If anyone wants to be popular and have a following, he must know how to please the people.
He must know what the people like to hear and be able to entice them to follow him.
Certainly he would use words that would paint a rosy picture of the future and how good life would be if the people were to choose him as their leader.
But in the gospel, what Jesus did was rather quite the opposite.
At a time when everyone was full of admiration for all He did, Jesus said to His disciples: For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind - The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men.
His disciples did not understand what He said; maybe they also didn't want to understand, for fear of being disappointed in their expectations of Jesus.
After all, Jesus was popular and the people were full of admiration of Him, and so His disciples were also afraid to ask about what Jesus said for fear that the rosy picture would be shattered.
But we should know better. Following Jesus would certainly mean nothing less than the cross.
Also we know that our reward for being faithful to Jesus is not in this life but in the next.
Still, we will not be shortchanged of God's blessings in this life.
The blessings of peace and joy in following Jesus will be our motivation here on earth and a preparation of the eternal peace and joy of above.