Thirteenth Sunday
after Pentecost (Proper 17A)
August 30, 2020
Text: Matt. 16:21-28
Peter
is looking for a kingdom of glory, glory, hallelujah. He had just confessed the truth revealed to
him by the Father: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”
(Matt. 16:16; ESV). But he clearly doesn’t
grasp the implications of such a confession.
He doesn’t like all of this talk about suffering at the hands of the
elders, chief priests and scribes, and being killed in Jerusalem. And this Third Day business about being
raised? What does that even mean? So Peter must do something. He takes Jesus aside to talk some sense into
Him. “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (v.
22). “Jesus, this is not how You win an
election or inaugurate a revolution!
This is not how You get the people behind you! You can’t go to Jerusalem and just give up
the fight, give Yourself over to the enemy.
Now, look around You. You have
twelve strong men at Your side. We’re
ready to fight to the death for You. So
show the people You are strong. Show
them You are capable. Flash some of that
divine power in the face of the opposition, and knock ‘em to the ground. Multiply some more loaves and fishes and show
the people how well-fed they’ll be under Your administration. Keep up the miracles. Free healthcare for all. They’ll beg You to be their King. And once Jerusalem and the rest of Judea are
under Your Lordship, it’s on to Rome, and then the world!”
Does
it sound familiar? I don’t just mean if
you’ve been watching the Democrat or Republican conventions, although there is
a clue about those, here, too. Remember
what happened in the wilderness following our Lord’s Baptism? “Tell these stones to become bread. Feed the hungry, starting with Yourself. Throw Yourself down from the Temple. The angels will catch You. The people will see it, and they’ll be Yours. See all these kingdoms of the world, across
time and space? They all belong to
me. I could give them to You, You
know. Just one little act of homage. Just one quick bow of the knee in my
direction. No need for cross and
suffering. No need to give Yourself over
to save these wretched human creatures.
You can rule them without all of that!”
And it’s no wonder, is it, what Jesus says 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” (v. 23), the things of Old Adam,
the things of the devil himself! Peter’s
vision for the Kingdom is the vision of Satan.
How
different is Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom!
Now that Peter and the disciples have the words of the Creed down, “You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus begins to teach them the
“What does this mean?” part. It means
that He must go to Jerusalem. He must
suffer many things from the Jewish leaders.
He must be killed. And on
the Third Day, He must be raised (v. 21). The Greek word for “must” is δεῖ, a freighted
word in the Gospels that speaks of divine necessity. It is divinely necessary that Jesus
win His Kingdom in this way. It is the
Father’s will. He sent His Son, Jesus,
into our flesh for this very purpose. To
go to Jerusalem to die. To hand Himself
over into the clutches of the enemy, the Jewish leaders, the Romans, sinners,
the devil, death and hell. To hand
Himself over as our Substitute. To take
our place. To pay our debt. To undergo our punishment. Jesus is showing the disciples and us that it
is divinely necessary for Him to suffer for our sins, to be killed for
our sins, and on the Third Day to be raised from the dead, having paid for
our sins.
That
is how He wins His Kingdom. That is how
He wins our redemption. That is how He
frees Peter and the disciples and you and me to be citizens of His Kingdom. Jesus’ Kingdom is the Kingdom of the cross. What else could it mean that some standing
before Him would not taste death until they saw the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom? It is not that they would live in their
earthly bodies until He comes again in glory.
They are dead, now, after all, and we’re still waiting. They saw Him come into His Kingdom on the
cross! That is His throne. And they were eyewitnesses of His
resurrection. The King Himself, having
died, stood before their very eyes alive.
And as they watched, He ascended into heaven to reign.
Jesus
must suffer and be killed and on the Third Day rise. That is the divine plan. But, by the way, it’s not just Jesus who must
bear the cross. It is all of us who
would follow after Him. Now, of course,
there is only one cross that pays for the sins of the world, your sins and
mine. That is the cross of Jesus. His death is the only and all-sufficient
sacrifice of atonement that wins our forgiveness and salvation. But then, in His infinite wisdom and desire
for our good, our Father lays a cross upon each one of us. Now, this cross is not to pay for sin. It is to mold and shape us into the cruciform
image of Jesus, into the Christians God would have us be. And it must be this way. It is divinely necessary. This is how God kills our Old Adam with all
his sins and evil desires. This is how
God destroys our idols, especially the ones buried deep within our hearts. This is how God rips away from us every shred
of hope or help outside of Himself. You
have to come to the end of Yourself for Christ to be your everything. You have to be dead in order for Him to raise
you. It is, as we have it in our Book of
Concord reading in your bulletin: “Paul teaches in a very consoling way that
God in His purpose has ordained before the time of the world by what crosses
and sufferings He would conform every one of His elect to the image of His
Son.” Think about that: From all
eternity God has known every cross and affliction you would have to bear, and
how He would use it, and how He would deliver you from it. And here is the Promise: “His cross shall and
must work together for good for everyone, because they are called according to
God’s purpose,”[1]
as St. Paul teaches in Rom. 8:28.
So
you have suffering to endure in this life.
The cross of the Christian is every suffering you bear in faith. Especially those you bear for the sake of
Christ and His Gospel. But it isn’t only
persecution. It is also godly grief over
your sins, which is to say, repentance.
It is sadness over the state of the world today, the enmity with which
we treat one another, our callous disregard for life, our trampling on the
weak, the destitute, the vulnerable… the poor, the widow, the orphan, the
unborn. It is Lot, living among the
people of Sodom, tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds (2
Peter 2:8). It is your groaning with all
creation (Rom. 8:22), living in a fallen body in a fallen world. It is the pandemic. It is the civil unrest. It is disastrous groaning of nature, like
Hurricane Laura or the derecho, wildfires, earthquakes, droughts, famine, or
flood. It is war. It is cancer.
It is depression. It is
death. Any of these, borne with faith in
Jesus Christ, suffered faithfully, with faith in Him, is a cross by which God
is working your good, your growth in faith, your perseverance, and your final
deliverance. He is bringing you through
suffering to the resurrection of your body.
Now,
this is not what Old Adam wants to hear.
Be honest. Confess it. You don’t like hearing about how you have to
suffer and die this side of the resurrection, any more than Peter wanted to
hear it from Jesus. That is why, by the
way, you think everything is riding on this presidential election. I’ve heard it from Republicans and Democrats,
and I’ve heard it louder and louder every four years: “This is the most
important election in our lifetime!”
Well, maybe. Elections are
important, and don’t misunderstand me. I
want you to stay informed and vote and participate as a citizen, and I want you
to do so as a Christian, as one who has been given the wisdom of God
in the Holy Scriptures. I want you to do
it out of love for your neighbor and for his good, for your family, for your
community, for your country. And by the
way, I have dearly held political opinions, if you’d like to hear them sometime,
so I’m not knocking that. But don’t be
deceived. Neither Joe Biden, nor Donald
Trump is the answer to all that plagues our nation and our world today. And neither one will usher in the Kingdom of
God. Truth be told, humanly speaking, no
matter who wins in November, we’re sunk.
I say that for your comfort. But
were you listening to Jesus? You don’t
win the Kingdom by winning elections.
That is Peter’s way. And Satan
wants you to think it’s that easy. The
fact is, with the right people in power, sure, you could gain the whole world. But what good would it be in the end if you
forfeit your soul? “For whoever would
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”
(Matt. 16:25).
That
is, it is not for you to build for yourself a heaven on earth. It is not for you to avoid all suffering; to
put your own safety and welfare above all else; to seek pleasure and rest and
security and fulfillment in the things that are transient, including your
riches, your house, your health, your job, your retirement, or even your
family; to provide for yourself a soft pillow and garden of roses here and now,
at the expense of what is to come when Christ returns. We live for that Day! Stop seeking the things of this life as
though they were ultimate. They are
not. They have a limited shelf life. Seek the things that are above, where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. Seek
the things that are eternal. Take the
long view. Have in mind the things of
God, not the things of man. Suffer for
Christ now; deny yourself now, believing and trusting in Him; lose your life
for His sake now; knowing that the life you have in Him is eternal in the
heavens, and that on the Last Day He will raise you, bodily, from the
dead.
I
know you don’t want to suffer. I know
you want your good things now, and to be safe and happy always. Satan would have you believe you can have it
all without any unpleasantness. But your
Father knows what is necessary for your salvation. It is better to let God be God, and Jesus be
the Savior. Trust not in princes, they
are but mortal. Trust not your own
thoughts about the way things ought to be.
The cross is necessary. That is
God’s decree. But the Day is
coming. You will be raised from death. Jesus is Lord. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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