Every so often, I’ll see young
children talking back to their parents. Sometimes these kids will be in a
shopping cart in a grocery store. Other times, they’ll be at an amusement park,
or at a baseball field. And do you know what the parents do in response? Well,
usually nothing. I’m sorry if that story wasn’t more interesting. But it’s
still always intriguing for me, because I know that if I was that young child
talking back to my parents, things would not have ended well for me. In our
Scripture lesson for today, we have a true story of a man talking back not to
his parents, but even worse, saying no to Jesus’s plan to die for his own sins.
This lesson from Scripture shows us our natural response to God’s will, but in
contrast, the response caused by the faith that he planted in our hearts. Man
puts himself in front of Christ. We follow Christ who saved us.
This lesson is sandwiched between
the Transfiguration of Jesus and also Peter’s admission of Christ as the
Messiah. We see that Peter had just confessed that Jesus was the “Son of the
Living God.” But he says something quite different in today’s lesson from
Matthew. Now as the reading begins, Jesus is teaching his disciples. He begins
by explaining to them that as the very Messiah that Peter had just confessed,
it was necessary that he go to Jerusalem and endure many trials at the hands of
the elders of the people, the chief priests and the teachers of the law. As the
One who would offer himself up for the people, Jesus would be killed, but on
the third day he would rise again.
But Peter is taken aback by this.
Peter was envisioning an earthly kingdom full of glory and acceptance for
Jesus, and maybe even a fair amount of power and authority for himself. He
physically pulls Jesus aside, much like you might do if you were correcting a
naughty two year-old. “No Steve, we don’t hit other children. You need to share
your toys. Yes, that’s right. Share. Now don’t hit, be nice.” Peter pulls Jesus
aside. “No, Lord. This will never happen to you.”
Now here is Peter’s sin: Peter had
heard what the Father’s plan for Jesus was, and said, “No thanks.” Jesus was
sent on earth to suffer, be rejected, to die, and finally be raised again. But
that wasn’t what Peter wanted. Peter was putting himself above God and putting
his own wishes first. The key issue here isn’t just about what Peter thought
Jesus should do on earth, the key issue is that Peter is blatantly telling God
that he knows better. In response, Jesus looks at the man who just pulled him
aside. The man who wanted fame and power and global acceptance for Jesus. The
man who just a short while ago had confessed that Jesus was the promised
Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus looks into Peter’s eyes, and he says, “Get
behind me, Satan.” Peter was directly opposing the very heart of the gospel.
Peter had just told God that his plan to provide a Savior for sins was not
going to happen. Peter was being the mouthpiece for Satan right then. Peter was
attempting to sacrifice the true glory of God for something watered down,
something that people would respect and admire.
Look what else Jesus says, “You
are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God but the
things of men.” Simon Peter, that great disciple, at that moment was nothing
more than an advertising executive. It was like Jesus had come up with a plan
to sell merchandise and Peter rejected it. “No, that won’t do. I can’t market
that, and I won’t buy it. Who would buy this story, of God becoming a man, and
then instead of receiving authority and kingdoms on earth, is denied by his own
people and murdered?” But the all-knowing Christ knew exactly what to say. He
points out to Peter that at this moment, Peter is directly opposing Jesus’
ministry on earth. Peter had pulled Jesus aside, but Jesus turns and puts his
back to Peter, both verbally and physically
Then after turning his back on
Peter, Jesus addresses the rest of the disciples. “Then Jesus said to his
disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for
someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone
give in exchange for their soul?” Jesus says this to his disciples because all
of them faced the same temptation that Peter gave in to, the idea that God
really doesn’t know best. Jesus was showing the disciples that there were two
possible paths to follow, and they were at a fork in the road: “If you want to be my disciples, you must deny
yourselves, carry your crosses, and follow me. If you try to preserve this
sinful and temporary life on earth, you will end up losing eternal life with me
in heaven. But if you give up your life, you will find a better and lasting
life, and that will never pass away. Let’s say that you could gain anything you
would ever want in the whole world, but you would have to give up your soul.
What good would that be? What could you ever try to give to get your soul back?”
The answer, obviously, is nothing. There is nothing that anyone could give or
offer God to try to save their soul.
Now,
none of us have ever looked Jesus in the face and told him that his plan for
salvation wasn’t good enough. But we have all, in various ways, told God that
he didn’t know best. Sometimes we have watered down the message that Jesus
Christ is the only way we can be saved, because it’s easier to tell your
relatives at Christmas that everybody is right in their own way instead of
proclaiming the truth. Sometimes we have refused to give up our favorite pet
sin. Because when we get stressed out, because our sinful nature points us to
some gluttony, some alcoholism, some lust, some angry and hateful backbiting.
“I can’t stand her. She’s an idiot. Did you see how he sinned? That’s terrible.
I would never do that.” And when Jesus comes to us with his plan to forgive our
sins, we far too often think, “What sin? Why don’t you die for that guy over
there?
But
Jesus says, Deny yourself. Give up that self that says “no to God.” Carry your
cross. All the struggles against yourself, having to endure sinful temptation,
you must carry that burden. Follow me. Because what is the benefit of that
sinful life? Jesus says, why bother trying to gain the world if you lose your
soul in the process? What could you give in exchange for your soul? Your soul
isn’t like gold or a diamond. Your soul isn’t a stock that you can buy and
sell. There is nothing we can give to God to win back our souls from death.
It’s a price we could never pay. And if not for God’s grace, we would surely
still be dead in our sin. Even now, our sinful nature still trips us up, and we
daily, or hourly, or even right at this very minute, at this second, are
sinning.
Man
puts himself in front of Christ. But fortunately, God provided a way that we
would not have to live out a sinful and hopeless life. Now we follow Christ who
saved us.
Christ
saved us. He saved us by his death on the cross. And not just by his death, but
by his perfect life. We heard at the beginning of the reading that Jesus was
explaining that the plan of God’s redemption for all people was soon coming to
completion. When Jesus was on earth, a lot of people wanted him to be an
earthly king. But as the Bible tells us, Jesus clearly was not on earth to be
an earthly king. But he came to serve us, and suffered in every way that we do.
During his life he faced persecution of every kind. All the leaders of his own
people were against him: the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law.
And what’s more than that, his own disciples! Jesus can barely even finish
telling the disciples his marvelous plan for their salvation that he was in the
process of completing before he is hit with another wave of persecution, from
one of his closest earthly friends. But Jesus was perfect even through all of
this temptation.
And again, it was necessary that
this happen, it was necessary that he die and on the third day be raised to
life. Jesus must die for me. The kind of
guy worth dying for? You know what my sinful nature wants me to think? That
sounds like I’m a pretty good guy. When the Bible says that it was necessary,
that doesn’t mean that Jesus realized that you would be so good that he must
die for you. No, God saw that we are by nature evil, dead in sinfulness. But he
loved us—he loved you—before the creation of the world, and he said, “I love
him. I love her. I must have them with me forever.” God’s love for you
compelled him to suffer and die, and to be raised again that we will be raised
and live with him forever in heaven.
But God’s plan for us isn’t just
about heaven, it’s for this life as well. Jesus told his disciples, and speaks
to us as well, when he says, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”
Thanks to Jesus, we are no longer dead to sin. Now that he was saved us, we can
say no to sin, and live to please him. He tells us to take up our crosses. Now
Jesus is telling us to love him by his actions, but he says that it won’t
always be easy. That’s why he calls it a cross. It will often be a hardship to
put God first. But every suffering will be only temporary. He says, follow me. Now
we walk after him, not wandering around as slaves to endless cycles of
self-medicating depravity, but as free people we follow the one who freed us.
He says that if we lose our lives for his sake, if we give up that life of sin
that we were once slaves to, we will find an eternal life that is perfectly
fulfilling.
So we, fully understanding that
Christ loves us, though we never really understand how much he loves us, completely
follow him. We deny that part of ourselves that wants to tell God no. We carry
our crosses of having to put up with troubles and battles with sin in the
world. And we follow him because he loved us. We do all this because he brought
us to faith and now looks with favor on the acts of service that we do for him
and for others. We love Christ with our lives because he told us, you’re good
enough. He accepts us because he purified us from all sin. He has a greater
power than any earthly ruler will ever have. He has more authority than any
ruler could wish for. And as for popularity? He was chosen directly by the
Father. He loved us first. That’s a great savior. Let’s follow him.
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