Sermon 8/31/14
Matthew 16:21-28
From That Time On
Today, we continue immediately after our text from last
week, where Peter proclaimed Jesus as Messiah, in response to Jesus’ question, “And
who do you say I am?” Remember, we talked about how Peter claiming that title
meant that he understood that Jesus, even though he wasn’t the typical picture
of a king like David, an anointed one like the line of kings from the Hebrew
scriptures, even still, Jesus was truly the
anointed one, the messiah, ruler of the realm of God, this unexpectedly
ordered way of God on earth. Jesus entrusts to Peter and the disciples the
mission of continuing this reign of God. Today, our passage opens with the
words, “From that time on…” These little seemingly throwaway phrases in the
scriptures, especially when we’re reading the scripture in little pieces at a
time, can feel so unimportant. But this phrase is important because it actually tells us: What happens next is directly related to what just happened. What’s
coming next is a direct result of what happened most recently. So, we read, “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.” In other words, Peter
naming Jesus as Messiah is almost like a trigger, the cause. Because Peter correctly calls Jesus
Messiah, from then on, Jesus talks to
them about the fact that he’s going to head to Jerusalem, where he will suffer
at the hands of the religious authorities, be put to death, and rise on the
third day.
Peter, so on top of things in last Sunday’s reading,
rebukes Jesus, saying, “God forbid it, this must never happen.” Of course, it
seems like rebuking Jesus is probably always a bad idea. Chances are if you
find yourself in the position of rebuking Jesus, and telling him, “God forbid
it” in response to something he says, it’s not going to work out really well
for you. On the other hand, if the person you loved most in the world told you
they were about to suffer and be put to death, even if they said they would be
raised on the third day, how could you do anything but say, “Absolutely not! I
refuse to let that happen!”
But
Jesus is not sympathetic in his response to Peter. Peter, just named as the
Rock, is now called Satan. “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus says, “You are a
stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but
on human things.” For Jesus to call Peter a stumbling block was a pretty
significant criticism. In English, “stumbling block” sounds like you
accidentally left a child’s toy where someone might step on it. In Greek, the
word for stumbling block is skandalon,
where we get our English word scandal, and it means more literally “a trap or
snare laid for an enemy.” It’s an intentional action. Elsewhere in the gospels
Jesus says, “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little
ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were
hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” Stumbling blocks weren’t
just bad luck. They were obstacles placed by an enemy to prevent a person from
completing whatever path they were travelling on. And in this case, the enemy
is Satan. And the path is the path to the cross, to the crucifixion, but also
to resurrection. It is Jesus’ mission. And anything that stands in the way of
that is an enemy laying a trap. In fact, Jesus’ language takes us back to the
beginning of the gospel, just after Jesus was baptized, when he was driven by
the Holy Spirit into the wilderness – and do you remember what happened? He was
tempted by Satan. And every temptation focused on a stumbling block, a snare, a
trap laid for Jesus that would lure him into believe he could do God’s will
without actually … doing God’s will. For Jesus, these words from Peter, from
one of his own disciples, don’t just represent someone upset about what
suffering Jesus will face. Peter’s words are echoes of the temptation Jesus
faced in the wilderness – the temptation, the powerful idea that he could
somehow complete his mission … without all that awful suffering and death
stuff.
It does sound tempting, doesn’t it? But Jesus has already
faced that temptation. And Jesus knows that the only way to show what it means
to be truly the messiah – not a conquering, ruling by force and might messiah –
is to demonstrate to the uttermost how mixed up we’ve got things. Jesus’
authority will be demonstrated even in pouring out his very own life for others
– and then showing that even death can’t conquer God’s reign, God’s ways, God’s
vision. Even death is powerless in the face of God. But Jesus must face it to demonstrate
that.
And so, Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers,”
if we really want to claim Jesus as messiah, if we’re sure we know what we mean
by that, we demonstrate it by picking up our own cross and following where
Jesus is leading. “For,” Jesus says, in his upside down way, “those who want to
save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will
find it.” Under Roman rule, those sentenced to death would have to carry their
own cross beam to the site of their crucifixion. Jesus is asking us to carry
not a traditional symbol of power – no sword, no crown of gold, no other
symbols of status. Instead, to follow him, we too take the cross. A sign that
we are pouring out our own lives in order that we might have room for God to
fill them up.
Jesus is trying to tell us that we don’t get to choose
just part. We can’t call Jesus messiah without the part that happens “from that
time on.” They go together. They’re inseparable. Trying to separate them is a
stumbling block. More than that, it’s a trap laid by an enemy, trying to
convince us we can follow Jesus without actually following Jesus.
In some ways, then, what Jesus says is quite simple,
quite straightforward. If you want to follow me, you have to follow me. And you can’t follow Jesus
without following Jesus. When you put it that way, it sounds kind of silly,
doesn’t it, to think anything else! It’s a package deal. If Jesus is the
Messiah, then from this time on, what goes along with that is knowing that
Jesus’ path leads to the cross. And if Jesus’ path leads to the cross, and if
we’re followers of Jesus, if he is our messiah, well then, from this time on,
following Jesus means we take up the cross too. A package deal. We can’t take
it piecemeal. It’s not even possible. Trying to convince yourself or anyone
else otherwise is a stumbling block. Are you a follower of Jesus? If you are,
then from this time on, there’s only one thing left to do: Follow Jesus. Amen.
Comments