Text: Matthew 16:21-28
Focus: discipleship
Function: to help people give up selfishness
21From 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. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” 23But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
24Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For 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?
27For 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. 28Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Good morning to the beloved children of the loving and living God. Through Christ, God has adopted us into their family and we are part of the beloved. And the great thing is this, God’s love extends to the whole world entire. I remember that when I get mad at people who would otherwise be an enemy. God loves the other as much as God loves us. Let us show that love to others.
This is a passage of scripture about discipleship. Discipleship is us in the process of learning to live and love like Jesus loved.
In order to introduce the theme of discipleship, Jesus begins again to describe to the disciples just what is going to happen to him when he arrives in Jerusalem.
Remember, the Jewish people and the disciples were all expecting the Messiah to be a political/military leader who would somehow miraculously defeat the overwhelming forces of the Roman army. They were looking for a leader like King David.
Jesus spends three years countermanding that narrative about him trying to teach the disciples to love and share and care for everyone instead of being selfish and living merely for themselves.
Living merely for the good on ones own self without a care for how our prosperity might harm others is selfishness and it is sin. It is the moral philosophy of Narcissism which teaches the only moral good is what pleases ones own self.
It leads to the exploitation and abuse of those less fortunate. And again, Jesus commands us to share our wealth and to meet the needs of others as well as meeting our own needs.
Jesus calls us to live in community.
And the disciples already know that Jesus is on the bad guy list from the religious and political leaders. Jesus is upsetting the status quo with his message of love and care for everyone because it upsets the social order of the rich taking advantage of the poor.
Remember the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to find true religion? Then according to James, find the church that cares for the least of these instead of hardening their hearts to the plight of refugees. In Matthew 25, we read that the refugee is Jesus to us and how we treat the refugees is how we treat Jesus. I want our nation to prosper and I believe obedience to God in this matter will spring the revival for which believers are hoping.
But Peter can’t handle the thought of Jesus being crucified since he needs Jesus alive to accomplish this military victory. And he takes Jesus aside to correct Jesus! He is certainly cheeky! And Jesus sternly rebukes him. He even realizes that Satan himself is tempting him again with human power.
Jesus redirects Peter’s thinking to the spiritual kingdom that Jesus is establishing.
And he is telling them about the cost of discipleship.
And Jesus takes it to the extreme of life and death for us.
Peter’s concern about losing Jesus would have been right if it weren’t for the resurrection. I think that is the part of the story that Jesus is trying to explain that goes over the disciples heads.
The death and resurrection of Jesus sets Jesus apart as the one of a kind son of God, our savior.
He shows the disciples through his death and resurrection that there is nothing for us to fear because even death cannot defeat the power of God.
Jesus wants the disciples to rest in the power of God to save us.
I believe John 3:16’s promise that those who trust Christ will have an abundant life, a life without bounds that extends beyond this life into the eternal.
Jesus came to save and to heal this broken world through teaching us to love others through the power of the Holy Spirit which he sent after he rose from the dead.
Jesus’ healing is restoration. So this idea that we must take up our cross and surrender our lives doesn’t seem to fit with the concept of an abundant life.
I always read this passage as now that I am a believer, I need to be wholly committed to the cause of Christ and sacrifice myself in order to get a good reward in heaven.
But I think that is part of the worldly thinking that Peter has in this passage.
We are focusing that way on what we can get out of it.
We are focusing on ourselves.
But the willingness of Jesus to undergo the cross as an example of resistance to empires that do not care for the least of these in their societies for us to follow.
Don’t get me wrong, he bought our salvation through his death and resurrection. Period. But it was the ultimate act of faith by him placing his trust in God to raise him when he died that gave us the example we need to form a community that loves and cares for each other.
Jesus willingness to die on the cross was the ultimate act of selfless love he could show us. It is an example for us to give up selfishness and live for the common good instead of the moral philosophy that we only have to worry about ourselves.
So, when he commands us to be willing to take up our own cross, he is telling us to give up selfishness as well and live for the good of others.
The more I study it, the more I realize that Christian living is living in this beloved community.
