Pentecost 13 A – August 30, 2020 | A sermon on Matthew 16:21-28 | by The Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS |

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.“ (Mat 16:21-28 NRSV)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Martin Luther began his Treatise on Christian Liberty, often called The Freedom of a Christian, in this way:

Many people have considered Christian faith an easy thing, and not a few have given it a place among the virtues. They do this because they have not experienced it and have never tasted the great strength there is in faith. It is impossible to write well about it or to understand what has been written about it unless one has at one time or another experienced the courage which faith gives a man when trials oppress him. But he who has had even a faint taste of it can never write, speak, meditate, or hear enough concerning it. It is a living “spring of water welling up to eternal life,” as Christ calls it in John 4[:14].[1]

In this writing, Luther explained a paradox in how he viewed Christianity.  First, a Christian is a free Lord of all things and a servant to no one.  Second, a Christian is a servant in all things, and is subject to everyone.  Luther would go on to explain that mankind has a twofold nature, a bodily one and a spiritual one.  Last week we heard Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Today, as we hear Peter’s rebuke of Jesus, we find an example of this two fold nature staring us right in the face.

You may recall that after Peter’s confession last week Jesus told him that it was God himself who had revealed that knowledge to Peter.  Here we find the spiritual side on mankind: someone who believes; someone who follows where God is leading.  The spiritual side is where we find the Word of God dwelling in us.  Luther wrote in his treatise “If (the soul) has the Word of God it is rich and lacks nothing since it is the Word of life, truth, light, peace, righteousness, salvation, joy, liberty, wisdom, power, grace, glory, and of every incalculable blessing.”  And so it was the soul in Peter that proclaimed “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”  God dwelled in Peter’s soul for that most important confession.

In our Gospel today, Jesus explains how he must go to Jerusalem and die.  And for this explanation he is rebuked by Peter, not by the God-filled soul of Peter, but instead the flesh and body of a sinful human.  “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”  Jesus rightly calls out Peter for his sin filled flesh ambitions:  “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.”  Sin mixed with the flesh is a stumbling block to the Word that is rooted in the soul.  But the Word overcomes this sin.  Peter and the rest of the disciples followed Jesus to Jerusalem.  They saw him hang on the cross.  They saw him buried.  However, they saw the empty tomb as well and the post-resurrected Jesus.  They saw the grave and sin overcome by the Word of God.

Jesus then turns to his disciples and tells them that if they want to be his followers, they must deny themselves, pick up their crosses and follow him.  Here is where we find the soul and the flesh tugging in different directions.  It is easy to come to church on a Sunday.  It is easy to say your prayers at night.  It is easy to help fellow man.  It is humbling and hard to be a Christian.  We are stuck in a place where the Word of God seeks to take a permanent root in our souls, while our sinful flesh tries to free us from that tug.  We look around and find crosses everywhere…things that are burdens on us.  Work, sports, school, spouse, children.  All those are crosses in our life.  All those tear us from the obedience of being a Christian because they pull us in a direction away from God.  But no matter how much sin tugs at us, the Word of God feeds our souls.  We are called to humbly follow Jesus, to be that servant of all and subject to all, so that the Word of God may infect other souls.  As we struggle to find that balance between flesh and soul, we find the Spirit at work in us.  We find freedom to be able to proclaim “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!” as Peter had done.  We also find freedom to tell Satan to get behind us and not be a stumbling block any more.  For we belong to the kingdom, body and soul, as servants of the Most High God, and his Son, Jesus the Christ.  This is our confession of faith, as we patiently await the arrival of the Son of Man and his kingdom.  So no matter how much the flesh pulls us away from God, we know that the Word is rooted in our souls, and with that comes all the freedom that we will ever need.  In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

[1] See Luther’s Works Vol. 31 or online https://www.spucc.org/sites/default/files/Luther%20Freedom.pdf