Matthew 16:21–26

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised again. ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “May you receive mercy, Lord! This will never happen to you.” ²³ But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a snare to me because you are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men.” ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ²⁵ In fact whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ After all, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?    (EHV)

Dear Friends in Christ,

Which is easier? To live life as a believer or an unbeliever? It’s a question that requires more than a 5-second answer, isn’t it? There are obviously so many blessings we enjoy as Christians. We know that God is with us and for us, and “if God is for us, who can be against us?” On the other hand, there are difficulties we face as followers of Jesus. Jesus promised that we wouldn’t be treated better than He was.

In order to save us and give us eternal life, Jesus had to suffer all, even death on a cross. Through His cross we have life. And in His words to His disciples today, Jesus tells us to follow His path—Through the Cross to Life.

Life through Jesus’ Cross

Today’s text picks right up on the heels of Peter’s great confession of faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus commended Peter. In fact, He told him he could never have come up with such truth on His own but that it had been revealed to Him by the Father in heaven.

Now that the disciples had come to that point in their faith, it was time for them to learn more—especially the hard truth of what the Christ, the Messiah, had come into the world to do. “From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised again.”

Jesus knew this would be hard for His disciples to take but He had to tell the truth. He couldn’t put it off. The events of passion week were drawing nearer. By now, the disciples had already had two years of daily instruction from Jesus. This instruction had worked faith in their hearts, so that Peter, by the power of the Holy Spirit had even been enabled to make his bold and accurate confession of faith.

The time had come to tell them the “bad” news, so to speak. Even then, Jesus spares them all the bloody and gory details. It was enough of a shock for His disciples to hear that Jesus was going to be killed. They weren’t yet ready to hear about a crucifixion. He simply says He will “suffer many things.”

Jesus had to suffer. That’s what He told them. It was necessary for Him to suffer. That’s because God is holy and righteous and demands blood payment for sin—and all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Our holy God demands sins be paid, and He sent “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” to make that payment and atone for the sins of all.  In order to do that in our place, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” had to humble Himself and be made man and become truly human like us. Jesus had to leave heaven and come live in our world of misery, in order to be under the law as our substitute. He had to subject Himself to His parents’ and teachers’ authority, even though He was wiser than them. He had to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies for us, even the ones in Isaiah which foretold that He would be mocked and scorned. He had to be betrayed as David foretold in the Psalms. He had to live our life and do it perfectly, in order to save us.

And He had to die as well. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed…. as all the bloody Old Testament sacrifices foretold. It wasn’t that He would be overpowered. He had slipped through the crowd and disappeared on other occasions when people tried to kill Him. He suffered death willingly, because divine justice demanded death. Humankind was subjected to death the day Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in the garden, which, as God had warned, would make them “surely die.” “The wages of sin is death.” He had to die, so that we wouldn’t have to die eternally. Someone had to pay the just price that sin earned. And God in His great mercy, appointed His own Son to the task. Only Jesus could do it, because as the Son of God, only Jesus was born sinless, and as the Son of God, only His death would be valuable enough to pay for the sins of the world.

“…And on the third day be raised again,” Jesus continued. Jesus had to rise. His resurrection on the third day is what guarantees that our sins are actually, fully paid for, and that we also one day will rise again. Paul explained, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…. For since death came through a man, the resurrection comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

But Peter was horrified! He was so shocked when Jesus said He would die, that he didn’t even hear the part about rising. “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “May you receive mercy, Lord! This will never happen to you.’” Peter had worldly thoughts about salvation. Despite the fact that he had learned his whole life as a Jew that sin requires blood sacrifice, he wanted a neat, clean, cheap, bloodless salvation. He wanted a Savior who would make life in this world easier, rather than a Redeemer who came to take us with Him to a different world. He had in mind the things of men rather than the things of God.

Peter is hardly alone. The other disciples were equally shocked. So are so many would-be disciples today. Perhaps that’s why so many don’t like the crucifix. The empty cross is so much more domesticated and palatable. Who wants a bloody, beaten, and crucified Jesus as their Savior, when you can have one with pressed robes and salon hair? Even “regular” crosses have been removed from many new churches. It’s “too offensive to visitors,” they say. The apostle Paul addressed that worldly attitude almost 2000 years ago: “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Part of the reason Peter and sometimes we abhor too much talk about the cross, is that we don’t like being reminded how awful and deadly our sins are, that they should require the bloody sacrifice of God’s only-begotten Son! The good news is that He died that death for us in our place.

Jesus was not thrilled with Peter’s objection to His suffering and dying! “Get behind me, Satan! You are a snare to me because you are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men.” What a stunning rebuke! But it was the exact same temptation Satan used on Jesus one-on-one during the 40 days in the wilderness. All the glory—none of the pain! But that would have left us and Peter to fend for ourselves against Satan. A bloodless Savior is no Savior at all! Worldly, happy-talk religion leads directly to hell, and it comes straight from Satan. We need a crucified Lord, or we’re lost! “Deny yourself,” Jesus urges. Deny Worldly Religion and confess the real Jesus—the One who died on the cross for our sins.  And then, Deny your own Worldly Self, too.

Life through Our Own Cross

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ²⁵In fact whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶After all, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?”

In a muddy village in Uganda a young African Lutheran man named Daniel runs an organization called HOPE for AIDS Orphans. Sometimes he posts pictures on Facebook of children suffering and asks for prayers. But more often his pictures are of them smiling in their helpless poverty. In many ways they seem much happier than rich, worldly people. In one post  Daniel wrote: “Besides the difficulties we face, we remain focused on things above. We are pilgrims, we got no place here.” This man and these children bearing crosses as Christians every day may well understand faith in Jesus better than most, because of the blessed cross he and his extended family carry in this life. The cross is a blessing. It keeps us focused on the real life we live in Jesus, instead of the passing world which so easily crowds out faith.

What a paradox Jesus presents us with: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” You can’t have both. Either you live for God, or you live for yourself. “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Denying yourself means loving God more than family, more than friends—more than anything! It means setting your house in order. It means self-discipline—not treating ourselves as spoiled children. “This is love for God,” John wrote: “to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,” Jesus says, “for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).

Life without Christ leads to destruction. A life without the real Christ is not really worth living. The devil comes to us and tells us the opposite every day, just like he did to, and even through Peter to Jesus! He tells us that life will be happier with “things” than with God, happier with fake Hollywood Jesus than with real, crucified Jesus. But what does real Jesus say? He says, “What will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?”

There is no greater treasure on earth than the soul, filled with the “peace that surpasses all understanding,” knowing you are God’s own dearly loved child, forgiven and able to stand tall on the Day of Judgment! What a joy to know you are one of Jesus’ own sheep and that you will be placed at His right hand that day! That’s what inspired Paul to write in today’s epistle lesson, “For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Poor Peter embarrassed himself that day. I’m glad he wasn’t too embarrassed to talk about it later and share his experience. I’m glad he let Matthew write about it too. Peter wanted others to learn from his grave mistake! Jesus wants us all to have in mind the things of God, rather than the things of man. He wants us to deny worldly religion that promises only gains in this life and look to the Cross of Christ for life. He wants us to deny our selfish selves and take up our own cross on the way to “the life to come” in heaven through faith in Jesus. “Indeed,” Paul wrote, “it was for this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for something we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patient endurance.”—Through the Cross to Life.  Amen.