Matthew 16:21-28

September 3, 2023

The Rev. Todd R. Goddard, Pastor

Rush United Methodist Church

Matthew 16:21-28

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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” 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.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “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? “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. 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.”

| Centering Prayer |

“Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Peter had correctly identified Jesus.

More than the son of Mary,

The boy from Nazareth,

The healer, miracle worker, and preacher

From up north

Who attracted great crowds of followers, imitators, and want-a-bees.

Flanked by idols to the Greek god Pan, and

The Philistine god, Baal, on his left,

With the ominous cave opening, on his right,

Believed by the population as being

the literal gate to hell,

Jesus advances to the next slide of his orientation curriculum

What it means to self-identify as messiah.

Messiah, classically defined,

the anointed leader, savior, deliverer of the Jewish nation

as prophesied in scripture.

Jewish descendant. Jesus checks that box.

Anointed with holy oil. Jesus checks that box in Matthew 26.

King of God’s Kingdom. Jesus, Son of the Father, next in line of succession. Check that box.

Ruler of God’s Kingdom during the messianic age,

An era of universal peace and brotherhood,

With an absence of evil.

Every one of his 12 disciples expected Jesus to check that box, too.

In the mind of Peter and fellow Jews

Danced the sugar-plum vision of Jesus ruling the messianic age;

Swords beaten into plowshares,

Wolf and lamb, natural predator and prey, living in peaceful harmony,

With the earth full of the knowledge of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Except, Jesus didn’t check that box.

Jesus had other plans.

What could be more important then

God solving their immediate problems?

Come on, God. Show your stuff.

Send your Son.

We will make him King.

Remove Rome.

And all will live happily ever after.

Lesson #1.

Avoid thinking small.

Yes. Your life,

Your social circle,

Your bubble,

The weather, your garden, the start of the new school year, the state of local politics,

Your reality, the good, bad, and ugly,

Are important to Jesus.

Yet, Jesus wants us to think bigger,

Bigger than human things.

Life, death, and eternity is greater than just you and me and that slow driver plugging up traffic by lingering in the left hand lane.

Christianity cannot be self-centered, Jesus is telling his disciples this morning.

Peter, you, and me fall down the bottomless hole of human things,

While, Jesus has his eye on divine things.

Personal salvation is wonderful

Until eyes are opened to the world burning.

Forgiveness of sins is great

Until pardon is withheld and amends fall on deaf ears.

Why fix and repair

When the same old wrong

Works so well to perpetuate and personify all that sucks in my life?

I can assign blame to everyone and everything bad in this world

Without ever lifting a finger of personal responsibility,

Because Jesus forgave my sins and I’m saved.

There are few greater criticisms of Christianity

That self-righteous, self-centered Christians.

With an eye on divine things,

Jesus is frying other fish.

Jesus wasn’t constrained by his small group,

Anchored to a temporal time and space,

Tethered to personal forgiveness and salvation.

Jesus was looking to the cross

While the world was looking for the crown.

Lesson #2.

Jesus was focused on divine things,

Facing the cross of crucifixion;

Soo, too, should we.

The cross of Jesus Christ

Transcends time and space,

Is God’s gift of grace to all people, nations, races, cultures,

Spanning all time; that which was, that which is, and that will be.

Fixing the stain of sin becomes the necessary prerequisite for the empty tomb and eternal life.

You can’t get there

Without first going through here.

Before you get to St. Peter

Make certain you are shaved, showered, and put on your Sunday best.

Temptation is to avoid Good Friday

And just show up for Easter sunrise,

Treating the passion of Christ

With antiseptic and a clean bandage.

Lesson #3.

Being a Jesus follower isn’t for sissies.

The very one to whom Jesus had just given the keys to the Church

Jesus calls out Peter for thinking “crown”

When he should have been thinking “cross.”

“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.” (16:23)

As if a punch in the face and a bloody nose isn’t enough,

Jesus shares his expectation

That everyone who follows him

Should be expected to take a knockout punch.

The great “if” clause of the

“if/then” function

Becomes Christ’s most important challenge.

To be

Followers of Jesus

Requires

Denial,

A readiness to die,

A willingness to follow.

Denial.

A complete surrender of self.

Letting go of all control, ego, and pride.

A recognition that control is a mere illusion,

That all power is the exclusive domain of God.

Self-denial

Is best illustrated in our lesson from Romans (12:9-21)

Love.

Hold fast.

Serve.

Rejoice.

Be patient.

Persevere.

Contribute.

Extend hospitality.

Bless.

Live in harmony.

Feed the hungry,

Give drink to the thirsty.

Overcome evil with good.

Every quality implies a denial of self and the promotion of others.                                                    

A readiness to die.

There is an empty cross with your name on it.

There is one for me, too.

When eternal life is on the table

Why would any of us engage in a struggle to save our own life?

Live everyday prepared to die,

Is the sage advice of the Apostle Paul.

“For to me,” he writes to the church in Philippi,

“to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

“Follow me,” Jesus extends the invitation. (16:24)

Only after submission and sacrifice is one ready to follow Jesus.

If you want to know where Jesus goes and what Jesus does,

The follower needs to know Jesus inside and out.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The Gospels

Report the Truth about Jesus Christ.

Learn from them.

Write them upon your heart.

What Jesus and his followers believed

Is found in Hebrew scriptures,

Which we call the Old Testament.

It establishes a foundation

Of God’s power and creation,

God’s love and covenant,

God’s desire and law.

To know Jesus means that one must know Adam, Moses, Abraham, the prophets, and the Psalmists.

What happened to the world

Because of God’s great loving gift of Jesus

Is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles through the book of Revelation.

We call it the New Testament.

The world was, and is, forever transformed,

Transfigured into a likeness of Christ,

The Body of Christ,

His Church

As it began to live out the call to discipleship.

To know Jesus

And to know of God’s great transformation

Is to be able to find ourselves in this transformation

And to make productive contributions

To its fulfillment.

Denial.

Willingness to die.

Follow. Faithfully following Jesus.

Yeah, discipleship isn’t easy;

But it is worth it.

…

Beloved,

Think big.

Think outside the box.

Forget the crown. Focus your eyes on crucifixion.

Seek and discover the divine things emerging around you.

Surrender, the Kinks sang.

Unlike their lyrics,

Jesus urges those who choose to follow

To give themselves away.

To be willing to even give away the precious gift of life.

For when God holds the gift of eternal life in hand,

What does it matter?

Surrender.

Take up your cross.

Know Jesus.

Follow his example.

Adhere to his lessons.

Some will find it easier than others.

Some will taste death before seeing Christ return.

Others will be blessed to bask in his glory.

Amen.