Discipleship is Daily Surrender

What does it truly mean to follow Jesus? In Luke 9, Jesus makes a radical declaration to his disciples about the cost of discipleship. After Peter correctly identifies Jesus as God's Messiah, Jesus doesn't celebrate with fanfare. Instead, he reveals three non-negotiables for anyone who wants to follow him: deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me. These aren't suggestions or spiritual recommendations for the especially devoted. They're marked by the word 'must.' The cross wasn't a decorative symbol in the first century; it was an instrument of death that everyone recognized. When Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily, he's calling us to voluntary, daily spiritual death to our own desires and plans. This isn't about physical martyrdom, but about surrendering our lives so completely that we can experience the resurrected life Jesus offers. The tension is real: we can't live a resurrected life if we're unwilling to die to ourselves. We can't say yes to Jesus while continuing to do everything our way. The question confronts each of us: either Jesus is who he said he was, and we should spend our lives pursuing him with everything we have, or he isn't. There's no comfortable middle ground where we believe in Jesus but live on our own terms.