Matthew 16:21-28
21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands
of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third
day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying,
"God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." 23 But he
turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block
to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who
want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake
will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but
forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27
"For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father,
and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son
of Man coming in his kingdom."
It was the first Christmas I had an
actual paying job. I decided that even though I was stilled considered one of
the “kids” I was going to buy gifts for everyone in my family that year. For
most of the people in my family, I found it to be a pretty simple task,
especially if there were couples (aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters,
etc.); I could simply group them together and buy them something to share or
use together, like kitchen gadgets and toys. For others in my family it was a
bit trickier, but I think I did alright, but then there was my dad (whose
birthday also just happens to be Christmas Day).
Now, shopping for my dad is difficult
because, well, dad never seems to want anything or have any real interests, so
it’s hard to know exactly what he’ll like. Most of the people on that side of
my family get out of such a predicament
by buying Dad the same gag gifts every year, whether it’s a pair of cheap
sunglasses or a ball point pen, we all laugh and chalk it up to “tradition” and
go on about the business of gift-giving. But that first year I bought gifts I
decided I was going to be different; I was going to buy dad a “real” gift, something
he could use, something he didn’t already have, something that wasn’t another
tool or redundant piece of gag gift tradition that would get lost in the
wrapping paper as it was thrown out later that morning. I had decided that I
was going to “win” Christmas that year.
So I consulted with my step-mom and
she told that my dad really needed some “normal” clothes. You see, dad tended
to rotate between his work uniform during the day and pajama pants once he
settled down for the night. Therefore, getting dad “normal” clothes seemed like
the perfect gift. I remember even thinking to myself how such a gift could go
so far as to change Dad’s very way of life: he’d have some “walking around
clothes,” “Sunday clothes,” clothes he could wear out in public without looking
like he was at work, clothes that could possibly wear to a “sit down”
restaurant, or even clothes he could wear when people who weren’t kin to us
came over to our house! Now, don’t get the wrong idea: my dad didn’t walk
around looking like an unpresentable mess; he just wasn’t (isn’t) what you
might call “fashion-forward.”
Well, with my dad’s clothing sizes
in hand, I headed to the place I knew I could find some nice clothes, a place
where I bought most of my clothes—Wal-Mart. I decided since I was my father’s
son that my dad would probably share the same taste in clothes as I did, so I
picked out a pair of pants—khaki-colored cargo pants (these were going to be
non-work clothes after all)—and a shirt—a plaid, cotton, button-down shirt. I
made my way to the register feeling as if I had just climbed Mt. Everest or
swam the Pacific Ocean, as if I had done the impossible. I brought the clothes
home, put them in a gift box, and wrapped them for Christmas. When the day came
and it was time, I handed Dad the box and waited for what I was sure would be a
monumental moment in my family’s history. Dad peeled off the paper, broke the
tape holding the box closed, and when he opened the box he looked across the
room at me and said, “I think you put the wrong name on this box, son.” I don’t
think he ever wore those clothes, but it wasn’t because he mean-spirited or
ungrateful: they just weren’t his style. So much for my plan to change my dad’s
personal life with a pair of pants and a plaid shirt: it was an honest gesture,
but one that honestly came from the wrong place, the wrong perspective.
That sort of thing happens all the time though, doesn’t it? We make
plans, execute them perfectly, yet they still don’t pan out the way we want.
Sometimes it’s because the timing is all wrong. Other times it’s because we’ve
underestimated the outcome. When it comes to matters of faith, however, I
believe that when our plans don’t pan out, when we don’t get things the way we
want, it’s likely because our hearts and minds are in the wrong place; we’re
seeing things from the wrong perspective. We have to get our minds right. And
we have to keep them right.
I believe it’s just this sort of thing we’ve witnessed in this text from
Matthew’s gospel this morning. You see, just prior to this text, in verses 13-19, Jesus gives the disciples
a sort of, messianic, Christological, pop-quiz: “…he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some
say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of
the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell
you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of
Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Man. I bet Peter’s
head swelled so much with pride he had to prop it up with sticks on his
shoulders just to keep it from rolling off his neck! Peter gave the right
answer: Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and since Peter’s confession of
Jesus as the Christ was spot-on and true, Jesus declares him the rock (“Peter”
comes from the Greek word petros,
which means “rock”), the rock on which Jesus will build a Hades-proof Church.
On top of that, Jesus declares that Peter has the keys to the kingdom and can
bind and loose things on earth and in heaven. That’s a lot of power to bestow so
suddenly onto a rough, ole fisherman from Galilee. Of course, it isn’t long
before Peter puts his foot in his mouth as such power seems to have gone
straight to his head, knocking his mind off track.
In our text this morning, we find a sort of turning point in Matthew’s
telling of the gospel narrative: “From that time on…” suggests that
there has been a shift, an indication that the story is going to take on a
different tone from this point forward, and it does as Jesus and the disciples
draw closer to Jerusalem and closer to Jesus’ inevitable execution on a Roman
cross. That
shift is further emphasized by the first of Jesus’ predictions concerning his
crucifixion in verse 21: Jesus began to show his disciples that he
must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
This marks a distinct change in tone from a narrative filled with moral
teachings, prayers, and healings, to a narrative defined by the looming
presence of the cross.
Jesus is no longer just the good teacher, blessing the poor, meek, and
lonely in his sermon on the mount; he’s much more than that, and one would
think that Peter (the one who confessed Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah) would
get that, that he would understand that this shift in tone was coming…but he
didn’t. In fact, it seems like all that bragging Jesus did on Peter had gone to
the Rock’s head and only acted to harden it, because we hear Peter in verse 22 pull Jesus to the side and try
to straighten him out on all this “suffering, getting killed, and resurrecting
business.” Peter says, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen
to you.” Imagine the intestinal fortitude it would take for one who has
just claimed that Jesus is in fact the Son of the Living God to say to that
same Jesus, “What you just said…yeah, that’s not going to happen!” In effect,
Peter tells Jesus, “Over my dead body will these things happen. I pray to God
they don’t!” Peter must have had some guts to stand up to Jesus like that, to
pull him aside and set him straight…well, he either had guts or he was out of
his mind!
The latter seems to be the case given Jesus’ response to Peter in verse 23: “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are
setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” The rock
previously proclaimed as the foundation stone of the Church has become a
stumbling block to the Messiah. Peter’s mind isn’t right; he’s got a plan for
what the Messiah is going to do, what the Christ is supposed to be. Peter’s
plan is fixed upon the notion of a Christ who preaches good news and blessings,
a Messiah who quietly sticks up for the little guy while putting the powerful
in their place through his mastery of Scripture. Peter’s plan has no room for a
suffering, rejected, crucified Christ.
Jesus is so disturbed by Peter’s misunderstanding that he calls Peter
“Satan,” and to make sure the rest of his followers understand the fullness of
what following him as Messiah means, Jesus says in verses 24-26: "If any want
to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who
lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they
gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return
for their life?” This clarification from Jesus seems necessary at this
point in the gospel journey, for if the Rock missed the point, surely the rest
would too, as they most assuredly had their own visions, their own hopes of
what the Messiah might be. Likely, their collected minds were not right as they
focused on those things of this world, those things that would have made their
lives better, those things that would, in essence, save their lives from
poverty, from oppression, from the hard times of this world. But according to Jesus, the gospel isn’t about comfort,
complacency, or golden crowns of power—the gospel is about suffering,
rejection, selflessness. It’s about a cross!
Following Jesus is not going to guarantee one safety and protection from
the pains and grief of this world. In fact, it is in many ways a guarantee that
one will most certainly face more pain and more grief! Lest we be confused,
however, it is important to say here that the gospel really doesn’t begin with
us in the first place. The suffering that comes with the cross-bearing
discipleship of God’s kingdom is not a suffering meant to be put on display in
order to draw pity, attention, or the admiration of martyrdom. No, the
suffering that comes with the disciple’s cross is one that finds its genesis in
self-rejection, in the ever-lessening presence of selfishness and sin and the
ever-growing presence of the suffering Son of God. That’s the message we so
desperately need to hear as Christ’s disciples in this culture we have created
today.
We need to hear that the call to discipleship is (in the words of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer) “the call to come and die.” That the title “Christian” is not one for our own making, nor is it a title
that ought to demand positions of power and privilege. We need to be reminded
that the shape of the gospel is a cross and not the dollar sign! We need to get
our minds right! Because too many people who call themselves Christians,
Christ-followers, disciples, believe that the way to glory is paved by their
efforts, their hopes and dreams of prosperity in this world (even at the
expense of others). We need to hear those words of Jesus, jarring us to
radical, self-surrendering discipleship, reminding us that while we may desire
the world, in the end we may just lose our own souls. We need to get our minds
right and understand that when Christ calls us to come and follow him it is not
simply so he may make us lie down in green pastures or lead us by the still
waters, for it is also a call to follow him through the dark valleys and even
up the hill called Calvary to the pain of a cross!
May you hear the call of the Christ to come and follow. May you hear and
not give in to the temptation to believe that it is a call to comfort and
prosperity. May you hear the call of Christ for what it is, a call to come and
die, so that you may truly live, so that you may truly live in the fullness of
Christ and the absence of sin and selfishness. May you hear the call to come
and die, to come and follow Jesus, and may you respond to that call this day.
Amen.
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