The Son of Man Coming
Matthew 16:21-28
Linden Heights Baptist Church
August 30th, 2014
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 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 they have done.28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
WHERE’S YOUR HEAD
As I think about the ministry of the teaching office of the church, I think about the desire to capture people’s attention. We live in a time when there are so many things vying for people’s attention. There are clever thirty minute television programs that challenge and provoke. We find there are many different gatherings in our community that are fun and interesting. There are extra-curricular activities at school. There are hobbies that people find interesting and satisfying. There are just so many things that capture our attention. There are times when I feel a pressure that as a congregation we want to make sure that people are presented with the gospel. Peter was there hearing Jesus teach. He had in the passage we looked at last week been the disciple who before any of the other disciples was to identify Jesus correctly as the Messiah. And yet in our passage today, as Jesus presented the very heart of what it meant for the Messiah to come to set people free, Peter wasn’t listening. He was there. The message was before him. Presumably he was not wandering off at this important moment. He was there listening, but he did not understand it.
Peter does not simply misunderstand the ministry of Jesus. It is not the case in our passage today that Peter was listening inattentively and made some erroneous interpretation of what Jesus had been saying. Peter understood the words. Peter understood the meaning. And he did not like the idea. He felt there was a better way for the Messiah to bring healing. Notice he is polite and deferential about his concern. He did not shout Jesus down. He did not publicly express what was troubling him. He pulled Jesus aside privately and sought to influence him. And Jesus responds with perhaps the most shocking responses that he gives to anyone. Get behind me Satan. Now this is not done in jest. We all have had moments of anger where we have said something that is an exaggeration of our feelings. You’re killing me here. My life is ruined. You must obviously hate me. The list goes on of the ways we might allow our emotional distress affect our way of assessing the situation. But Jesus is God in the flesh. He is without sin. He is without error. So when Jesus describes Peter’s actions as being akin to the work of Satan this should put us on our guard. If Peter can be this wrong, so can I.
Jesus said to Peter, “You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Football season has started. Our area High Schools have started up their seasons again. Colleges have started playing as well. This response from Jesus reminds me of something my high school football coach said to me many times. Smith get your head in the game. This is not exactly how he conveyed the idea, but basically. What he meant by this expression was that I was missing my assignments because I was preoccupied with something else. There were many things that could preoccupy a player. Looking into the stands to see who was watching. Or having been aggravated by a player on the opposing side one might be concerned more with getting back at the player rather than on doing what the play required. In the plays we ran in high school there was one digit difference between running to your left or running to your right. On occasion if I were not listening attentively I could go the wrong way resulting in a real mess. Peter did not hear did not understand what Jesus was teaching because he was filled with preoccupations. His mind was set on other things. We do not know exactly what these were. They are not recorded for us. But we do know that Peter needed to be corrected. Do you notice how he responded. He doesn’t react with indignation. Who are you to call me Satan? He doesn’t decided he is going to look for another Messiah. He is able to be corrected because Peter holds the conviction that Jesus has the ability to correct him.
FORFEIT
Then Jesus said to his followers, “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” If any…is an invitation. Jesus invites any to be one of his followers. This is an especially liberating word to those who have experienced closed doors. Perhaps you have had the experience of wanting to be a part of something to which you were excluded? Here is an open invitation. However there are terms. It means something to accept this invitation. Sometimes there can emerge the understanding of religious conviction that it is merely the realm of opinions about that which we cannot really know. But to think that this is a place where we gather to discuss what strikes us to be true or good about life is to potentially fundamentally misunderstand the message of the Bible. I was working on my sermon at a Library. I noticed a collection of classic texts on the shelf. The books had been there a very long time. Their bindings were bleached by the sun. When I opened the books I noticed they had not been read. Here on this shelf were a collection of some of the most important writings throughout history, but they had not been opened. Just having the books on the shelf does not mean that one has availed oneself of the opportunity to learn from them. The invitation to follow doesn’t mean that one has followed.
What does it mean to take up one’s cross and follow me? I think for some people this passage has become a verse that is sometimes quoted in a way that distorts its meaning. Everyone has their own cross to bear has come to be interpreted to mean that everyone in life has some aspect of their life that is not quite what they would like it to be and they have to endure such incompleteness. It may be that one has a health problem that is not reversible with our current medical knowledge. You hear people describe such conditions as one’s cross to bear. Or it may be that one has a family member that has some difficult pattern of behaving that might be described as one’s cross to bear. The phrase gets pretty much used to describe any kind of ongoing circumstance. And yet this can really be a way of changing the meaning of this passage. Do you remember how Jesus approached the cross in the garden of Gethsemane? If it be possible remove this cup from me, but not my will your will be done. This is what it means to take up one’s cross and follow Jesus. It means to die to oneself. To acknowledge that God is God and we are not, and that our life is found in laying down our desires and a willingness to be led by the Spirit of God.
What does it profit a man to gain the world and to forfeit their life? To forfeit is something that we think of primarily in terms of sports. You forfeit a game typically for reasons like not having enough people to field a team for the particular game or it may be that a team forfeits because they have an ineligible player on the team. The word rendered forfeit is simply the word to hand over. To give something that one has in exchange for something else. In this case one is handing over something of much greater worth for something of lesser worth. One is giving one’s very life in exchange for gaining the whole world. Now you might think to yourself…I’m not sure that is such a bad deal. Gaining the whole world. Would one want to be ruler of the world. In fact we are tempted to forfeit our souls for much less than the whole world. But Jesus uses this as a point of comparison. Even if you were offered the entire world, it would not be worth the exchange.
SEEING GOD
Do you recall the story of Dr. Faustus? This is actually a very old folk tale that was made famous by Goethe. It is the story of a man who makes a deal with the devil. But unlike the Charlie Daniels song this deal does not turn out for Dr. Faustus. He trades knowledge for his soul. While he enjoys the benefits of the trade when it comes time to pay his side of the bargain the audience sees how poor of deal this really was. But this is fiction. While we can appreciate the idea behind the fictional story we do not find ourselves making such a deal. But this doesn’t mean we do not find ourselves being persuaded that present passing opportunities are of greater value to us than following Jesus. If we had some clarity of presentation that would remove all doubt that enduring present sufferings is worthwhile for Jesus sake. What kind of experience might give one this confidence? Would perhaps seeing Jesus in person remove all doubt? This is certainly not the picture we see recorded in scripture. There were those who were witnesses to Jesus resurrection who found themselves unconvinced. What about seeing Jesus descend in glory….here we find this promise that there were those standing there that day who would see with definitive experience the value of placing their hope in Jesus before they tasted death.
Jesus goes on to say something to these disciples that has proven confusing to some. We read, “there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Many coming in his kingdom.” There are some troubled by this passage. They question how could there be this word of clear prediction about seeing Jesus come in glory before they taste death, when we 2,000 years later continue to await Jesus’ glorious appearing? There are a couple of ways that interpreters have understood this promise. One is to see this referring to what would happen in the next chapter. A week later Jesus took with him Peter, James and John and led them up to a high mountain where he was changed before hem and they saw him as God. This is one way of understanding this promise. Another is to understand this as referring to Jesus resurrected body. Many of those gathered around that day would see Jesus victorious over death. A third way of understanding this passage is to look to the account of Stephen. Do you remember Stephen? He was one of the first deacons. He was taken in front of the high council and he was killed for his testimony on behalf of Jesus. But right before he was killed we see the description of the vision he had. He saw Jesus at the right hand of God.
I think this is the proper understanding of this promise. Where do we see Jesus in glory? We Jesus in glory as we give faithful witness to him even in the face of great opposition. This opposition does not only come in the form of stones. It may be in the form of being devalued. It may be in the form of being marginalized. It may be in the form of the missing out on things that one would desire to have in one’s life. Our experience and confidence of Jesus identify emerges as we follow Him. This has a very specific implication for our life in the church. The witness we offer is not made effective by our ability to persuade people of the benefit of their being involved in the life of the church. In fact the very call is one that comes to people in the midst of conflicting claims many of which seem at the present time to be of far greater value. What persuades people of the significance and value of service in the church is the experiencing the identify of Jesus that is only found in obedience. This is an experience that has to be modeled for each generation.
Reflections 