Lectionary Reflection for August 30, 2020 by Pastor Mark Wills
Matthew 16:21-28
21 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. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." 23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For 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? 27 "For 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. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Last week Peter knocked it out of the park with the revelation of who Jesus is, or so it seemed: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” While Peter mouthed the words, he didn’t really comprehend their depth. Many times, we merely repeat the mantras we’ve heard and even those to which we’ve been enlightened just like Peter. We may even feel the same maverick spirit of Peter, the Rock, from time to time and think that our defense of the faith is holy and justified only to hear Christ’s rebuke to get behind him.
How does Peter go from a foundation to a stumbling block? It revolves around the original question of identity. When Jesus reveals the type of savior he is going to be Peter cannot envision it. Jesus informs his entourage that soon he will be a tortured, suffering servant, a martyred prophet, and a resurrected savior – “God forbid,” Peter retorts. One can hardly blame Peter who knows that Jesus is God’s Son. How can God’s Holy One be weak, abused, and murdered, “This must never happen to you!” But it must! It must, Peter. Jesus’s identity cannot be fully perceived without a cross and resurrection, and neither can ours. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Earlier, in Matthew 4, Jesus had a similar encounter with Satan who tempted Jesus’s identity with the same moniker “If you are the Son of God.” If you are the Son of God, you have authority. If you are the Son of God, you have power. If you are the Son of God, you have prestige – use it for your benefit rather than supplementing God’s painful mission of reconciliation. This is the same temptation that is most dangerous to us as Christians. Will we use our power, authority, and prestige for self-preservation and entitlement, or will we chose to identify and collaborate with a leader that will die for us, our brothers, our sisters, and even our enemies?
One of the oldest hymns of Christianity is quoted in the opening of Paul’s epistle to the Philippians. To internalize it is to embrace the journey of sanctification or what John Wesley would call becoming “Perfected in Love:”
“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 1:1-15, NRSV)
