Today’s reading is Luke 9.

Crowds were following Jesus everywhere. They wanted to experience His healing touch and to hear His words.

When Jesus and His disciples were in private, Jesus asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” The disciples said, “John, Elijah, the prophets of long ago come back to life.” Jesus asked “But what about you?”

What we think about who Jesus is, is important. If He is “God’s Messiah,” the King of Kings, then He deserves the place of King within our hearts.
As Lord and King, Jesus tells us how we are to follow Him.

”Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”

Luke‬ ‭9‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We must abandon our ways, take up Jesus’s way and follow Him! Jesus’s way is the cross. The cross requires total surrender of ourself (death of our independent ways) so Jesus can live in us.

The crowds, who followed Jesus, could only experience Him from a distance. It was the ones who were His disciples that got to experience His intimacy and friendship.

This is true of us today. We can know about Jesus from a distance, or we can know Him intimately. But we must come to Him on His terms— the cross. His disciples will take up their cross and follow Him.