Tuesday, September 05, 2023

Sermon - Pentecost 14 - Matthew 16:21–28

 

We preach Christ crucified.  At the center of the Christian faith stands the cross of Jesus Christ.  It can be no other way.  This is because, for Jesus, it can be no other way.

 

On the heels of his great confession, where Peter got it right, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.  Now Jesus unpacks what exactly that means.  And Peter gets it oh-so-wrong.  Today’s reading is a continuation of the conversation we heard last week at Caeserea-Phillipi.  Let’s pick it up where we left off:

 

“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.”

 

With the cat out of the bag for these disciples, knowing and confessing that Jesus is the Christ – Jesus, from that time, began to show them the full implications of what being the Christ means.

 

And it is startling.  It is mind-bending, and expectation-exploding.  He must go to Jerusalem.  And already Peter must think this is a bad idea.  That’s where his enemies are, the elders, chief priests and the scribes, the Pharisees and Saducees – that’s where the Herods and Pontius Pilates of the world come to visit and exert their tyranny.  Nothing good can come of all that, Jesus.  Maybe you should just stay on the fringes and in the relative obscurity of the countryside.  Easier to hide out here.  Not so much danger. Look what happened to John the Baptist. Yes, let’s play it safe and keep the good times rolling here.  Or so Peter might have thought.

 

But Jesus goes on.  He must go to Jerusalem to suffer.  Specifically at the hands of his enemies, he must go to Jerusalem to suffer.  And who can be in favor of that?  Peter was probably like you and me, not a fan of suffering.  We try to avoid it if we can.  No one really likes it.  None of us think we deserve it.  But for Jesus, it’s part of the plan.  It is necessary, a must.  But it gets worse.

 

He will be killed.  His life taken away.  Of course, we know that no one really takes it from him, but he lays it down of his own accord.  But now Peter is getting really alarmed.  What is this talk?  This is not the hopeful talk of a leader, the inspiring speech of a true Messiah.  This is too pessimistic.  Maybe he just needs to talk some sense into Jesus.  Maybe Jesus is just having a bad day.  The Christ, the Son of the Living God, I need to correct him, Peter is saying to himself.  And can you imagine the arrogance?

 

Perhaps you can, because, like me, you are much like Peter.  The way of the cross is scandal to the Jew and foolishness to the Gentile.  The path of suffering and death is not a path you and I want to tread.  And the flesh balks at it.  The sinful man wants pleasure, not pain, glory, not shame, all of the good things, and none of the bad or unpleasant things.

 

But it’s a fantasy.  Because in the real world, we have suffering.  The real world is broken, it’s corrupt, and it’s passing away, and not without some kicking and screaming.  You don’t have to look too far to see the effects of sin in this world, your sin, or sin in general.  Maybe you see it in your broken marriage.  Maybe you see it in your rebellious children.  Maybe you see its effects on your body.  Maybe you see it in the cares and sorrows of your heart.  Oh, there’s plenty of suffering to go around.  Sin means suffering, and ultimately, death.  At the root of it all is the turning away from God that each of us has done, and still does, in small and big ways.  The Buddhist teaching that “life is suffering” isn’t that far off the mark. 

 

But, of course the Buddha holds no hope.  No man-made religion does. The human heart can’t cure itself.  And we can no more cleanse ourselves from sin than we could stand in a mud-pit and mop up the floor.

 

This is why we need Jesus, and not just any Jesus.  We need the Christ, the Son of the living God, yes.  But we need Christ crucified for sinners.  Thanks be to God that is exactly the Jesus we have.

 

Peter might have missed this part, but let’s you and I not skip it.  Jesus taught his disciples he must suffer and die, but also that he would rise on the third day.  And don’t gloss over this important truth!

 

For Jesus, suffering is not the end of the story.  For Jesus, death does not have the final word.  And so, too, for you and me who are in Christ.  The resurrection is proclaimed wherever the cross is preached.  His sacrifice for sin is always connected to is victory over death.  Suffering leads to glory, for Jesus, and so for us.

 

Peter wouldn’t have any of it.  And so he takes Jesus aside to rebuke him.  But Jesus won’t have any of that.  Anything that turns him or us away from the cross is of the devil.  And Jesus minces no words saying so.

 

Peter’s words are the very words of Satan, the accuser.  He who had just received and made the good confession, not by flesh and blood, but by the Father in Heaven, now makes the very bad confession, having in mind the things of man, not the things of God.  How quickly and easily we can pray with the same lips that curse, and confess truth with the same mouth that slanders.  Lord have mercy!

 

But Jesus will not be deterred from his cross.  He will not shrink from its suffering.  He will not turn aside from its shame.  He will bear the crown of thorns.  He will suffer the mocking and spitting.  He will be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.  Our punishment and chastisement will be on him.  For with his stripes, we are healed.  Thanks be to God.

 

But this doesn’t mean that Christians won’t suffer.  With his very next words, Jesus moves from his cross, to ours, from his suffering, to ours.  Christ taking our place on the cross doesn’t free us from cross-bearing.  It absolves us of sin.  It frees us from death.  It makes us heirs of all the blessings of God.  But there still remain our own crosses in this life.  And we must carry them.

 

“Take up your cross and follow me,” he says.  Here are no easy words, dear Christian.  They may take a whole lifetime to learn.  The way of the cross is so counter-intuitive to the wisdom of the world.  The mind of man is to avoid suffering at all costs.  The mind of Christ is to endure suffering for us.  And the mind of the Christian is to endure suffering patiently, for the sake of Christ, and in the hope of the resurrection to life everlasting.

 

The way of following Christ runs counter to all human wisdom and reason.  Save your own life, you will lose it.  Lose your life for Christ, and you will find it.  In other words, don’t be your own savior, for you will fail.  Look to Christ to save your soul, for he cannot fail. 

 

For Jesus, the cross was not the end of the story.  So, too, for us.  We follow him.  That is to say, where he goes, we also will go.  He suffered unto death, but death could not hold him.  He rose to life, to a glorified body, never to die again.  You who are in Christ, who following him bearing your own cross, will also suffer, and unless he comes back first, you will die.  But that’s not the end of your story.  You will follow him to resurrection.  You will follow him to the heavenly Jerusalem.  On the last day, he will raise your body, sown in shame but raised to glory.  The perishable will put on the imperishable.  The mortal will give way to immortality.

 

Each will be repaid according to their deeds, Jesus says.  But he’s not talking works-righteousness.  He’s the savior, after all.  And he has paid for your evil deeds at the cross.  All that is left for you is his own righteousness.  But he will avenge the wicked and set everything right at the last.  Yes, we follow him now, and carry our crosses for a time.  But that time is short, not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed in us.

 

So who is Jesus?  The son of the living God, but also the one who suffers, dies, and rises again.  He is Jesus of the cross.  And we follow him at his call, carrying our own crosses, whatever they may be, in the hope of his return and our own resurrection to glory.  Think not of the earthly glories, the things of man, but look forward in faith to that day, and the life of the world to come.




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