NOTES for Luk 9:23-27

Having revealed the will of the Father that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be killed, and on the third day rise again, the Lord, as the Evangelist Luke writes, addresses "all". It is obvious that the Evangelist means those crowds of people who followed Jesus and flocked to Him wherever He appeared. But such is the mystery of divinely inspired books: a strictly historical indication sometimes turns in them into something more general.

Of course, the words of Christ that we read today are addressed to all people in general: "whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me". As a Shepherd going ahead of the sheep, the Lord showed the path of salvation and life — this is His Way of the Cross. And this path is such that there is no profit for a person to remain aside from it. If a person does not walk along it, giving his life to God to the end, he remains in his human limitation and mortality. In essence, this means quite simple things. Mainly it is about the fact that the Lord expects from us that our time and energy, attention and love be given to other people and, consequently, to God.

The path to which Christ calls us is a life not for oneself, but for God, Who has chosen to abide in our neighbors. It is an agonizingly difficult path, because it is difficult to renounce self-will and accept the hatred of the world. Of course, this is the way of the Cross — the Lord speaks of this directly. But it is no less important that this is the only path to resurrection.