Daily Bible Reading 5th August 2026 // Luke 9:18-27
18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”
But there is also another strand, which speaks of a Suffering One; and the Jews, by and large, never understood this, which was like a minor motif in the grand symphony of the Coming One. Again and again it breaks out in the Old Testament revelation: but they could not reconcile it with the other. Clearly, to Peter, the idea that the Messiah should suffer was abhorrent. It is clear, also, that the early Church thought that this twofold teaching was of supreme importance - the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and the fact that the promised Messiah must suffer (cf Acts 17:2, 3 - this was ever the burden of Paul's evangelistic message to the Jews and in the synagogues in which he preached). In this connection let us remember that the gospels simply represent what the early Church believed about Christ. They faithfully reflect His twofold ministry and teach that He was the Messiah and that He must suffer. It was the preaching of this that constituted for them the preaching of the gospel, the basis on which God offered a free and full forgiveness and the gift of life to all who believed on His Name.
Here, then, is the relevance of the passage for us: a twofold thrust, first of all, that this Jesus, the historical Figure we see in the record, is the long-promised Messiah, foretold in inspired Writ as the One whom God would send; and, secondly, that the way He was to become the Saviour was to suffer and die on the Cross and rise again on the third day for our salvation.