Introduction
I've been struck by what John Carr
has said about the Gospels. “The Gospels were written so that you
may believe”. So I started thinking about what it is in this
passage that helps us to believe in Jesus. I think part of the
answer is Peter. The gospel characters are very well portrayed, if
we read the gospels in larger chunks than just the small reading we
had this morning, it doesn't take long before we get a pretty good
idea of what each of the main disciples are like. Peter is
impetuous, he acts before he thinks, and he responds without thinking
through what he is saying. There is nothing malicious in him, and he
clearly has a great love for Jesus. That's why he responds like he
does.
A couple of weeks ago we heard Jesus
ask his disciples “Who do you say that I am?” (16:15). I
wonder if there was a long pause as they all wondered what their
teacher expected them to say. It was Peter who broke the silence.
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” and Jesus' reply
is one of warm congratulation and reward: “Blessed are you, Simon
son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my
Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
How did Peter feel after that? He is
told that he is blessed, given a new name, and entrusted with the
future mission of the group.
Up a Level
As a result of this Jesus decides
that they have come far enough for him to be teaching them at the
next level.
I overheard a conversation on the bus
on Friday. Two girls from Mayflower comparing notes on their new
classes. “She's, like, taken it to the next level, she's speaking
Spanish as soon as we get in the room and the tasks are all written
up in Spanish, and some of the words we don't even know ...”, and
so it went on.
When a teacher thinks you have
mastered a certain amount they start with the more difficult
teachings and it can be hard to adjust.
That is what has happened here. The
passage we had read to us starts “From that time on ...”. Now
Jesus will be speaking clearly about what must happen. He's here on
a mission to rescue humanity. If the mission is to succeed He must
die on a cross. Then on the third day he will rise to life.
It's all too much for Peter, much too
big a step forward. He can't cope. God had revealed to Peter who
Jesus was, but the enormity of it was too much to take in. How could
his friend, his leader, the person he had left his home to follow,
the person he had been with and relied upon for two years, suddenly
be speaking of his death. No, that can't be right! Jesus, you must
to be mistaken. This is not how it goes for the person I have come
to know, there is so much still to do, so many people still to heal,
so many people still to convince, we've hardly started!
What comes out probably doesn't do
justice to his thoughts: “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall
never happen to you!”
And Jesus' retort is perhaps the
biggest, hardest put down in History: “Get behind me, Satan! You
are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of
God, but the things of men.”
Peter has gone from the greatest
hero, to nothing, to worse than nothing. From the closest friend to
the greatest enemy, in the space of almost no time at all.
Ups & downs
Well life certainly has it's ups and
downs.
We've had our own ups and downs
recently as we've heard the news that Warner will be leaving us, then
last week the church was full as we and people from the other
churches, and various organizations around town came to say our
goodbyes.
What a great service it was! – and
what a sad occasion.
Perhaps some of us still haven't
really accepted what has happened, is was all too quick for us to get
an understanding of what the church will be like without him.
Hard Teaching
Jesus didn't give Peter any time to
come to terms with his failure, He just launched straight into more
teaching. Here we have another reason the gospels help us to believe
– they teach us the reality of following Jesus. It is not sugar
coated in any way – straight forward truths, but some are hard to
bear.
This is most certainly on another
level compared to what the disciples have seen until now. It remains
difficult for us too, but if we are to be focused on Jesus, and not
let the ups and downs of the world overcome us, this is were we must
be.
Now I'm going to look at these last
four verses in a more detail. You may want to follow the text as I
do.
24 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
If anyone would come after me, he
must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
The disciples had all been called,
some had left their jobs and homes in an instant to follow Jesus, and
yet He say “If anyone would come after me ...” His assumption is
that they are making an effort to follow him (and right now to keep
up with Him!). That is true for us too, it is hard work sometimes to
follow Jesus, we don't understand where He is leading us, or the
purpose behind what He is asking of us. Some of the things He say,
some of the commands (or is that demands) in scripture seem
impossible.
Deny Self
But following after Him is the easy
piece. Next, He says that we must deny ourselves. That is not the
same as self-denial. During Lent some people give up chocolate or
perhaps meat or something else – they deny it to themselves, that
is self-denial, it is not denying self. To understand what Jesus is saying, we can again use Peter as an example. Most of you will know
that after Jesus' arrest, Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times.
In predicting that Jesus said (Mt
26:34) “I tell you the truth, this very night, before the rooster
crows, you will disown me three times.”
The word used there – translated
disown – is the same word used in this passage. When we become Christians, everything that we were is to be left behind. As Paul
says to the Corinthians “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
We can say of our former lives, “I
don't know him (or her) – I have nothing to do with them.”. It
is easy to say, but much harder to do.
So what does it mean in practice, I
found this description:
“If when you are good, evil is
spoken, and when your wishes are crossed and your advice is
disregarded, and your opinions are ridiculed, and you refuse to let
anger rise in your heart, and even defend yourself’ but you take
it patiently in loving silence, then you are dying to self. And when
you lovingly and patiently bear any disgrace, any irregularity, any
annoyance, when you stand face to face with extravagance and folly
and spiritual insensitivity and endure it, as Jesus did, that is
dying to self. And when you are content with any food, any money, any
clothing, any society, any solitude or interruption by the will of
God, that is dying to self. And when you never care to refer to
yourself in conversation or record your own good works, or itch after
commendation from others, and when you truly love to be unknown, that
is dying to self. When you see your brother prosper, see his needs
wondrously met, and can honestly rejoice with him [with his big
house, with his big car, with his big pool – whatever it may be]
without feeling envy, and never question God though your needs are
greater and still unmet, that is dying to self. Now when you can
receive correction and reproof from someone of less stature, and
admit that he is right and find no resentment or rebellion in your
heart, that is dying to self.”
[Chelmsford holding cross]
We have neutralized to power of the
cross, we have turned it into a symbol of comfort. Do you remember
the video of the Chelmsford holding cross a few weeks ago, and how
lovingly this symbol was described. There is nothing wrong with
that, so long as we don't lose its real meaning – it represented a
shameful death to the Romans, and also to the Jews. For us today, the
nearest equivalent would be to carry an electric chair – that is
where murders end up in some countries, and that is what the cross
really represents.
We have an expression - “we all
have our crosses to bear” which, no doubt, derived from this
passage, but our saying does not do justice to the passage. It
usually refers to all the difficulties that occur in life –
sickness, disability, problems with family or work, or whatever
causes you trouble, but that is not what Jesus is talking about. We
only have one cross to bear, and it is the cross of Christ.
25 & 26 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
“For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What
good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits
his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
This saying in verse 25 is found in
all four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, so the gospel
writers clearly though that it was important. Sometimes it is found
more than once, so it may have been something that Jesus was said to
them all many times. It is simply saying that if you try to save
your life now – by denying Jesus, then you will ultimately loose
it, but if you loose your life now then you are assured of eternal
life. This is really just an extension and expansion of 'take up
your cross'.
26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
What good will it be for a man if he
gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give
in exchange for his soul?
Our translation makes it sound as
though Jesus has changed tack, but the word translated 'soul' here is
the same word translated 'life' in the previous verse. The word can
be translated to life, soul, heart, mind and refers to the inner
person, so nothing much has changed in what Jesus is saying. Perhaps
we could say “What good is it if a man gains the whole world, yet
forfeits himself. What can a man give in exchange for himself?
So what can a man get in exchange for
his soul, for himself?
There are any number of films and
stories based on people gaining some advantage by selling their soul
to Satan, and their lives do not end well, but it was an exchange in
a bond film that really spoke to me:
Elektra
King: I could have given you the world.
James
Bond: The world is not enough.
Elektra
King: Foolish sentiment.
James
Bond: Family motto.
When we are tempted to go seeking
after things that the world has to offer, we should remember the
family motto “The world is not enough”.
Look at it another way. On one of
the CCS evening the students were doing a presentation on how to
reach various groups of people, as a demonstration of a technique I
was asked to come to the front to estimate the value of a rare
painting, which they had carefully covered and stood on the floor. I
was asked to kneel down, but my knees are not that great, and I
didn't get as far as I had hoped. They raised the cover …
… and I saw a picture of my feet!!
How lovely on the mountains are the
feet of him who brings good news! - or even if they are on the church
floor! From the hymn 'Our God Reigns' and Isaiah 52
It was of course a way of revealing
to people how much God values them.
I wouldn't give up my soul for the
world, but God gave up His son for my soul.
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
For the Son of Man is going to come
in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each
person according to what he has done.
There is an expectation that God will
respond justly to how we behave in this life.
Ps
62v2 Surely
you will reward each person according to what he has done.
And
Ro
2:6-8 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and
immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are
self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be
wrath and anger.
Mt 16:28 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Mt
16:28 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste
death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Peter
has already been told that He has been given the Keys to the Kingdom
of Heaven, but we know that Jesus is in charge of His church on
Earth, and we also know that all the disciples were involved in the
founding of the church in some way, and the church is the beginnings
of the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
Jesus has moved the teaching up a
level in response to Peters triumph and failure. He is preparing the
disciples for Easter. We may not have realized that there is such a
cost to discipleship and we may not yet be ready to go the whole way.
We should remember that Jesus' mission to save us from sin and death
cost him His life, that seems to be more that a fair trade to me.
Lets pray.
