Pentecost Thirteen

Pentecost Thirteen (Revised Common Lectionary) – 08/30/20 | Matthew 16.21-28 | Carl A. Voges |

 

The Passage

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the day be  raised.  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!  This shall never happen to you.”  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.  Truly, there are some standing here who will not tase death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”                                                [English Standard Version]

 

“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.“                                                                      [Romans 12.9ff.]

 

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

 

Back in January, when the year of 2020 was getting underway, we had no idea of how jumbled and roughed and tensed the year was going to be when a new virus surfaced from southwest China.  Recalling that month now, it appeared that life in the world was nearly perfect, the year 2020 sounded and looked so marketable.  Now, however, the appearances have flipped!  For past five and a half months we have been dealing with this new virus in a variety of ways and our efforts have not brought us to a let-up.

 

Additionally, the world’s life has been jamming us with severe disarray in some of the country’s cities, with assaults on the symbols of national identity and with dizzying confusions over sexual identities.

 

Well-intentioned scientific persons are promising that all of us will be led back to a normal existence (reflecting January, 2020, perhaps?), that we will have the protection of a vaccine later this year or in 2021.  This sounds promising, but the Lord’s faithful people have lived in the world long enough to recognize that the world’s promises are not always delivered.

 

To be honest, what may be actually going on in and around our lives are the realities that the gods we are accustomed to working with on a daily basis are losing their grip on us while the real Lord God (the Holy Trinity) is emerging with the steadiness and strength of its mysterious Life seeking to grip our lives more fully in his own!

That’s why, even under the duress of these past five and a half months, we continue to make our way into the Lord’s Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist.  From those holy places our lives are renewed and made stronger in the Son’s

dying and rising for all the world’s people.  Remembering that we have been baptized into the Holy Trinity, we are reminded of how vital and necessary that relationship is.

 

This relationship also undergirds and shapes the relationships in our families, at work and among our friends.  This importance comes out not only when those relationships are going well or being restored, it also comes out when they are going badly or are being torn apart!  For the people of the Lord God, the relationship they have with him (begun in Baptism) is even more important than the ones we experience in this world.  In today’s Gospel, our Lord reminds us of that saving and sustaining reality.

 

In the passage’s two sections, Jesus not only describes his approaching death and resurrection, he also describes what it means to follow him.

 

In the first section, Jesus tells his disciples what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem – he will be immersed in great suffering.  What is shocking is that the suffering will be poured out by the elders (they handled the judicial and administrative business of each local synagogue), the chief priests (they led the sacrificial worship in the Jerusalem temple) and the scribes (they were the professional interpreters of the Law).

 

This suffering will conclude in the killing of Jesus, but he will be raised.  In a strong reaction, Peter pulls Jesus to the side and criticizes him for making such comments.  Peter concludes that the Lord God should prevent these events from occurring and that such things should never happen to Jesus!

 

Jesus, however, wheels and turns on Peter.  He tells Peter to get behind him, actually calling him Satan!  Why does Jesus react so strongly?  Because that attitude is a stumbling block to Jesus, because Peter is concentrating on human things, because Peter is not focusing on the things of the Lord God.

 

In the second section, Jesus moves on to describe what it takes to be one of his followers.  It begins with the denial of self (this has us turning against the life given us at birth).  It then has us taking up his cross (this involves receiving the Life given us at Baptism – confronting our weaknesses, recognizing our flaws and realizing we are dogged by mistakes).  It concludes with us following him (this has us slipping into the ways of our Lord rather than the ways of the world).

 

Jesus then offers these brilliant insights.  Those who want to save their lives will lose them (contrast that with the world; rather than losing its life, it is always grasping for it).

Those who lose their lives for Jesus’ sake will find them (contrast that with the world; it allows us to lose our lives, but only for our sakes, never for anyone else’s sake!).

 

Our Lord also asks:  What will it gain people if they become huge in the world’s eyes, but throw their lives away?  Every once in a while papers and magazines will relate, in detail, individuals who get caught up in greed, who ride high for a time, who are destroyed.  He poses another question:  What can people give in return for their lives? When courts are forced to come up with the worth of a person, the best they can usually do is accumulate the income a person may have earned in a lifetime.

 

Jesus now encourages the people around him to follow him.  In a shadowy way he is pointing to the emerging resurrection and ascension as well as to his return at the End-of-Time.  Remember that the phrase, “Son of Man,” is an Old Testament reference to the  promised Messiah who will rescue the world’s people by plunging into their affliction and suffering.

 

Jesus’ coming will also spell out the responsibility of people or their lack of it.  Those who remained committed to themselves will live with that reality, eternally, and it will be hell!  Those who remain committed to him will live with that reality, eternally, and it will be heaven!

 

Then, in a less shadowy way, Jesus points to his approaching crucifixion, resurrection and ascension as events that will occur before any of his disciples die.  It is a reality of the world’s life that the relationships we have with other people are vital and important, but this passage shows that the basic and enduring relationship is the one we have with the Lord God.

 

Let us now look at Jesus’ words from a different angle to better understand what he is saying this morning.  Consider that Jesus’ going to Jerusalem is like an individual getting baptized.  What would that person say if we pointed out what is going to happen to him or her because of that Baptism?

 

That it’s not going to make life in this world easier.  That there will be a growing discovery of the great difference between the world’s ways and the Lord’s ways.  That they will be exposed to the breaking and hurting life of this world.  That there will be a growing realization of the destructive urges and actions which are deeply imbedded in our minds, bodies and spirits.  That the Baptism they are plunging into is not going to make life in this world lighter.

 

Such realities may cause us to think again about stepping into that Baptism!  Such realities also help us to understand why people pull away from their Baptisms or avoid it all together.  However, in today’s Gospel, our Lord is encouraging us to not only stay with his Baptism of us but to also let him plunge us further into it!  The Lord knows that we are free to seize our own life (people will always have that option), but he also presses us to notice what that seizure accomplishes.  Not a thing!

 

Instead, Jesus reminds us of where real Life is to be found – in him, in his suffering, his dying, his rising and his ascending!

 

It is no matter, then, if our lives are made more difficult or if we discover the great difference between the world’s ways and the Lord’s ways or if we are pushed into the breaking and hurting of this world’s life or if we become more aware of the destructive urges and actions that are deeply imbedded in us or if our lives are made heavier!  Our Lord has plunged into all of that, rescuing and sustaining his people!

 

Let us be encouraged, then, to look back to our Baptisms and to be steadily imbedded in them.  Yes, the relationships we have with other people are important, whether in our families, at work or with our friends.  And, yes, the world’s life with all its happenings will continue to swirl around our lives.

 

But there is no more relationship more important than the one established with us by the Lord God at our Baptisms, one that keeps coming at us from his holy Writings, his Forgiveness and his Eucharist!

 

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord

 

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com