"This Shall Never Happen"
Text: Matthew 16:21-28
9-3-2023
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. In the verses just prior to our Gospel reading St. Peter correctly identified Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And Jesus was pleased with what He heard. He commended Peter for it, adding that God had revealed this saving knowledge to him. Jesus had been teaching these men about Himself and God's glorious plan of salvation and it appeared that all His work was finally paying off. They were beginning to see Him more clearly as the Savior. But now, as Paul Harvey would say, they needed to hear "the rest of the story."
Yes, the disciples believed that Jesus was God in the flesh. Yes, they believed He was the Messiah. But they were thinking in rather vague, earthly terms. They needed to hear the specifics of God's plan for redeeming the world from sin. So, Jesus took them aside and privately began filling them in. The details were not pretty, though. And Jesus wasn't ambiguous about it. He told them the cold, hard truth. He was going back to Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders would make Him suffer and, in the end, kill Him!
"Whoa! Wait a minute Jesus! What are you saying? Just a little while ago you were elated that we recognized you as the Savior. Everything was happy and good. But now you're telling us that you're going to die? And you're going to willingly walk right into the hands of those hateful people that want to kill you? You're the Son of God, for goodness’ sake. No way! We can't accept that and we don't want to hear it so stop talking like that."
That's the basic thought behind Peter's response when he said, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." He figured that even if Jesus wouldn't stop it from happening, he certainly would. Do you remember what he did in the Garden of Gethsemane? The soldiers came out to arrest Jesus and Peter took out a sword and tried to prevent it from happening. But Jesus stopped him, saying that all this was necessary in order to fulfill the Scriptures and the Father's will. Even though Peter quit fighting then, this incident shows just how strongly he felt about what was happening to Jesus.
So, it shouldn't surprise us that when Jesus told the disciples some of the gory details ahead of time, Peter pulled Him aside and rebuked Him. Many people have a hard time understanding how and why Peter would dare say that to His Lord and teacher. He had just confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. How could he turn right around and say something that sounds disrespectful and insubordinate? One explanation is that Peter, like the other disciples, had his own ideas about what the Christ would be. They had hopes and dreams about the kingdom Jesus was establishing. In their minds it would be a kingdom of power and glory, not suffering and death. If nothing else, they figured that all this negative talk was bad PR for Jesus and the kingdom. But that was their worldly view, clouded by sinful desires.
However, I'd like you to consider another reason for Peter's actions. Jesus was his teacher and close friend. Jesus was the answer to all of Peter's spiritual searching and he loved Jesus deeply. He felt so confident and safe when he was with his Lord. So, the thought of Christ dying upset him because it made him feel as though a part of him would die too. He just had to stop it from happening as well as stopping Jesus from talking about it.
We can surely sympathize with these feelings. When we hear that a loved one has a terminal illness, we don't want to hear it. Our minds shout, "This can't be true!" I know that desperate feeling of wanting to stop the death of someone I love. Or perhaps, like me, you've gotten a late-night phone call where the person on the other end tells you the bad news that someone dear to you has just died unexpectedly. Our minds struggle to grasp what was said and we think to ourselves, "This must be a cruel joke." But even though we try to deny it, the sad truth remains.
When I was a police officer in Omaha, we got a call one day of a possible drowning at a city park. Upon our arrival we found a young boy near the pond on the golf course and he was frantic. He and his brother had been wading around in the shallow water picking up golf balls. But suddenly his brother had slipped and fallen into deep water. The boy couldn't swim and his brother lost sight of him. So, he ran for help. Eventually, we found the body on the bottom of the pond. The paramedics took him away in the ambulance while we drove the other brother to the hospital separately. On the way this little boy pleaded with us to tell him if his brother would live. I knew the truth already but now was not the time or the place to break the new to him. That little boy cursed at us as he cried and begged for an answer. Finally, when his relatives came, we went into a quiet little room and told him the painful truth that his brother was dead. He started screaming, "I don't believe you! I want to go see my brother right now!" You see, even though he didn't want to hear the bad news, it didn't change the truth.
That's the kind of emotion Peter was feeling. Jesus was closer to him than a brother. And now, Christ was telling His beloved friends that He was going to suffer a horrible death. Peter's natural reaction was to say, "Jesus, stop it! Don't say that! This shall never happen to you!" We can sympathize with his sentiments but the problem is that Peter had tuned out the rest of what Jesus said. Christ had added the good news that He would also rise again on the third day. His death would not be final. And even though Christ had been instructing the disciples about it all along, Peter had forgotten the glorious results of this horrible death. Through it, the sins of the whole world would be forgiven. Yes, it would be painful and gruesome, but beyond that was the shining truth that Jesus would overcome death and rise to life. And He promised that everyone who believed in Him would also live again.
Peter had been focused only on the gloomy suffering and death. But Jesus was focused on the enormous good that would come out of it. That's why He spoke so sharply to Peter that these things must indeed happen. Peter may have had good intentions but what he had said was in direct opposition to God's will. His desire to prevent the death of Jesus had become a tool of Satan. The devil would do anything in order to circumvent or hinder God's plan of salvation. And he used the mouth of one of Jesus' closest friends to try and throw a monkey wrench into the works.
In our text Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." So often, people misconstrue those words and think that the cross He's speaking about are their aches and pains and troubles or the messes they've made of their lives. Those are not true crosses to bear. They're the result of sin and our sinfulness in this fallen world. Rather, the cross Jesus calls us to carry is the mistreatment and suffering that we must face for being believers in Him.
God tells us that we must give up our pet sins and sinful lusts. But that's painful. It might feel as though we're being asked to kill a part of ourselves that we love. We don't want to hear it and we certainly don't want to do it. We are tempted to say, "Lord, this shall never happen." But Jesus calls us to take up our crosses and be different than the rest of the world. For example, your friends may invite you to go to a party where excessive drinking or illegal drugs are shared. Or their conversations may be laced with all kinds of profanity. But Jesus calls you to be different. He knows that you'll be laughed at and ostracized for not going along with the crowd. That can be painful, but it's a cross we must bear. Your family or friends might think that attending worship every week is a waste of time. They may mock you and call you a "religious fanatic." If you dare say that you believe the Bible condemns various sins that are now acceptable in society—such as homosexuality, cohabitation before marriage, sexual relations outside of marriage, or that abortion is murder and should be outlawed—well, they'll label you as hateful, bigoted, and intolerant. That's a cross you must bear. All of this can be painful. The easy way out is to avoid these crosses and forget about being different than the rest of the world.
That's what Satan would like you to do. He can't stop Jesus from dying on the cross for you. That's already done. But he sure can try to lead you away from following Christ. So instead of focusing on the difficulty of our crosses, Jesus wants us to look beyond the pain and sorrow to the wonderful benefits that await us for following and obeying Him. He invites us to come to Him for strength to endure our crosses by remembering the forgiving grace that He poured out on us in our Baptisms. When in weakness you're tempted and fall into sin, He calls you to confess it to Him and hear His rich words of forgiveness. In the Lord's Supper, He offers you the benefits of the cross that He bore for you as He places in your mouth His precious body and blood.
As He sanctifies you through these Means of Grace, He calls upon you to totally disown everything sinful in your life. It may feel like a very painful proposition to let those evil desires die. But instead of saying, "Lord, this shall never happen" He teaches us to say "Yes, Lord! Your will be done in my life." Christ promises that if you will let go of those unprofitable and damning lusts for sin and instead trust in Him you will be saved for all eternity. Not only that, He also gives you a new life now; a life filled with peace and happiness even as you bear your crosses of pain and trouble and loss. As believers, we look forward to the day when we will lay down our crosses and take up the crown of life in heaven that Christ promises to all who trust in Him. May God keep us strong and faithful until that day when He calls us home. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!