Pentecost 15 A
Matthew 16:21-26
What Was He Thinking?
09/01/02
There’s a television commercial currently running that shows a guy going off a tall waterfall in a kayak. He’s screaming all the way to the bottom as he bounces off rocks along the canyon wall and finishes his plunge into the waters below. Then the camera pans off to a couple standing by their go-anywhere, climb any mountain, cross any river sport utility vehicle that has been watching this strange sight. The fellow then turns to his female companion, shakes his head in utter disbelief and says, “What was he thinking?”
I’m quite sure that pretty well summarizes what Peter was saying to himself when Jesus got done describing what He was going to endure as the Christ. “What’s he thinking? He’s the Christ. I just confessed Him to God’s chosen one. What’s all this talk about going to Jerusalem? Why that’s crazy. His enemies are there, lying in wait; and yet He seems so set on going there to suffer rejection, brutal beatings, humiliation and death. This can never happen. It can never happen to him. What’s he thinking?”
And yet it’s clear. In his shock over the bitter things that Jesus was to endure Peter missed the good news, but it was there. Yes Jesus would be rejected. Yes He would suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests and the elders of the people. Yes, they would succeed in taking His life. But on the third day He would rise again. On the third day Jesus would be declared the victor over sin and its death. On the third day forgiveness, new life and salvation would be guaranteed to all who looked to Him and His cross in faith. God’s plan to right Satan’s wrong that had been wreaked on His world would be complete. What was He thinking? As the writer to the Hebrews wrote in He was thinking of the joy set before Him, the joy of heaven for you and me. He was thinking of you and me.
He has from the beginning. When he created the world with all its splendor and beauty, when he created the animals, the trees, the oceans, the mountains, the birds that fly, the sun and the sky, He was thinking of you and me. When He issued His laws explaining right from wrong, rules designed to make life better, He was thinking of you and me. When He entered the hearts of men and gave them words to write that help us know the mind of God, He was thinking of you and me. When He sent his only son into the world to show us how to live, He was thinking of you and me. It’s no wonder then that when this same son carried a cross up a lonely hill and died for the sins of the world that He was thinking of you and me again. When they laid Him in the tomb, when He rose up from the grave, when He invited sinners to lay their burdens down and find rest in Him; He was thinking of you and me again. He’s always thinking of you and me, of Peter, of the 12, of all of His disciples.
He was thinking of them and all of us in the text today, even though the words He shares are tough to bear. “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 me… If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
These words were certainly tough for Peter. Not only were they contrary to His expectations for Jesus but they were also deflating for him personally. Peter had visions of glory. Not only did he imagine Jesus as a great earthly power to be reckoned with around the world; he had great expectations for himself. After all, he had been the first to recognize Jesus as the Christ and Jesus had called him “the rock” upon which he would build the church. Being a member of this crowd he had great potential for gaining influence, power, and personal well-being. Now all of this was taken away. All of his dreams of grandeur were being replaced with nightmares of a shame filled cross. And he, who had been hailed “Rocky” among the disciples, was just as quickly afforded the title of “stumbling, bumbling fool.” Tough words, but let’s not forget that they’re tough words of grace.
What we see here is not scorn. It’s not ridicule. It’s tough love. It’s tough grace, poured out and dispensed on Peter and through Matthew’s Gospel it’s also dispensed on me and you.
It’s tough because it stings with a sharp message of the law that exposes the cheap brand of Christianity that we often times foolishly buy into. By cheap Christianity I mean the attempt we sometimes make at discipleship with commitment. I’m talking about worship without the recognition that we’ve fallen short of what God requires. I’m talking about forgiveness without repentance. I’m talking about fellowship without a common confession of faith. I’m talking about the expectation that one can be a member of the body of Christ while persistently living a life that denies Him. Cheap Christianity is a faith that expects to live apart from God’s Word. It’s a faith that treats Christ and His cross as if they were nothing but a cheap gift from a Five and Dime, when in fact they’re given at enormous cost.
There’s nothing cheap about our Christian faith and the grace our God gives through His Son. It comes by the great cost of God’s own Son who delivered himself up on the cross for the great joy of giving us life in return. And as Jesus points out in the text we can expect that cross to be shared by us who are bound to Him by faith. We’ll have a share in it as we wrestle to do what is right with a sinful nature that’s inclined to do what’s wrong. We’ll struggle with the expectations of our peers that run contrary to those of God. We’ll come face to face with the laughter and scorn of a faithless world.
That’s why this love and grace of God is so tough. It‘s tough in that it brings us to recognize that we’re already sinners who, like Peter, have let our Lord and Savior down; and yet it’s grace as it recalls us to the forgiveness of Christ. It’s tough in that it calls us to live a life that is not ruled by the things and thoughts of men; and yet it’s grace as it holds out the promise for life in the fullest possible sense. It’s tough in that the blessings it promises are mostly future oriented or not immediately seen. We have to walk by faith in a world and society that lives today with almost immediate gratification and instant results. The Christian life is not likened to a cross by our Lord Jesus for nothing. This is a tough message to swallow; and yet it’s also filled with grace in that it directs our faith to rest in promises already kept. It calls us to a hope that has already been confidently confirmed in Jesus’ own cross and resurrection to new and blessed life.
Jesus endured the cross and scorned its shame, because of the joy of Satan’s demise, sin and death’s defeat, and our salvation. We can do the same. We can count it all joy when we lose a job or miss an opportunity top advance in our work because we dared to live our faith before others. We can count it joy because of the eternal advances and rewards that awaits us. We can count it all joy when our investments aren’t paying as well as others who’ve bilked the system. We can count in joy because we know we have a living savior who knows our needs, well provides them, and has secured eternal dividends and gains in heaven. We can count it all joy when He places a challenge or a change in front of us that requires us to step out in faith. We can count it all joy because we know He’ll provide the mean. We can count it all joy, no matter what the world throws at us as a result of our being a disciple of Jesus. We can count it joy when they take out their anger against us, bomb us, take our wealth, steal our freedoms, or rob us of our dignity. We can count it all joy because we know what awaits us when we finish the race.
I’m not going to pretend today to have all the answers to every trial that comes your way. Like Peter, I sometimes catch myself wonder, “What was He thinking when He sent this my way now? What was He thinking when He laid this dilemma at my feet?” I don’t always know. But this, this I do know. Blessings are not found in a life without a cross. They’re found in Him who has traveled the way of the cross with us. They’re found in Him who still holds His cross’ victory of life before us, a victory that guarantees our own. And when I turn my eyes upon this Jesus and look full into His wonderful face I find myself not wondering so hard or so long. Through it all He’s still thinking of me. He’s thinking of you. Amen!
