An Exposition of Luke 9:18-26
(NKJV), [18] And 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?” [19] So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” [20] He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” [21] And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, [22] saying, “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.” [23] 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. [24] For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. [25] For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? [26] For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.”
SECTION ONE - Exegesis (What does it say)
Up until this point in Jesus’ ministry many people had given multiple different questions and answers about who they thought Jesus was and with what authority He did the things He did. Jesus did not go around merely pronouncing His “Messiah-ship” among the people, instead, He let His works testify for Him (John 5:36). All the people that He had come into contact with could acknowledge that He came from God because of what they themselves had “seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Luke 7:22). Jesus’ many miracles where now widely known, and many people, including the Pharisees and even Herod, the Tetrarch of Judaea, were seeking to speak with Him for various personal reasons, but even from His own Disciples this question still remained: “Who can this be?” (Luke 8:25). The text to be exposited is Luke 9:18-26, which answers the question of who is Jesus, clarifies His role as the Messiah, and states what it means to follow Jesus and truly be His disciple.
Beginning with the names of the various people in this particular section, the foremost is that of Jesus, the promised Jewish Messiah who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophesies concerning Him (Luke 24:44). In this section of Luke, Peter is also involved (v20). He is one of Jesus’ twelve specific disciples, and he is the one that confesses the answer to the long sought after question: “who can this [Jesus] be?” The other disciples are also present during this whole scenario, but they are not mentioned by a specific number. Also, mentioned by the disciples, in response to Jesus’ question, is John the Baptist, who made “straight the way of the LORD” (John 1:23), and the prophet Elijah, who was promised to return before “the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Mal. 4:5). Lastly, in the final address of Jesus, He speaks to a group labeled as “them all” (v23), which must include the disciples previously mentioned as being present, but also leaves room for others besides only them since the wording is not specific.
There are no specific date or time references for this event. Luke only gives an extremely vague “and it happened” to introduce this section (v18). Luke also fails to mention where this specific event actually takes place. The previous event is the feeding of the five thousand, which occurs in “a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida” (v10), but the “and it happened” leaves so much leeway that a specific location cannot be determined from Luke’s gospel alone. It is only by a cross reference of the same event from the other Gospels that one can be sure that this section takes place “on the road” (Mark 8:27), “when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi” (Matt. 16:13), as Jesus “was alone praying” (Luke 9:18). One possibility for Luke’s omission of the “gentile” location is given by Robert Stein in his book, The New American Commentary Volume 24, in which he states that “Luke wanted to limit Jesus' ministry to Galilee due to his geographical scheme” (265). Since Luke is trying to provide “an orderly account,” it does seem logical that a quick change of location only to return back to Galilee after these nine verses would not seem to be very “orderly” at all (Luke 1:3). Furthermore, this section involves instructions to the disciples only, and nothing from what occurred in Philippi is even mentioned.
Luke’s literary features in this section include narrative with two questions and two answers (v18-20), and narrative with teaching and instruction (v21-26). The scholarly consensus is that because of textual dating, early church father quotes, and unmistakable similarities between the synoptic Gospels, Luke had access to at least Matthew or Mark’s Gospel, if not both. From that conclusion, one can understand the striking similarities in the accounts of this section, and attempt to understand why they differ in places. The basic story is essentially the same in all three, but there are some minor word variations such as Mark’s use of the word “soul” (8:36) being omitted in Luke (9:25), which is also most likely the reason that he omits Mark’s next verse altogether (8:37), since it contains a reference back to the same word. Furthermore, there are some “major” omissions in Luke’s account: the location of the episode is mentioned in Matthew (16:13) and Mark (8:27), Peter’s rebuke of Jesus, and vice versa (Mark 8:32-33), Jesus’ praise of Peter (Matt. 16:17-19), and the most glaring difference is that Luke has Jesus’ words being directly spoken by Him (9:22), whereas Matthew (16:21) and Mark (8:31) have the same words being used to only summarize His teaching. Finally, one must read Isaiah chapter 53 to see the correlation of what Jesus spoke of Himself in Luke 9:22 relating to how He “must” suffer and die.
A study of the various words and theological features also yields great knowledge and insight. The verb “praying” (v18) shows Jesus communing with God to seek how He should properly reveal the true nature of His mission on earth and Messiah-ship to the disciples (v22), and the expected forfeiture of one’s own life in order to truly follow Him. He drew their curiosity in with His question, and ceased upon Peter’s answer (v18-20). The serious nature of what Jesus spoke is communicated by how He “warned and commanded” to keep what was spoken private (v21). Jesus “prayed” to God, “asked” the disciples a question, which, in turn, Peter answered and confessed Him as “Christ [Messiah] of God,” and then Jesus revealed what “must” happen to “the Son of Man” with a “warning” and commandment to not tell anyone what they had heard. The key theological feature to this section is the Christology revealing Jesus’ true nature (v20-21), and the commandments for the parameters of being His true disciple (v23-26).
SECTION TWO - Exposition (What did it mean)
In the context of Luke’s Gospel, this chapter is the ending culmination of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. All of Jesus’ work had been witnessed by many, power had been given by Him to the disciples in their being sent out on mission without Him physically present, and, after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Messiah, the transfiguration on the mountain confirms to them the answer to their previous question. The whole Old Testament and the people in it had longed to hear and see what those in Jesus’ generation were witnessing firsthand (Luke 10:24). Every generation that has ever lived looks to the cross, whether in the Old Testament people’s as they looked forward to it, or in the New Testament people’s and the Church of the Body of Christ as they look back to it. Jesus’ revealed in this section of Luke that He “must” go to the cross, and He did so because He was “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
9:18 – Jesus is shown to be “alone praying,” and His disciples “joined Him.” They had just witnessed His power to feed the five thousand, and, as they had many times before known Him to pray, this is the first time it is said that they joined Him. No doubt the disciples had noticed the power Jesus had, and this at least shows that (1) they recognized the power of prayer, and (2), they understood that Jesus had a special relationship with God. Recognizing these two points, Jesus asks them an indirect question to get their curiosity engaged: “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
9:19 – “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah… [or] one of the old prophets.” The disciple’s answers for what the “crowds” were saying may have been their own personal thoughts as well. Even if the crowds did say these things, asking the question in the way that Jesus did allowed the disciples to freely propose what was in their hearts without attaching themselves directly to the answer.
9:20 – “But who do you say that I am?” Now Jesus was striking into their hearts and wanted an answer from them: “You all know me the best and have seen all that I have done; you are my closest associates. Who do you think I am?” One can imagine hearing only the sound of crickets and a few “Umm… ah’s” for a brief minute as they pondered within themselves. Peter put it all together and knew in his heart the only answer: “The Christ of God.” Wearing his heart on his sleeve would often leave his foot in his mouth, but Peter could no longer deny what he knew to be true.
9:21 – “He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one.” Jesus knew that the Jewish people had a false understanding of what the Messiah would do (conqueror), and He knew what actually needed to be accomplished (suffering servant), so He made sure that it would only be revealed to the people at the proper time.
9:22 – the verb “must” is extremely important in this verse. There were no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it; His suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection “must” happen: “without [the] shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins]” (Heb. 9:22).
9:23 – Jesus often said to people, “follow me.” Now He gives prerequisites to those who wish to “come after” Him: (1) “let him deny himself” – do not seek the pleasures of a sinful life, instead, seek and think of the things above, and the will of God in one’s life (Col. 3:2). (2) “take up his cross daily” – the Roman cross was known by the disciples as an instrument of execution for criminals. If they wanted to follow Jesus, every day they must kill the old sinful man and his desires. (3) “follow Me” – they had to be willing to do what Jesus was doing in His life on earth (seek and save the lost), and going to do in His death on the cross (God’s will), in order to be raised from the dead as He was raised (Rom. 8:11).
9:24 – “whoever desires to save his life will lose it” – if they could not give up and turn away from their sins, they were basically trying to save the old sinful man from truly dying, and that would cause them to be dragged down to Hell with him (Luke 13:3). “whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” – truly giving up the old life is to “lose” one’s life, and it is the most difficult thing to do. A wise person once said: “The old man is dead, but I know where he is buried.” The flesh wars against the spirit constantly (Gal. 5:17). Jesus was telling the disciples that if they gave up their old life’s ways for His sake, they would be saved.
9:25 – Jesus explains that even if they were to live their life to the fullest apart from Him, and they happened to gain “the whole world,” death would still come and all that they had gained would be lost (Luke 12:16-21).
9:26 – Jesus fully illustrates the seriousness of the situation that comes after death: the Judgment. If they were “ashamed of” Jesus and His words in their life, then Jesus “will be ashamed” of them when He returned “in His own glory.” This judgement also has many similarities to Matthew 7:21-23, and Revelation 2:4-5 and 3:15-16.
SECTION THREE - Commentary (What does it mean)
“Praying” is the first thing Jesus is shown to be doing before anything He does in this section; it highlights His communion with the Father and seeking His will in the matter to come (v18). Likewise, Christians are told by Paul to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Constant communication with God, and desiring to know His will for one’s life is shown to be a very important part of a Christian’s daily routine, not only by Jesus’ example but also from Paul’s letter. Jesus is shown to be praying and speaking to God much in the Gospels, which connects to the “without ceasing” of Paul, and many other times Jesus is shown to pray for very long hours, which coincided prior to many of the most important events in His life. For me, I want to do it the way they did it. Jesus example and Paul’s words speak to me saying, “Always think of God. What you have, give thanks. Pray and communicate it to Him. Don’t stop. You will then be doing the “never ceasing,” and when important things come up, it won’t seem like you are only calling on God when things get rough.” I don’t want to take God for granted. People vary in their prayer styles, but, whether one prays for a long uninterrupted time, which needs to happen on occasion, or prays many short prayers throughout their day, the importance of each needs to be made a central focus in the church, and by its members.
“Warned and commanded” expresses the significance of what Jesus was about to say and impresses upon the disciples the importance for it not to be made public knowledge (v21). For me, this tells me that there are some things regarding doctrine that need to be kept within the Church and its members because the outside world has many misconceptions about what it means. I see Christians fighting over doctrine in the public view far too much, and even inserting it into their witnessing to the lost. A Calvinist begins to witness and immediately, the person is given the “five points” review. That person ends up being so disillusioned in the end: “I have to believe all that to be Christian? Forget it!” A Roman Catholic witnessing suddenly has to start telling them about the “seven sacraments” that must be adhered; same result. Christians are putting way to much focus on “pushing” their denomination instead of preaching the Gospel the way it should be done, which is why I favor the Baptists. They do it the way the Jesus and the Apostles did it, except for Judas, which is like a modern day Westboro. No one denomination is perfect.
Works Citied
Holy Bible: NKJV, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Print.
Stein, Robert A. The New American Commentary Volume 24. Nashville, TN: Broadman &
Holman, 1992. Kindle file.
(NKJV), [18] And 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?” [19] So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” [20] He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” [21] And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, [22] saying, “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.” [23] 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. [24] For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. [25] For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? [26] For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.”
SECTION ONE - Exegesis (What does it say)
Up until this point in Jesus’ ministry many people had given multiple different questions and answers about who they thought Jesus was and with what authority He did the things He did. Jesus did not go around merely pronouncing His “Messiah-ship” among the people, instead, He let His works testify for Him (John 5:36). All the people that He had come into contact with could acknowledge that He came from God because of what they themselves had “seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Luke 7:22). Jesus’ many miracles where now widely known, and many people, including the Pharisees and even Herod, the Tetrarch of Judaea, were seeking to speak with Him for various personal reasons, but even from His own Disciples this question still remained: “Who can this be?” (Luke 8:25). The text to be exposited is Luke 9:18-26, which answers the question of who is Jesus, clarifies His role as the Messiah, and states what it means to follow Jesus and truly be His disciple.
Beginning with the names of the various people in this particular section, the foremost is that of Jesus, the promised Jewish Messiah who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophesies concerning Him (Luke 24:44). In this section of Luke, Peter is also involved (v20). He is one of Jesus’ twelve specific disciples, and he is the one that confesses the answer to the long sought after question: “who can this [Jesus] be?” The other disciples are also present during this whole scenario, but they are not mentioned by a specific number. Also, mentioned by the disciples, in response to Jesus’ question, is John the Baptist, who made “straight the way of the LORD” (John 1:23), and the prophet Elijah, who was promised to return before “the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Mal. 4:5). Lastly, in the final address of Jesus, He speaks to a group labeled as “them all” (v23), which must include the disciples previously mentioned as being present, but also leaves room for others besides only them since the wording is not specific.
There are no specific date or time references for this event. Luke only gives an extremely vague “and it happened” to introduce this section (v18). Luke also fails to mention where this specific event actually takes place. The previous event is the feeding of the five thousand, which occurs in “a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida” (v10), but the “and it happened” leaves so much leeway that a specific location cannot be determined from Luke’s gospel alone. It is only by a cross reference of the same event from the other Gospels that one can be sure that this section takes place “on the road” (Mark 8:27), “when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi” (Matt. 16:13), as Jesus “was alone praying” (Luke 9:18). One possibility for Luke’s omission of the “gentile” location is given by Robert Stein in his book, The New American Commentary Volume 24, in which he states that “Luke wanted to limit Jesus' ministry to Galilee due to his geographical scheme” (265). Since Luke is trying to provide “an orderly account,” it does seem logical that a quick change of location only to return back to Galilee after these nine verses would not seem to be very “orderly” at all (Luke 1:3). Furthermore, this section involves instructions to the disciples only, and nothing from what occurred in Philippi is even mentioned.
Luke’s literary features in this section include narrative with two questions and two answers (v18-20), and narrative with teaching and instruction (v21-26). The scholarly consensus is that because of textual dating, early church father quotes, and unmistakable similarities between the synoptic Gospels, Luke had access to at least Matthew or Mark’s Gospel, if not both. From that conclusion, one can understand the striking similarities in the accounts of this section, and attempt to understand why they differ in places. The basic story is essentially the same in all three, but there are some minor word variations such as Mark’s use of the word “soul” (8:36) being omitted in Luke (9:25), which is also most likely the reason that he omits Mark’s next verse altogether (8:37), since it contains a reference back to the same word. Furthermore, there are some “major” omissions in Luke’s account: the location of the episode is mentioned in Matthew (16:13) and Mark (8:27), Peter’s rebuke of Jesus, and vice versa (Mark 8:32-33), Jesus’ praise of Peter (Matt. 16:17-19), and the most glaring difference is that Luke has Jesus’ words being directly spoken by Him (9:22), whereas Matthew (16:21) and Mark (8:31) have the same words being used to only summarize His teaching. Finally, one must read Isaiah chapter 53 to see the correlation of what Jesus spoke of Himself in Luke 9:22 relating to how He “must” suffer and die.
A study of the various words and theological features also yields great knowledge and insight. The verb “praying” (v18) shows Jesus communing with God to seek how He should properly reveal the true nature of His mission on earth and Messiah-ship to the disciples (v22), and the expected forfeiture of one’s own life in order to truly follow Him. He drew their curiosity in with His question, and ceased upon Peter’s answer (v18-20). The serious nature of what Jesus spoke is communicated by how He “warned and commanded” to keep what was spoken private (v21). Jesus “prayed” to God, “asked” the disciples a question, which, in turn, Peter answered and confessed Him as “Christ [Messiah] of God,” and then Jesus revealed what “must” happen to “the Son of Man” with a “warning” and commandment to not tell anyone what they had heard. The key theological feature to this section is the Christology revealing Jesus’ true nature (v20-21), and the commandments for the parameters of being His true disciple (v23-26).
SECTION TWO - Exposition (What did it mean)
In the context of Luke’s Gospel, this chapter is the ending culmination of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. All of Jesus’ work had been witnessed by many, power had been given by Him to the disciples in their being sent out on mission without Him physically present, and, after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Messiah, the transfiguration on the mountain confirms to them the answer to their previous question. The whole Old Testament and the people in it had longed to hear and see what those in Jesus’ generation were witnessing firsthand (Luke 10:24). Every generation that has ever lived looks to the cross, whether in the Old Testament people’s as they looked forward to it, or in the New Testament people’s and the Church of the Body of Christ as they look back to it. Jesus’ revealed in this section of Luke that He “must” go to the cross, and He did so because He was “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
9:18 – Jesus is shown to be “alone praying,” and His disciples “joined Him.” They had just witnessed His power to feed the five thousand, and, as they had many times before known Him to pray, this is the first time it is said that they joined Him. No doubt the disciples had noticed the power Jesus had, and this at least shows that (1) they recognized the power of prayer, and (2), they understood that Jesus had a special relationship with God. Recognizing these two points, Jesus asks them an indirect question to get their curiosity engaged: “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
9:19 – “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah… [or] one of the old prophets.” The disciple’s answers for what the “crowds” were saying may have been their own personal thoughts as well. Even if the crowds did say these things, asking the question in the way that Jesus did allowed the disciples to freely propose what was in their hearts without attaching themselves directly to the answer.
9:20 – “But who do you say that I am?” Now Jesus was striking into their hearts and wanted an answer from them: “You all know me the best and have seen all that I have done; you are my closest associates. Who do you think I am?” One can imagine hearing only the sound of crickets and a few “Umm… ah’s” for a brief minute as they pondered within themselves. Peter put it all together and knew in his heart the only answer: “The Christ of God.” Wearing his heart on his sleeve would often leave his foot in his mouth, but Peter could no longer deny what he knew to be true.
9:21 – “He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one.” Jesus knew that the Jewish people had a false understanding of what the Messiah would do (conqueror), and He knew what actually needed to be accomplished (suffering servant), so He made sure that it would only be revealed to the people at the proper time.
9:22 – the verb “must” is extremely important in this verse. There were no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it; His suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection “must” happen: “without [the] shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins]” (Heb. 9:22).
9:23 – Jesus often said to people, “follow me.” Now He gives prerequisites to those who wish to “come after” Him: (1) “let him deny himself” – do not seek the pleasures of a sinful life, instead, seek and think of the things above, and the will of God in one’s life (Col. 3:2). (2) “take up his cross daily” – the Roman cross was known by the disciples as an instrument of execution for criminals. If they wanted to follow Jesus, every day they must kill the old sinful man and his desires. (3) “follow Me” – they had to be willing to do what Jesus was doing in His life on earth (seek and save the lost), and going to do in His death on the cross (God’s will), in order to be raised from the dead as He was raised (Rom. 8:11).
9:24 – “whoever desires to save his life will lose it” – if they could not give up and turn away from their sins, they were basically trying to save the old sinful man from truly dying, and that would cause them to be dragged down to Hell with him (Luke 13:3). “whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” – truly giving up the old life is to “lose” one’s life, and it is the most difficult thing to do. A wise person once said: “The old man is dead, but I know where he is buried.” The flesh wars against the spirit constantly (Gal. 5:17). Jesus was telling the disciples that if they gave up their old life’s ways for His sake, they would be saved.
9:25 – Jesus explains that even if they were to live their life to the fullest apart from Him, and they happened to gain “the whole world,” death would still come and all that they had gained would be lost (Luke 12:16-21).
9:26 – Jesus fully illustrates the seriousness of the situation that comes after death: the Judgment. If they were “ashamed of” Jesus and His words in their life, then Jesus “will be ashamed” of them when He returned “in His own glory.” This judgement also has many similarities to Matthew 7:21-23, and Revelation 2:4-5 and 3:15-16.
SECTION THREE - Commentary (What does it mean)
“Praying” is the first thing Jesus is shown to be doing before anything He does in this section; it highlights His communion with the Father and seeking His will in the matter to come (v18). Likewise, Christians are told by Paul to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Constant communication with God, and desiring to know His will for one’s life is shown to be a very important part of a Christian’s daily routine, not only by Jesus’ example but also from Paul’s letter. Jesus is shown to be praying and speaking to God much in the Gospels, which connects to the “without ceasing” of Paul, and many other times Jesus is shown to pray for very long hours, which coincided prior to many of the most important events in His life. For me, I want to do it the way they did it. Jesus example and Paul’s words speak to me saying, “Always think of God. What you have, give thanks. Pray and communicate it to Him. Don’t stop. You will then be doing the “never ceasing,” and when important things come up, it won’t seem like you are only calling on God when things get rough.” I don’t want to take God for granted. People vary in their prayer styles, but, whether one prays for a long uninterrupted time, which needs to happen on occasion, or prays many short prayers throughout their day, the importance of each needs to be made a central focus in the church, and by its members.
“Warned and commanded” expresses the significance of what Jesus was about to say and impresses upon the disciples the importance for it not to be made public knowledge (v21). For me, this tells me that there are some things regarding doctrine that need to be kept within the Church and its members because the outside world has many misconceptions about what it means. I see Christians fighting over doctrine in the public view far too much, and even inserting it into their witnessing to the lost. A Calvinist begins to witness and immediately, the person is given the “five points” review. That person ends up being so disillusioned in the end: “I have to believe all that to be Christian? Forget it!” A Roman Catholic witnessing suddenly has to start telling them about the “seven sacraments” that must be adhered; same result. Christians are putting way to much focus on “pushing” their denomination instead of preaching the Gospel the way it should be done, which is why I favor the Baptists. They do it the way the Jesus and the Apostles did it, except for Judas, which is like a modern day Westboro. No one denomination is perfect.
Works Citied
Holy Bible: NKJV, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Print.
Stein, Robert A. The New American Commentary Volume 24. Nashville, TN: Broadman &
Holman, 1992. Kindle file.