Mark 8:34-38 (NKJV) Take Up the Cross and Follow Him
(Matt. 16:24–27; Luke 9:23–26)
34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:38 – 9:1 (NKJV) (Matt. 16:28—17:13; Luke 9:27–36; 2 Pet. 1:16–18)
1 And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”
V34 “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Jesus addresses these words to all people present. He speaks a strong statement. If someone wants to follow Jesus, they must deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow Me. Deny themselves refers to doing God’s will before our own will. It is a submission to God’s will. Take up the cross refers to the Christian life, worldview, doctrines, etc. that many of the unsaved will attack as foolishness and lies. We have been warned. The Christian faith is worth it, because it is true.
V35 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” When threatened with death if we will not deny Jesus, what will we do? If we deny Jesus, then there is eternal loss. If we acknowledge Jesus, then eternal life. It is a test. Peter denied the Lord Jesus 3 times (Matthew 26:69-75). He did not lose his salvation because it was not a permanent denial and walking away from the faith. See Matthew 26:75; also note that Peter never did so again.
(Wuest Word Studies): “The word “life” here is not bios referring to one’s physical existence and its needs but psuchē, referring to the soul, that part of man which wills, and thinks, and feels, or in other words, to the willpower, the reason, and the emotions, to the personality with all his activities, hopes, and aspirations. That is, the person who desires to so live that these will find self-gratification, will lose that which alone makes the activity of these things worthwhile and satisfying. God has so created man, that he does not find complete rest and satisfaction until his entire being is swallowed up in the sweet will of God. This is Jesus’ teaching here. Our Lord is not here giving the terms upon which God will give salvation, for self-denial never saved a soul from sin. Only Jesus’ blood can do that. Jesus is here giving His philosophy of life.”
V36 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Some would want control over the whole world and its money. This is a temporary thing for all die. It would also be a usurpation and God would judge it severely. Jesus is the king of the universe. See Revelation 1:5, Zechariah 14:9, and Psalm 22:27-28. The usurpation is when the antiChrist enters the third temple, sits in the temple as god, and puts up his image. See Matthew 24:15, Daniel 9:27, and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.
V37 “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Our soul, the real person we are, never ceases to exist. It must be redeemed, bought back from the addiction to sin. No one is capable of that. So, no matter how wonderful some people are, they do not measure up to God’s standards. The soul is of such greater worth than even the whole world. Money is not eternally important, nor power, nor fame. Our soul lives forever either in torment or peace. Faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is the only way to have peace and rest for eternity.
V38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” This would apply when we are asked if we are Christians and we answer, “No.” This was especially true for the Jews listening to Jesus, for they were threatened with a ban from the Temple (John 9:34-35). May God help us. The consequences of being of the Lord Jesus is that He will be ashamed of us when He returns (the second coming at the end of the tribulation).
Adam Clarke comments on this verse: “Whosoever – shall be ashamed of me – Our Lord hints here at one of the principal reasons of the incredulity of the Jews – they saw nothing in the person of Jesus Christ which corresponded to the pompous notions which they had formed of the Messiah.
“If Jesus Christ had come into the world as a mighty and opulent man, clothed with earthly glories and honors, he would have had a multitude of partisans, and most of them hypocrites.
“And of my words – This was another subject of offense to the Jews: the doctrine of the cross must be believed; a suffering Messiah must be acknowledged; and poverty and affliction must be borne; and death, perhaps, suffered in consequence of becoming his disciples.
“Of him, and of his words, in this sense, the world is, to this day, ashamed.”
V1 “And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” This passage is best taken with the preceding verses. Who are the some? Jesus is speaking to this group of disciples. Some of them will see the King of the kingdom of God, Jesus, transfigured.
Comments:
(Warren W. Wiersbe): “It takes faith to accept and practice this lesson on discipleship, so six days later, the Lord gave a dazzling proof that God indeed does transform suffering into glory. (Luke’s “about eight days” is inclusive of the day of the lesson and the day of the glory, Luke 9:28.) He took Peter, James, and John to the top of a mountain (it may have been Mt. Hermon), and there He revealed His glory. This event was a vivid confirmation of His words as recorded in Mark 8:38 as well as a demonstration of the glory of the future kingdom (Mark 9:1; John 1:14; 2 Peter 1:12-21). The message was clear: first the suffering, then the glory.”
(Long quote but necessary from the Pulpit commentary): “Till they see the kingdom of God come with power. In St. Matthew 16:28 the words run thus: “Till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” In St. Luke 9:27, “Till they see the kingdom of God.” All these evangelists connect their record of the Transfiguration with these predictive words—a circumstance which must not be lost sight of in their interpretation. The question, therefore, is whether or how far the Transfiguration is to be regarded as a fulfillment of these words. One thing seems plain, that the Transfiguration, if a fulfillment at all, was not an exhaustive fulfillment of the words. The solemnity of their introduction forbids us to limit them to an event which would happen within eight days of their utterance. But there was an event impending, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, involving the overthrow of the Jewish polity, which, coming as it did within forty or fifty years of the time when our Lord uttered these words, might reasonably have been expected to take place within the lifetime of some of those then standing there. And that great catastrophe was frequently alluded to by our Lord as a type and earnest of the great judgment at the end of the world. What relation, then, did the Transfiguration hold to these two events and to the prediction contained in this verse? It was surely a prelude and pledge of what should be hereafter, specially designed to brace and strengthen the apostles for the sight of the sufferings of their Master, and to animate them to endure the toil and the trials of the Christian life. So that the Transfiguration was an event, so to speak, parenthetic to this prediction—a preliminary manifestation, for the special advantage of those who witnessed it; though given also “for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
We learn:
• Our soul is more important than owning the whole world.
• We must not deny being a Christ-follower.
Questions:
• How do we handle ridicule for being a Christian?
• What are our priorities?