Thirteenth
Sunday after Pentecost
September
3, 2017
Matthew
16:21–23
Getting
Behind Jesus’ Dying
In
the name of the Father and of the ☩
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There
are times in life when frustration or sadness leads you to share
secrets that later on you wish you hadn’t shared. At the time it
seemed like you had to tell someone this secret doubt or opinion or
frustration. And maybe for a while sharing the secret did make
you feel satisfied.
But
then as time goes by, you start to wish you had keep this private
thought private. You realize that what you thought was so
important or insightful at the time wasn’t as brilliant or accurate
as you thought. And you wish you could take it back.
If
you know what I’m talking about, then you probably can relate to
the Apostle Peter. He often over-shared, as we’d say it
today. And in this account he really was out there.
By
this point in his life he had seen so much that Jesus had said and
did. He had seen Jesus feed thousands of people and heal many more.
He had seen Jesus calm stormy seas. He had felt Jesus’ hand grab
his own and pull him up out of water and carry him on water to
safety. Surely a Man like this, indeed the Son of the living God,
would never let Himself die. And Peter expressed his secret opinion
to his friend.
21From
that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go
to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief
priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on
the third day be raised to life. 22Peter
took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. He said, “Never, Lord! This
shall never happen to You!”
MATTHEW
16:21–22 NIV
Jesus’
reaction is startling. He doesn’t talk Peter down or try to soothe
him. He could have explained, “Yes, Peter, it seems impossible,
after all you’ve seen, but believe Me, this is going to happen. So
thanks for sticking up for Me, but it’s going to be okay.”
Instead He delivers one of His most crushing rebukes, looking right
into Peter’s eyes:
“Get
behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in
mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
MATTHEW
16:23 NIV
The
Greek word that in English is heard as “stumbling block” is an
interesting and even complicated word. It originally meant the stick
that propped up a box trap. And soon it meant the trap itself. What
is clear is that the Devil did not give up his attempts to trap Jesus
after the tempting in the wilderness. The Devil is still trying to
get the cross out of the picture. He wants Jesus to gloriously and
bloodlessly rule the world. And Peter agrees with the Devil. This is
why Jesus says what He says: “Get behind Me, Satan!”
When
anyone tries to stop Jesus from going to the cross or in our day deny
that central fact of Jesus’ dying and rising, that is the Devil
speaking. The Devil’s trap is to feel forgiven and good without
Jesus and certainly without His bitter suffering and death. This is
the danger for those who never miss the joy and glory and fame and
razzle-dazzle of Easter Sunday, but make it a point to boycott the
hearing of the Good Friday account of Jesus’ cross and dying. In
their own way, they agree with Peter: “No, Lord! That never should
have never happened to You!” They know that rising from the dead
assumes a death, but that’s the problem—they assume it.
Good Friday and Easter together is the Gospel, Jesus died and rose.
Assuming either one is dangerous, because the Gospel assumed is the
Gospel denied.
Peter
denied Jesus’ actual—and now clearly laid out—reason He came to
Earth. He took on our flesh and blood, so that He might shed His
blood as a sacrifice. This sacrifice is what makes us pleasing to His
Father. Peter wanted life without death and without sacrifice. He
wanted to save his life without losing it. Perhaps he realized that
if Christ must carry a cross and die, so must His followers.
Do
not deny Jesus’ cross. Instead confess His cross, His death, His
resurrection with joy. And carry your crosses faithfully. These are
the things in life that the Devil uses to raise doubts in your mind
as to whether Jesus truly loves you.
A
hurricane.
A
positive result on a biopsy.
A
child who will not listen.
Everything
is washed away, but you still have Jesus.
You
might die sooner than you thought, but you still have Jesus.
Years
of frustration may lie ahead, but you still have Jesus. And so does
your child.
When
crosses come to bear, turn to Jesus and listen to Him as speaks to
His disciples, which is you:
“If
anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross and follow Me. 25For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.
MATTHEW
16:24–25 NIV
For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and
to give His life as a ransom for many.
Mark
10:45
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