When I met not-me (see what I did there switching to the object pronoun?), we exploded in a giant plume of gamma rays and shame.
Matthew 16:21-28; Romans 12:9-21; Psalm 26:1-8; Jeremiah 15:15-21
Oh Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter. Sometimes you really have to wonder what goes on in his head. Sure, I get it, he was kind of the chief apostle. He gave a great sermon on Pentecost, led the church through part of the book of Acts, wrote 2 letters of the New Testament, and even, according to tradition, asked to be crucified upside down because he didn’t think himself worthy to die in the same way Jesus did. But that’s all later. In the gospels, he’s a little, shall we say, dense. Not that the other disciples are any better, but Peter especially says and does some rather silly things.
Take, for example, our Gospel lesson. Peter had just finished confessing Jesus as the Christ the Son of the living God. He had just been blessed by Jesus because of this insight that only could have come from the Spirit. Peter was doing good. But then, Jesus started teaching that he had to go to Jerusalem, which the disciples knew couldn’t lead to anything good given the opposition brewing against Jesus. Then, as if to solidify all their fears, Jesus said that “he would suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Jesus was, basically, just saying what is rather obvious in the Old Testament. While a number the prophecies about the Messiah are epic and kingly, it seems like more of them are about the suffering the Messiah will go through. So, Peter should have known better than to pull Jesus aside and say, “Umm… Jesus? What’s this talk? I don’t care what you say, we’re not going to let this happen.” That’s when Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Now there’s something one has to remember about Matthew’s gospel, he has a tendency to link teachings and actions together. An action will be followed up by a teaching or a teaching will be followed up with an action in order to parallel the point Jesus is trying to make. In this case, the action is Jesus’ words to Peter, “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
The teaching to follow, while brief, is very important: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Now there’s aspects to this that we have kind of lost, namely the understanding that Jesus is inviting his followers to follow him to death. There’s no other way to understand the phrase “take up your cross.” In fact, it’s the exact opposite of what the disciples seemed to expect.
It’s not even something we particularly like to hear today either. Now, to the Christians of the first 3 centuries around the Roman Empire, and those who live in areas of the world today where they are subjected to physical persecution, this idea is their hope. To know that even though they suffer, they’re not suffering anything that Jesus didn’t have to suffer brings them hope for their eternal life to come. In Rome, Christian martyrs had a disturbing, at least to the Romans, tendency to die singing and praising God.
In our country, in large part because of the religious freedom extended to everyone, we usually don’t have to face such persecution. In a way, it makes it harder for us to understand what it is to deny ourselves or lose our lives for the sake of Christ. Martin Luther linked this concept to baptism, the time at which we die to our sinful nature and then rise again in Christ. He suggested that Christians remember their baptism daily, and in doing so deny themselves and live for Christ.
But what is it to deny oneself? It’s hard to think of a denial as anything but a bad thing, such as Peter’s denial of Christ or denying freedoms and similar things. Because of its negative connotation, it’s hard to view Jesus’ statement as the blessing that it is. It is human nature to put ourselves above everything else — an idea that can very quickly be established through both observation and an understanding of Scripture. Jesus, aware of this, is really only keying off other thing’s he’s also said, that all boil down to the same things: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbor as yourself.”
Denying oneself is simply that: to look to God first. While I know that this is often easier said than done, we are called to be followers of God. Sometimes that means taking a risk, our own little journeys to the cross, but most of all it is remembering that we are forgiven sinners struggling our way through life hoping to rely on God instead of our own judgment. Our challenge is to live each day not for ourselves, but for our Lord and Savior.