Matthew 16:21-25

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who was martyred by the Nazis in World War II, once wrote: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." That is Jesus' message to us this morning. That may not be the message you came to hear this morning. It certainly is not the message you hear from the "health, wealth and happiness" preachers on television. But Jesus tells us that, to experience the power and joy of the resurrection, to know the new life He gives, you must first know failure, condemnation and death. To get to Easter Sunday, you first must pass through Maundy Thursday, and good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Most of my commentaries, I noticed, missed the most important part of this message. Some of them talked about the call of Jesus as a call to obedience. Others talked about the proper division of law and gospel. Some noted how the call to discipleship is, indeed, a call to put to death our sinful self - the old Adam and Eve in us. But they all said that the cross we bear in Jesus' name is not a burden we bear because of our sins - neither is it some bodily ailment or personal loss that we are bound to bear. They say that the cross Jesus is talking about here, is exclusively the suffering that we endure because we follow Jesus. Only that suffering counts as a burden of the cross. To refer to the suffering we bear because of our human frailty or sinfulness as bearing the cross, they say, is cheapening the Gospel. Well, I have to tell you that I am glad that Jesus didn't go to the commentaries before He said this because, in this case, the commentaries are wrong.

There are three parts to this story, actually, and you need to keep all three of them in focus in order to understand the whole of the message. First there is Peter's confession. Then there is Jesus' clarification of that confession. Finally there is the denial and reprimand of Peter.

As Jesus asks the disciples who others say He is, Peter listens to the litany of responses, carefully comparing them to the Jesus He has come to know. He has seen the direct connection of Jesus to the Father - how His words ring with an authority beyond any of the prophets; how His prayers speak of an intimacy with the Father no person has ever known. Suddenly the realization dawns on him, and he blurts out: "You are the Christ! The Son of the Living God!" For Peter, there is a very specific content to those words. The Christ was the One who was to come and deliver God's people. The Jews expected Him to be a king of the line of David. He would vindicate God's righteousness before the nations and release them from their bondage. So Peter's hopes were set on a Christ of Glory. And it is for that reason that Jesus tells the disciples to tell no one. Then He sets about to tell them the true nature of His mission. He isn't Rambo, come to set the Jewish P.O.W.s free. He isn't going to establish a new Jewish national state. He has come to suffer and die.

That is where Peter comes unglued. Not just because it destroys his hopes to become a national hero, but for far more personal reasons. Peter is no coward. He is a man of great courage and great heart. He would gladly give his life to a noble cause. But for a losing one? For suffering and death? What good would that do? How does that change anything? "That," Peter would say to himself, "is MY story! That is the whole of human experience in a nutshell - suffering and death! How can Jesus help me by dying? What I want is someone who can deliver me from failure, from sin, from oppression, from my loneliness and despair, from my lostness, from suffering and death! I need a God with some power! My hopes were all pinned on YOU, Jesus! You're calling me to follow you in THAT direction? I know the path too well already! No - it will not happen that way! I can go down to defeat very well by myself, thank you. I am well practiced at that! I didn't follow you for that! But you could change all that - that is what a Messiah is for! You can't just leave me as I am. It's not just about some national hope - it is MY hope that is at stake here! My dreams! My life!"

But Jesus cuts him short: "Get behind me, Satan! You are not on God's side, but men's! If any of you would be my disciple, you must deny yourself also, take up your cross and follow me." What is this call? The call to obedience? Peter wasn't far from that - not enough to be labeled, "Satan!" Satan is the deceiver, the one who appears reasonable, but who is the "Father of lies." The problem was more than just obedience. Peter unknowingly was saying what Satan would have us believe. Satan doesn't mind at all if we believe in God. That doesn't bother him at all! He doesn't mind too much if we believe that Jesus is the Savior, sent to save the world. He can work with that. But what is Peter saying? "Jesus, if you don't deliver me from this life of pain and defeat, if you do not provide a higher goal that stirs me, if you do not fulfill this dream I have for my life - then there is no reason to hope. You are not MY Messiah. If there is a God, let Him prove Himself to me. Let Him act like the God I want Him to be." Peter is preaching Satan's great lie - that the way to heaven is paved with gold. That God must come to us in glory, delivering us from this world, lifting us out of this world. It is a denial of the first words God spoke over the creation He loved so much - that it is His, and is good.

God doesn't lift us out of the world. He doesn't make us gods. Instead, God becomes a man. Fully human. He suffers as we suffer. And dies as we die. He walks WITH us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Most of the time, He doesn't take away our bursitis. He doesn't always keep our children or loved ones from harm's way. And sometimes deliverance, when it does come, is a long time coming.

God does something very human, and yet does it in a way that only God could do it: He comes to be fully with us - he laughs and cries with us, suffers with us, dies with us. And He promises, first of all, that He will give all of these events in our life meaning, because the God of creation and of history is there with us in these events. He promises that everything will be made to fit into His divine plan. And He promises that He will make not only good come out of it - but the very best. Everything that happens, no matter how awful or evil, no matter how mundane and innocuous, fits together perfectly to complete His plan - a plan that includes and completes me as a perfect child of God!

The call to discipleship is a call to faith in the midst of and in spite of the circumstances. When I can hardly get up in the morning, because my bursitis is killing me - is there still a God I can believe in, who can heal me even with my bursitis? When the nightmare of my past entraps me and overwhelms me and won't give me peace, is it possible to keep from despair? Is there one who still loves me and holds higher thoughts about me, even when I am caught in sin? When I'm stuck in a hopeless situation, where it might seem reasonable to follow the wisdom of Lot's wife, to "curse God and die," is there still One who holds me, whose love can reach beyond Satan's power, so that I am not crushed? The call to discipleship is the call to hold on to the only One who can save us - to hold to Jesus, no matter what comes. It is the call to walk with Jesus - the Jesus who suffered, who had no place to lay His head, who rejoiced in the wedding feast of Cana and cried out in the agony of His soul at Golgatha.

Why should we heed the call to follow? Because we are held by a promise: "Whoever would save his life shall lose it; but whoever would lose his life for my sake will find it." We live in the promise that God will never leave us or forsake us, that He travels with us in joy and sorrow, that He understands every shadow that passes over our life, and promises deliverance, restoration, healing and salvation - not FROM suffering and death, but in the midst of and through it.

What are the stumbling blocks to your faith? What keeps you from trusting more fully in Him? Is it some loss, some personal pain? Is it your health, or the health of a loved one? Is it financial problems, or some situation - a past that continues to haunt you, something that won't let go of you, that seems so overwhelming that it drives you toward despair? Is it that He doesn't show off His power as a good Messiah should?

Jesus calls you to walk with Him, in the same way that He had to walk - by faith in His Father's grace. He calls you to deny your fears, to deny despair, to deny hopelessness - and believe in Him. Believe in His love. Believe in His faithfulness. Believe that He has higher thoughts for you and that, because He is your God, that He will bring His perfect plan for you to fruition. Believe that He can and will bring healing and deliverance - if not FROM your problems, then in the midst of and through your problems. Believe because of Jesus. Believe because He suffered and died for you. And believe, finally - especially - because He rose for you. The God who suffered and died for you, who walks with you even now, will also bring you to eternal life in Him.