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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers, dear sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading, especially there’s a part in the Epistle as well. You may be seated.
As my bride and I have grown older, we’ve become more appreciative of things that my parents and her parents put up with in raising us. But it typically doesn’t come to one unless one grows older, has the opportunity to reflect upon it. And what helps us experience that appreciation is when you have children of your own and you begin to realize that’s part of what it means to be bound and knit to someone as family.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus asks His disciples, especially these twelve men as apostles, what is your relationship with me? Who am I to you? Am I merely a provider? Am I merely a rule setter? Am I merely someone who gives you things? What’s my relationship with you? So when he asks, who do people say that I am, he’s asking them, how do most people view me? What’s their relationship to me? And all of them have it as a person of importance, but not a deep, deep relationship.
Because what defines the deep relationship is when Jesus asks all of them about themselves. What about you? Who do you say that I am? What is my relationship to you? What do I mean to you? Who am I to you? Peter nails it on the head and hits that ball out of the park when he says, “You are the Messiah!” Now for us, the Greek word is Christ. But you have to remember, is Peter a Jew? Yes. Are those apostles Jews? Yes. Are the people who are hearing this conversation around them a majority of Jews? Yes. Yes.
So when Peter says, “You are the Messiah,” he’s implying I have a relationship to you. You have a relationship to me. You are the one about whom all of the prophets of the Old Testament wrote and proclaimed. You’re the one who’s supposed to be sent by God to suffer for me, to be rejected for me, to die for me, and to rise again for me.
Now you may ask, that’s nowhere in the text, Pastor. And you are absolutely right. I called my father Daddy and I called my mother Mama, but the word and the meaning to those words were great as a young man and as I’ve grown older, they have broadened in their meaning of what it means. It is the same for Peter. He calls Jesus what He is. He is His Messiah. His Messiah. But that has implications for Peter.
That’s the part that Peter struggles with. He is understanding that Jesus is his Messiah, but it means to be Messiah that he must be rejected. He must suffer. He must die. And he must rise again on the third day. Peter just wants him to be this glory side of a Messiah. No different than kids want their parents to do what they want them to do, not what the parents stand up and say, this is right and this is wrong.
Peter wants that relationship for Jesus to be his Messiah, but that has meaning for Peter’s daily life being connected to Jesus. You see, the difficult pill for Peter to swallow isn’t that “That’s my Messiah.” That’s not hard for him to grasp. It’s not hard for him to grasp that he’s joined to this Messiah. It’s not hard for him to grasp that this Messiah abides in him.
And we in him. No different than… It’s not a great grasp of truth by the Holy Spirit, meaning, yes, God gives you that faith. The difficult part for your flesh to deal with, which is really what you and I are struggling with, it’s not our spirit, it’s our flesh.
The pill that’s difficult for you and I to grasp is, if I am His child, if He abides in me, if I am His and He is mine… Why should He not say to me, “If you would come after me, deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me.” The difficulty is all three of those things. Because to deny myself means I have to love God more than I love myself. And that’s your problem and mine.
Remember Peter, “I will never fall away, Lord.” What a pompous, proud thing to say. Loved himself and his ability more than he loved the mercy of God. “Take up our cross.” Wow. We think cross may be a form of cancer. That’s not a cross. A cross is suffering for the sake of your faith in Jesus Christ.
And I can tell you right now, you and I are getting away with a great deal of easy cross bearing. God does not give out crosses to us equally. You don’t live in North Korea where you fear for your life as a believer. You don’t live in Iran. You don’t live in Iraq. You don’t live in northern Nigeria where Boko Haram is at. You don’t live in Malaysia where the militant Islamics live. You live in a country where you don’t have to go to church or you could go to church. You live in a house that has more than one Bible in it. Taking up your cross, wow.
Your biggest struggle in taking up your cross is denying yourself. That’s your biggest struggle. Not confessing Him before the Roman emperor, before being thrown to the lions. It’s denying yourself. That’s the difficult part. The other big struggle with which you and I struggle is that, do we love God because He provides all these things for us? Or do we love God because God first loved you while you were a stinkpot? God died for you. That’s what Paul said in Romans clearly. While we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
Job, that was his temptation, wasn’t it? Satan said, have you considered? God said, have you considered my servant Job? And Satan says, the only reason he loves you, God, is because you blessed him with ten children and all these flocks and herds and all this great land. Who wouldn’t love you? So how much do you love God when God takes things away from you? Especially your health. Do you love God because He first loved you and died and rose again for you? Or do you love Him because He’s a great giver of gifts?
That’s the other struggle. Those are the top two. Denying ourself and loving God above ourself. And loving God because He’s loving. Not because we’ve gotten some goodies from Him. What was Adam’s sin? Loving himself and his will and his desire more than he loved his God. Amen.
What did Jesus Christ do to make it right? Loved his Father’s will and loved you more than he loved himself so that he could save you. Then there comes this interesting conversation, very short, with Peter. Peter confessed Jesus as his Messiah. Jesus followed that up with, here’s what it means to be Messiah. I will be rejected, I will suffer, I will die, and I will rise again.
And, later on in this same Gospel reading, Jesus applies this to your relationship with your Messiah. That’s what it means to deny yourself, to take up your cross and follow Him. Peter doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want to connect those dots that this is what it means to be his child. That I will suffer for Christ, for being his child. I don’t want that. So that’s why Peter says, “No, no, no, no, this is not supposed to happen.”
And what does Jesus say to Peter? This is vitally important. Because when you are incensed by another person, especially a son or daughter, who disappoints you in their actions, these are the words that come out of your mouth. And you heard them first from your parents too. “Why did you do this? Why would you say that? How could you do this? How could you say that?”
Remember, give yourself a chance. You will. It’s kind of hard not to. When those kind of words are spoken, it’s not really an open door for that individual to come and say, “I’m sorry.” In fact, what it does, it drives that individual away and moves them to erect a barrier and begin to fight and justifying everything that they said or did on you who said those words.
“You’re the reason I did that. You’re why I said…” Sounds just like Adam in the garden. So your Lord, when you say and do things that are not like His child, your Lord never says, “Why did you do that? Or why did you say that?” Your Lord will never say, “How could you do this? How could you say that?” Your Lord will say what He said to Peter.
“Repent.” Pastor, that’s not what He said. He said, “Get behind me, Satan.” Yes. Yes, He did. What’s the point? Repent. Repent. Because you have in mind the things of man, not the things of God. You’re living as if I really did not die for you. You’re acting as if I really didn’t purchase you with my flesh and blood on the cross. You’re speaking as if I am not your father and someone else is your father, which could only be Satan.
The door is still open. Just like it was for Peter when he returned to the Lord and confessed. So the door is still open for us. You will never hear those words from your Lord’s lips. So when we begin to think about our suffering, do you know what that suffering does? As Paul said, it does something to you when you suffer for the sake of your Father. It produces things in you. And you read that. It produces endurance. Endurance, character. Character, hope. And hope does not disappoint.
What does it do but get you to vomit up and empty yourself of whom? Yourself. And the more empty you and I are of ourself, the more then we are not filled with ourself, the more we have to only be filled with He who, Paul said, poured out the love of God in your heart through the Holy Spirit, whom He gave to you. He gave the Spirit to you at your baptism. He’s been pouring His love into your heart every single day.
If He says, “Take up your cross and follow me,” He would not say that if it were not possible for you to do what? Take up that cross and follow you. Deny yourself. He would never have said that if he was not going to enable you to do it.
Now, your and my flesh cries out, “It’s hard sometimes.” Like I said, it’s not so hard to get up in the morning and drive here, but it’s really hard to say, “You know what? Instead of me doing this, I’m going to set aside this time and pray.” Instead of me doing this, I’m going to open up that Bible and read a little bit. That takes a little bit more effort. That’s denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him.
But if you hear those words, you think in your heart and mind, just like I think, “That doesn’t sound like it’s kind or inviting.” That seems almost confrontational. How does this sound?
What I’m about to speak to you, which were Jesus’ words, and they are not, repeat, not incongruent with whoever wants to follow me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. These words are, “Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light.”
But, now that statement, we hear it and we think, “Well, nothing’s required of me.” Those two statements are the same statement. They’re both an invitation to someone like you to follow Him and take up His cross and follow Him, denying yourself. But they are the same. His yoke is easy. That yoke was not. His burden is light. That was not. You’ll never have to bear anything like that because He alone will be the only one who bears it.
But as His child, He does want you to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Learn from Him, gentle and lowly in heart. And he who endures to the end will be saved. Will be saved.
In the name of Jesus, Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus. The life everlasting. Amen.
