Human will wants a Messiah made in its own image, without suffering, and puts to death the one who does not meet its expectations. God's will is a Messiah who goes through suffering, rejection and the cross, and then rises again. "God always has the last word."

4. The Tailor-Made Jesus, a Messiah Without a Cross

It is so much easier to let what we think of ourselves decide who Jesus is. The result is a tailor-made Jesus, at our service, "a wonderful tool for our comfort and our ambitions."
That Jesus appeals to all of us: he asks for nothing more than our worship and gives us in return everything we could desire.
The preacher brings up the genie of the magic lamp: everyone has imagined being the hero and thought that their first wish would be to get an infinite number of other wishes, to keep the genie at hand and fulfill all their dreams.
A Jesus conceived this way is a Jesus without his cross, a completely useless Messiah, unable to answer our greatest need: forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
Why the cross? Because God loves us deeply. Our problem was never a lack of information: we spent our time telling God to go away, acting as if he did not exist, making other gods. If he had to die, he did it in our place.
The Messiah-physician heals us by his own wounds (Isaiah 53, Luke 5). The cross of our Messiah is our hope, and so is his resurrection. Have you understood the central place of Jesus' death and resurrection for your faith and for your life?

5. Denying Yourself, Every Day

"If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (verse 23). Losing what we wanted for ourselves means gaining what we were made for: life.
This verse is not about a list of things to do that complicates life for no reason, nor about a religion of deprivation. We do not carry a cross for the pleasure of carrying one more. We carry our cross behind the one who went through death and came out alive.
This is what Paul explains to the Romans: "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). "His path has become our path."
Living according to God's will in a body and a world that reject it is bound to be difficult. The preacher does not think it useful to explain denial at length. A few words are enough, and God's Spirit does the work: sexuality, truth, money, hospitality, love, idols. "We know."
Luke is the only one to specify "daily." Denial is not a box you tick once and for all.
Wanting to live to the full the life we have received is not wrong in itself: this desire is part of being human and it is good. Everything depends on its center. Is it me, or Jesus? When Jesus is at the center, the other person becomes the center: the friend, the brother, the neighbor, the colleague, the stranger, the wife and the child.

6. The Calculation of Faith and a Foretaste of the Kingdom

The paradox of verse 24 then makes sense: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it."
The preacher does the math with simple numbers. He is 29 and may live to 60, 70 or 80. On the scale of eternity, that is nothing. Our sufferings are very real, and we need to arm ourselves with courage, but compared with what awaits us, they are like the very first shot received as a child for a vaccine.
Paul does the same calculation: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us" (Romans 8:18). "Let us deny ourselves, it is a privilege."
He gives an example of faith that he finds magnificent: former Muslims, men and women, who, in answering Jesus' call, become apostates in the eyes of their own people. They become a shame to their family, sometimes find themselves alone and with nothing, and sometimes die for Jesus. They laid on the table everything they were about to lose and saw that losing everything for him meant, in the end, gaining everything.
The passage ends with a promise: some of those standing there will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God (verse 27). God does not ask us to walk blindly. He already gives us a foretaste: prayer to a God who was out of reach, love that grows in our gatherings, forgiveness, and our true identity finally recovered.

7. What Does This Path Look Like in Practice?

Following Jesus means saying no to the extra pay under the table at the end of the month and staying honest.
It means picking up the phone and calling the brother you argued with the day before, a few months ago, or a few years ago.
It means, at the coffee machine, not changing the subject when people talk about God, but taking courage and announcing the Messiah, Jesus.
"The list is long, and it is often nothing heroic," simply something deeply good that pleases God and glorifies him.
It is not our life as disciples that secures salvation. It is he, his death and his resurrection, and the Father who keeps us safely in his hands. We do not follow Jesus to be saved, but because he has raised us up and revealed to us who he is.

Key Takeaways

Admiring Jesus or being moved by him does not mean knowing him. The question "who is he?" determines where you are going.
Jesus is the Christ of God, a Messiah who had to suffer, be rejected, die and rise again. A Jesus without a cross cannot save you.
The cross is a mirror: you are not only a victim, you are sick with sin and you need the physician God has sent.
Carrying your cross every day means walking behind the one who came out of death alive. Losing what you wanted for yourself is gaining life.
You do not follow Jesus to be saved, you follow him with confidence because he has saved you.

Personal Application

If Jesus asked you today, "But who do you say that I am?", what would you answer?
In your prayers and in your expectations, does Jesus sometimes look like the genie of the lamp, a Jesus at your service?
Among the words the preacher mentioned (sexuality, truth, money, hospitality, love, idols), which one is God's Spirit bringing to light in your life right now?
Who is at the center of your desire to live fully: you, or Jesus and the people he places around you?
What simple gesture, with nothing heroic about it, can you make this week: calling someone you are in conflict with, staying honest, talking about Jesus with a colleague?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus ask his disciples not to say that he is the Christ?

Peter gave the right title, but the disciples did not yet understand what kind of Messiah Jesus was. For the crowds, the Messiah was a conquering king who would drive out the Romans. Florian Vanlaethem explains that if the disciples had announced the news, the crowd would no doubt have declared war on the Romans. Jesus then announces that he must suffer, be rejected, be put to death and rise on the third day.

What does it mean to carry your cross every day according to Luke 9:23?

It is neither a list of things to do nor a religion of deprivation. It is walking behind the one who went through death and came out alive: his path has become ours. Luke is the only one to specify "daily," which shows that denial is not a box you tick once. It touches concrete areas: sexuality, truth, money, hospitality, love, idols.

Is following Jesus a condition for being saved?

No. The preacher concludes that it is not our life as disciples that secures salvation, but Jesus himself, his death and his resurrection, and the Father who keeps us safely in his hands. We do not follow Jesus to be saved, we follow him with confidence because we are saved if we have put our faith in him.