Luke 9:23

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23-27) If any man will come after me.—See Notes on Matthew 16:24-28; Mark 8:34; Mark 9:1.

Take up his cross daily.—The adverb is peculiar to St. Luke’s report, and at least reminds us of St. Paul’s “I die daily” (1Corinthians 15:31).

Benson Commentary

Luke 9:23-27. And he said to them all, &c. — Not only to his disciples, as mentioned by Matthew, but to the people also, whom, Mark observes, he called unto him, as well as his disciples, to hear the very important doctrine which he was about to deliver, contained in this paragraph, of which see the notes on Matthew 16:24-27; and Mark 8:34-38. Let him deny himself and take up his cross — The necessity of this duty has been shown in many places; the extent of it is specified here, daily — Therefore, that day is lost wherein no cross is taken up.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:18-27 It is an unspeakable comfort that our Lord Jesus is God's Anointed; this signifies that he was both appointed to be the Messiah, and qualified for it. Jesus discourses concerning his own sufferings and death. And so far must his disciples be from thinking how to prevent his sufferings, that they must prepare for their own. We often meet with crosses in the way of duty; and though we must not pull them upon our own heads, yet, when they are laid for us, we must take them up, and carry them after Christ. It is well or ill with us, according as it is well or ill with our souls. The body cannot be happy, if the soul be miserable in the other world; but the soul may be happy, though the body is greatly afflicted and oppressed in this world. We must never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Christ of God - The "Anointed" of God. The "Messiah" appointed by God, and who had been long promised by him. See the notes at Matthew 1:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 9:18-27. Peter's Confession of Christ—Our Lord's First Explicit Announcement of His Approaching Death, and Warnings Arising Out of It.

(See on [1609]Mt 16:13-28; and Mr 8:34).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 23,24. We have met with these words before, See Poole on "Matthew 16:24", See Poole on "Matthew 16:25". See Poole on "Matthew 10:38", See Poole on "Matthew 10:39". See Poole on "Mark 8:34" and See Poole on "Mark 8:35".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said to them all,.... Not only to all the disciples, but "to the multitude", as the Arabic version renders it, who were now called unto him, with his disciples, as is clear from Mark 8:34,

any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me; the same is said here, as in Matthew 16:24; see Gill on Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, only here the word, "daily", is added; and which, though as Beza observes, is not in the Complutensian edition, nor in five ancient copies; yet is in others, and in the Vulgate Latin, and in all the Oriental versions; and to be retained, as having a very considerable emphasis in it; showing that afflictions, trials, and persecutions of one sort or another, are to be expected every day by the people of God, and to be continually submitted to, and borne with cheerfulness.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross {g} daily, and follow me.

(g) Even as one day follows another, so does one cross follow another, and the cross is by the figure of speech metonymy taken for the miseries of this life: for to be hanged on the cross was the most grievous and cruel punishment that there was amongst the Jews.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 9:23-27. See on Matthew 16:24-28; Mark 8:34 to Mark 9:1.

πρὸς πάντας] to all, is not to be taken as: in reference to all, nor is it said in contrast to Peter, so that what Matthew relates, Luke 16:22 f., may be unconsciously presupposed (de Wette leaves the choice between the two); but as αὐτοῖς, ver 21, refers to the apostles, πάντας must refer to a wider circle. Luke leaves it to the reader to conclude from πάντας that there were still others close by to whom, beside the disciples, that which follows was addressed. Comp. on Mark 8:34. Luke 9:18 does not exclude the approach of others which may have occurred meanwhile. But with Luke 9:22 closed the confidential discourse with the Twelve; what Jesus has now yet further to enter upon in continuation of the communication of Luke 9:22 is to be said not merely to them, but to all.

καθʼ ἡμέραν] involuntarily suggested by the experience of a later period; 1 Corinthians 15:31; Romans 8:36; 2 Corinthians 4:16 f.

Luke 9:25. ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἀπολ. ἢ ζημ.] if he … however, shall have lost himself, or have suffered damage (ἤ, not equivalent to καί, but introducing another word for the same idea). Himself, i.e. not “his better self” (de Wette), but, according to Luke 9:24, his own life. Excluded from the Messiah’s kingdom, the man is in the condition of θάνατος; not living (in the ζωὴ αἰώνιος), he is dead; he is dead as well as no more present (οὐκ εἰσί, Matthew 2:18), he has lost himself.

Luke 9:26. ἐν τῇ δόξῃ κ. τ. λ.] A threefold glory:—(1) His own, which He has absolutely as the exalted Messiah (comp. Luke 24:26); (2) The glory of God, which accompanies Him who comes down from the throne of God; (3) The glory of the angels, who surround with their brightness Him who comes down from God’s throne (comp. Matthew 28:3 and elsewhere; Hahn, Theol. d. N. T. § 116). The genitives have all the same reference, genitives of the subject.

Luke 9:27. ἀληθῶς] not belonging to λέγω (in that case it would be a translation of ἀμήν, and would come first, as in Luke 12:44, Luke 21:3), but to what follows

αὐτοῦ] (see the critical remarks) here, Acts 15:34; Matthew 26:36; Plato, Polit. i. p. 327 C, and elsewhere.

τὴν βασιλ. τ. Θεοῦ] the kingdom of the Messiah, not less definite, but simpler than Matthew and Mark.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 9:23. ἔλεγε δὲ πρὸς πάντας: with this formula Lk. smoothly passes from Christ’s statement concerning His own Passion to the kindred topic of cross-bearing as the law of discipleship. The discourse on that theme is reproduced in much the same terms as in the parallel accounts. But it loses greatly in point by the omission of the Master’s rebuke to Peter for his opposition to the Passion. That rebuke gives to the discourse this meaning: you object to my suffering? I tell you not only must I suffer; it is the inevitable lot of all who have due regard to the Divine interest in this world. Thus the first lesson Jesus taught the Twelve on the significance of His death was that it was the result of moral fidelity, and that as such it was but an instance of a universal law of the moral order of the world. This great doctrine, the ethical aspect of the Passion, is not made clear in Lk.—καθʼ ἡμέραν, daily, in Lk. only, a true epexegetical addition, yet restricting the sense, directing attention to the commonplace trials of ordinary Christian life, rather than to the great tribulations at crises in a heroic career, in which the law of cross-bearing receives its signal illustration. This addition makes it probable that πάντας refers not only to the disciples, but to a larger audience: the law applies not to leaders only but to all followers of Jesus.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23-27. The Cross and the Kingdom.

23. And he said to them all] The word “all” implies the fact mentioned by St Mark (Mark 8:34), that before continuing His discourse He called up to Him the multitudes who were at a little distance. St Luke here omits the presumption and rebuke of St Peter, which is alone sufficient to dispose of the unworthy theory of some German theologians that he writes with an animus against St Peter, or with some desire to disparage his position.

take up his cross] A dim intimation of the still unrevealed imminence of His crucifixion, and a continuance of the lesson that to follow Christ meant not earthly gain but entire self-sacrifice, Luke 14:26-27; Acts 14:22.

daily] “For thy sake we are killed all the day long,” Romans 8:36. “I die daily,” 1 Corinthians 15:31.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 9:23, Ἔλεγε, He said) Matthew states the occasion of His speaking thus, which having taken for granted, Luke thinks it sufficient to set down the discourse itself.—πρὸς πάντας, to all) even to those who had not heard concerning the coming Passion of the Lord.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Before sketching out the life which the true disciples of a suffering King Messiah must lead on earth, our Lord seems to have given notice of one of his public discourses. Even though his great popularity was now on the wane, to the last he was evidently listened to by crowds, if not with enthusiasm, certainly with eager and impatient curiosity. The sermon, of which we have the outline in the next five verses, and the subject-matter of which was, "No cross, no crown," was preached evidently to the masses. This is plain from the opening words of ver. 23. The sermon was evidently a hard saying, and, no doubt, gave bitter offence to many of the hearers. "If any man will," that is, wishes to, "come after me, to follow me where I am going" (Jesus was going to his kingdom), "let that man be prepared to give up earthly ease and comfort, and be ready to bear the sufferings which will be sure to fall on him if he struggle after holiness." This readiness to give up ease, this willingness to bear suffering, will be a matter, they must remember, of everyday experience. The terrible simile with which the Lord pressed his stern lesson home was, of course, suggested to him by the clear view he had of the fearful end of his own earthly life - an end then so near at hand, though the disciples guessed it not. The cross was no unknown image to the Jews who that day listened to the Master. The gloomy procession of robbers and of rebels against Rome, each condemned one bearing to the place of death the cross on which he was to suffer, was a sadly familiar image then in their unhappy land. Luke 9:23

Vincent's Word Studies

Will come after (θέλει)

Not the future tense of the verb come, but the present of the verb to will: wills to come. See on Matthew 1:19; and Mark 8:34. Rev., properly, would come.

Daily

Peculiar to Luke.