The Thursday after the First Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord
Posted on January 15, 2026 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 16:24-27 (NKJV)
16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Devotion
Just before today’s text, Peter rebukes the Savior when Jesus says that He “must go to Jerusalem.” But doesn’t that “bloody talk” sometimes offend our sensitive ears, too? Even if you are not troubled by it, has the thought “crossed” your mind that the “thing” on the altar is bad for business? Can’t we just limit the damage to Good Friday and spread Christmas and Easter cheer throughout the rest of the year?
But the cross is necessary. The cross is what defeats the devil. It is the one thing he does not want Jesus to have. Anything but the cross. The one who once overcame Adam by a tree—the tree of knowing good and evil—would be overcome by the tree of the cross. And he would stop at nothing to have Jesus bypass it. He tried the direct route in the Judean wilderness; in today’s reading he tried the indirect route, using Peter, Jesus’ ‘right hand man’. But Jesus’ focus and determination literally saved the day each and every time. As His disciples, we are expected to do no less as we take up our cross and follow Him.
Collect: O Lord, we beseech Thee mercifully to receive the prayers of Thy people who call upon Thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; 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.
