Peter was on a high. He had just got the answer to a question right, having had a profound truth revealed to him by God, and Jesus had told him that he was to be foundational in the new movement that Jesus was beginning.<\/p>\n
In the conversation leading up to today\u2019s reading Jesus had asked his disciples who they said he was, and Peter had responded, \u201cYou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.\u201d Jesus had answered, \u201cBlessed are you Simon \u2026 for my Father has revealed this to you \u2026 on this rock I will
\nbuild my church.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Peter was absolutely made up, he was completely in tune with God, had had this great insight into who Jesus was, and was going to be a leader in the church. He was on cloud nine.<\/p>\n
This conversation was the beginning of the hinge of the whole of Matthew\u2019s eye witness account of Jesus\u2019 life and ministry. Having begun with the birth narratives, baptism and temptation, the first main section of Matthew\u2019s account of Jesus\u2019 adult ministry began in Chapter 4:17 with this:<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach, saying, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That section is made up of Jesus teaching and preaching about the kingdom of heaven, and doing miracles that were signs of that kingdom. It concludes with Jesus asking what impact his message is having, asking the disciples who people say he is, who they say he is, and then with that revelation that he is the Christ, the one chosen and sent by God, anointed to be King and Rescuer of the world.<\/p>\n
Having established that, the next section begins with the same three words.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that time\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n
But now the direction is different, the teaching is about what is to come, about what it means for him to be the Christ, the Messiah. There are four things that Jesus says that it is necessary for the Messiah to do, that he must do.<\/p>\n
He must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things. He must be killed. He must be raised on the third day.<\/p>\n
I wonder how the disciples reaction to this changed as he spoke.<\/p>\n
The Messiah must go to Jerusalem. That makes sense, they\u2019d nod along, how else is he going to challenge the Roman rulers, how else would he raise an army to lead the people to freedom. The Temple is at Jerusalem, of course that is where the Messiah is going.<\/p>\n
The Messiah must suffer many things. That sounds a bit odd, but maybe they were expecting that. Overthrowing the Romans isn\u2019t going to be easy. There might be resistance from the religious establishment. Yes, that kind of makes sense.<\/p>\n
The Messiah must die? No. Absolutely not. That makes no sense at all. How can he rescue the people if he\u2019s dead. That just does not compute, cannot be right.<\/p>\n
The Messiah must be raised to life. I suspect that they didn\u2019t even hear this, they were still trying to process what Jesus had said about dying. We know from the accounts of the resurrection appearances that his disciples hadn\u2019t really understood what Jesus had told them about this.
\nIt\u2019s hardly surprising if their minds were overwhelmed by the idea of Jesus dying.<\/p>\n
Peter, in his recently affirmed role as someone who hears clearly from God, and as future foundation of the church, takes Jesus aside to have a word. This does not go well. He may have had some insight into who Jesus was, but it was a flawed insight. It was flawed because he had not yet comprehended what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah. He still had to learn what kind of Messiah, what kind of King, Jesus is. The rebuke he receives sounds harsh, and this reinforces how important this is.<\/p>\n
Throughout the Old Testament, the people of God repeatedly fell into idol worship, into worshipping their own creations, their own ideas of what God is like, rather than worshipping and obeying God as revealed to them. This is exactly the same thing. Peter thought he knew something about God, and so resisted learning from Jesus who he actually was.<\/p>\n
Having dropped that bombshell Jesus goes on to drop another. Not only do his friends and followers have to completely relearn what it means to be the Messiah, they also have to get a new understanding of what it means to follow that Messiah.<\/p>\n
To follow God\u2019s chosen one means to deny oneself and to take up one\u2019s cross.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time that Jesus has said this to the disciples. The first time was in Matthew chapter 10, \u201che who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So this is revision for them, but it is still shocking. It seems to me that this image has lost some of that shock value for us. We might say something like, \u201cWe all have our cross to bear\u2026\u201d, often referring to a frustration in life, an ongoing health issue, a difficulty we\u2019ve come across.<\/p>\n
But this is not what Jesus is talking about. He\u2019s talking about the cross. An instrument of torture. A tool of shameful, public, painful, traitor\u2019s death.
\nThis is the equivalent of carrying the axe to your own beheading, along with knives with which you will be drawn and quartered. It\u2019s brutal and frightening.<\/p>\n
Dietrich Boenhoffer was a church leader in Germany, one who spoke out against the rise of the Nazi party, and was imprisoned and eventually executed because of his resistance to Hitler\u2019s regime. He wrote a significant book called, \u201cThe Cost of Discipleship.\u201d In it he urges us to be aware of the problem of \u201ccheap grace\u201d.<\/p>\n
He writes, \u201cCheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast, he suggest that we need to understand that grace, whilst completely free to us, is also costly.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “you were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week I\u2019ve been reflecting on this command to Jesus\u2019 disciples to take up their cross and follow him, and particularly what it means for us, as we hold it together with the idea that Jesus came that we might have life and life in all its fullness, and Jesus\u2019 yoke is easy and his burden is light.<\/p>\n
It seems to me that we might move towards an understanding of this if we think about Jesus\u2019 journey. He is now moving towards Jerusalem. He\u2019s ready to carry the cross, but isn\u2019t carrying it yet. He will carry it for a short while, and then he won\u2019t carry it any more. Then he will be raised to life.<\/p>\n
The way of resurrection always go by way of the cross. The way of the cross always leads to resurrection. <\/p>\n
As followers of Jesus we follow his way. Most of the time as we walk with Jesus we are not carrying a cross, but we are called to be ready to \u2013 to be willing to go to painful places, to be ready to put others first, ready to love sacrificially. Sometimes we will have to carry a cross, not in the same way that Jesus did, but in a way that follows him. As we we carry it we look forward with hope and faith to the resurrection that Jesus led the way to and through, and the new life that he promises us.<\/p>\n
The way of resurrection always go by way of the cross. The way of the cross always leads to resurrection. <\/p>\n
The two themes of who Jesus is and our response to that are woven together in the final two verses that we read this morning, where Jesus refers to himself as \u201cThe Son of Man.\u201d He had last done this at the beginning of that first conversation, in verse 13, when he asked the disciples \u201cWho do people say that the Son of man is?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since he asked that question we have discovered that he is God\u2019s chosen Messiah, that what the Messiah is looks different to what the disciples were expecting, and that following that Messiah is costly. Now Jesus completes the loop. The Son of Man \u2013 the Messiah \u2013 Jesus, will return in glory, as King and Judge, and his just and merciful reign will be established forever, and those who have followed him faithfully will be raised to life with him forever. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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