DON’T BE ASHAMED

Luke 9:22-27

Luk 9:22 by saying, “The Son of Man has to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Luk 9:23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Luk 9:24 Because whoever wants to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for my sake will save it.
Luk 9:25 Because what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but destroys or loses himself in the process?
Luk 9:26 Because whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Luk 9:27 But I tell you for a fact, there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the kingdom of God.”

victorious victim

The words Jesus refers to are the very ones His disciples struggled to accept—His clear, deliberate prediction that He would suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise again. They were eager to embrace His identity as Messiah, but they recoiled at the path that identity required. They wanted glory without Golgotha, triumph without tragedy, a crown without a cross. But Jesus refused to let them hold a half‑truth. If He was truly the Messiah, then His suffering was not an accident of history; it was the heart of His mission.

This is why the question “Was Jesus a victim or victorious?” is too small. True followers know He is both. He was a victim in the sense that He willingly placed Himself into the hands of those who hated Him. He allowed Himself to be betrayed, arrested, mocked, beaten, and crucified. None of that happened because He was powerless. It happened because He chose it. His victimhood was voluntary, purposeful, and redemptive. And precisely because He chose the path of suffering, He became victorious—over sin, over death, over every power that sought to destroy Him. His victory was not in avoiding the cross but in conquering through it.

And then comes the part we often prefer to overlook: He calls us into the same pattern. Not the same sacrifice—only He could die for the sins of the world—but the same shape of life. A life marked by self‑giving love. A life that refuses to cling to comfort or status. A life that understands that following Jesus means walking behind Him, even when the road bends downward before it rises upward. He invites us into His victory, but He also challenges us to embrace His way of the cross.

This is not a call to misery; it is a call to meaning. It is not a summons to defeat; it is a summons to the kind of life that cannot be destroyed because it has already surrendered everything to God. Daily crosses do not crush us—they shape us into the likeness of the One who carried His cross for us.

So we pray: Lord, give us the courage to glorify You by taking up our daily crosses. Teach us to follow the path Your Son walked, trusting that the One who chose the cross also secured the crown, and that His victory will one day be ours.