The Saturday after the Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 11, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 9:18-26 (NKJV)
9:18 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.”
Devotion
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
With this memorable and paradoxical statement, Jesus teaches what it means to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. While non-Christians cling to the comforts and pleasures of this life, for us the things of this life are dispensable. We are willing to give up and deny ourselves these things, if that is the cross which God has laid upon us. That is what Jesus means when He says “whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
Note, however, we do not “desire” to lose our lives! Jesus does not say that Christians should seek out suffering in this life or invent hardship for themselves. The cross is an assignment. It is given to each Christian, according to the almighty will of God.
Through the comfort of the Scriptures, we learn not to be ashamed or offended by these crosses. Rather, we rejoice in them! Though the whole world become lost to us, we have our treasure in heaven. Through faith in Christ, we already have the victory, since Jesus won it for us by the cross which He bore.
Collect: O God, Who hast prepared for them that love Thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward Thee, that we, loving Thee above all things, may obtain Thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
