August 29, 2017 - Matthew 16:21-28

Listen here.

The Reading: Matthew 16:21-28 – But before I read this, I need to remind you of the context of the reading. Last week’s Gospel lesson was Matthew 16:13-20, in which Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter answered beautifully because of God’s revelation, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In our reading this week Jesus will reveal that being the Christ means that He will suffer, die, and rise. Peter will not respond so well to that news. Matthew 16:21-28: (I am reading from the English Standard Version translation.)  

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from 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, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

 ²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. ²⁸ Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matt. 16:21-28 ESV)

I don’t know about you, but I can’t help feeling a little bit sorry for Peter in this reading. He goes from, “Blessed are your Simon Bar-Jonah!” to “Get behind me, Satan!” with whiplash-inducing speed. The problem is that Peter doesn’t want Jesus to suffer, which is kind of him, but he doesn’t understand that it is by suffering and dying that Jesus would atone for the sins of the world, and he totally missed that part about rising again.

Now, I’d like to think that, if I had been there and I heard Jesus say these words, I would have responded with, “Whoa! Time out! Tell me more about this being raised from the dead thing.” But realistically, even now we struggle with Jesus’ sacrifice. All too often we try to make Jesus into our image and stuff him into a box of our preconceived notions of what Jesus ought to be like. We want Jesus to be a good teacher, a therapist, a driver of social reform, and more. But those are not the things Jesus came to do. Jesus came to save sinners by suffering, dying, and being raised.

My friend, the Rev. Dr. Matt Richard, wrote a great book about how people exchange the real Jesus for false images of Christ. It’s called, Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? It’s worth the read. I encourage you to get it and chew on who Jesus is and what He has done.

Jesus gets at the heart of Peter’s problem when He says, “[Y]ou are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” How often do we simply accept things of man – human ideas, opinions, and philosophies – as though they were the Gospel truth? How often do we place our modern sensibilities and political views over God’s Word?

God’s Word puts us in conflict with the world and its views. And frankly that’s a hard burden to bear. No wonder Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” It’s ironic that we have the Word of God that brings life and salvation to all who believe it, but Jesus teach us that when we follow Him, when we are shaped by His forgiveness and salvation, it can be like bearing a cross – carrying an instrument of our own death on our backs. He is preparing us for the suffering that often comes to those who follow Him.

But there is more to this message than suffering and death; this is a message of eternal life. Jesus is saying that what He offers us is better than life in this world. He says that it is our souls that are at stake. He forces us to think about the eternal and the temporary. Our souls are eternal and our bodies are temporary. Elsewhere, we learn that we, too, are to be raised up and to receive new bodies which are uncorrupted by sin. But it is our soul that remains in the meantime. The thing that makes all the difference is that Jesus bore His cross on our behalf. His body was broken to save our souls from death and hell.

So what will we live for? The Son of Man has come in his kingdom – Jesus has suffered, died, and risen. Salvation has been won. We set our minds on the things of God as we live as his forgiven people and carry the message of the cross in our lives as his witnesses … even if that brings us suffering in this life, for if we lose this life for Jesus’ sake we find the new eternal life He has won for us by His grace.

Prayers

Lord Jesus, You are the Christ who came into our world to suffer many things, to be killed, and on the third day to be raised. That is hard for us to wrap our minds around sometimes. We would rather think of you as glorious, powerful, and amazing. Nevertheless, You reveal Your grace and glory through the humiliation of the cross. We thank You for suffering for our sins and being our savior. Forgive us for times that we misunderstood or misrepresented who You are. Forgive us for being afraid of the suffering that comes from following You – the conflict with the world we hate to face. Fill us with confidence that You have given us a new life, and that new life is at work in us even now so that even if our bodies die, we do not lose our souls but we dwell with you until the day of resurrection when you will raise us up and give us new bodies to live with you forever. Amen.

Memory Verse

Matthew 16:25 - For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt. 16:25 ESV)