16A Pentecost Matthew 16: 21-28 Aug 31, 2008
Someone once said the role of preaching is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
If this is true, then I suspect that today’s gospel reading is going to lean more toward afflicting than comforting. I say this because today’s reading, as you have heard, consist of one of those hard sayings of Jesus that we might otherwise want to overlook. And yet, while Jesus words might strike us as hard, they also provide a promise of something very comforting.
Having said that, let’s take a closer look at what is going on here.
Picking up where we left off last week where Jesus has asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The disciples said that some of the people say that Jesus was John the Baptist, the great contemporary prophet. Others that that Jesus might be Elijah or Jeremiah come back t life.
But then Jesus asked, “But who do YOU say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus commended Peter for his answer, and said that God had given Peter the right answer. Then Jesus said: “And I tell you, you are Peter” (keep in mind that the Greek word petros means rock) “And I tell you, you are Rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”
Then, practically in his next breath, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die—that the religious leaders of the nation were going to kill him.
Imagine the shock and confusion the disciples must have felt.
Imagine the double whammy of both excitement—that the Messiah was in their midst—and then the confusion of hearing that he was going to die and the very folks who might be the most excited about this revelation were going to be the very ones to kill him. I’m sure none of this made any sense to the disciples. And even though we have the benefit of knowing the rest of the story, I’m not always sure we really comprehend the thinking behind this line of thought.
Even though we know about the cross and the resurrection…and even though we know about Good Friday and Easter Sunday…you got to admit, the whole idea of the Messiah having to die so that we might live leaves us scratching our heads. So it should come as no surprise when Peter gently steers Jesus aside and in a quiet voice says to Jesus, “Listen Jesus, this just doesn’t sound right, there has got to be another way. God forbid that you should die!”
It was at that point that Peter went from being the rock upon which the church was to build to the stumbling block of God’s plan.
And this brings us to those hard words I spoke of earlier, words that we need to listen to carefully because they affected not only Peter and his fellow disciples, but to every Christian since then throughout the ages—to each of you. Listen and hear again what Jesus expects of us—words that tell us how Jesus wants us to live day in and day out:
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or, what will they give in return for their life?”
So, how are you feeling? Comforted or afflicted? How does the feel to hear that you are suppose to deny yourself and take up a cross to follow Jesus? How does the idea of dying for Jesus fit into your life plan? Do you really suppose that Jesus want you to die in order to live? And when we hear this, are we not a lot like Peter and try to sooth over these hard saying in order to make them a bit more palatable? I mean really, do we really need to die for Jesus? And if, so, how many of you are ready to do that? I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that for most of us, the answer is no to both questions. No, we are not ready to die for Jesus and no, most of us are not going to die as a result of our desire to follow Jesus. And yet, we should never dismiss the possibility.
Throughout the centuries many Christians, beginning with several of the apostles—have been faced with denying Jesus or being killed. Many Christians have died at the hands of their persecutors. That wasn’t just true in the first century. It is also true in the twenty-first century.
Christians are still being persecuted and killed today in many places in the world because of their faith.
Only recently the heads of a number of Christian preachers in the Philippines were found along side roads as a warning to others. Yet other continue to preach.
Today, to be identified as a church in China is to bring the wrath of the government down on all who attend. Yet, Lutheran pastors from Hong Kong continue to travel to mainland Chine to worship in house churches.
In 1992 Bob and Claire Wandersee and their two daughters went to Nigeria to serve as missionaries. I had gotten to know Bob and his family when we both worked at a Lutheran bible camp in New York. Bob was a great easygoing guy who loved kids and loved sharing his faith and serving those in need. On August 8th, 1998 Bob was shot and killed in Nigeria by armed robbers.
Was Bob murdered because of his faith, or was he simply the casualty and victim of a poverty-stricken land where people will do what ever they need to do to survive? Needless to say, Bob and his family could have played it safe and simply stayed stateside. He could have found a comfortable parish and served out his ministry safe and sound. He could have tried to save his life but instead he lost it. Or did he?
When Jesus talked about his disciples losing their lives on his behalf, he knew that some disciples would, indeed, be martyred for their faith. But he also knew that some would not. Some have suggested that Jesus requires self-denial, but he tailors that to the individual. Self-denial will therefore mean one thing to one person and another to another person. But in every case, Christian self-denial will involve some sort of personal sacrifice. In every case, it will involve some sort of service in Christ’s name. For some it might mean caring for someone at the death of a loved one. It might mean wiping the food from the chin of someone in a nursing home.
It could consist of coaching a team of children only to be rewarded by a smile. It might involve inviting a friend or neighbor to join you for Sunday worship or a Bible study.
Or simply, holding a frightened child and know comfort is received.
For those of us who live in a land that lifts up personal comfort and looking out for number one as the highest priority in life, all this talk of sacrifice has got to be afflicting and anything but comforting. And as a result it might raise the question, doesn’t God want the best for me?
Doesn’t God want me to be happy? Doesn’t God care about my comfort and safety and prosperity as some of my preacher colleagues might suggest? Such questions spring from an ego-centered existence and according to our Gospel lesson this morning the answer is “NO!” As difficult as this might sound--God is not primarily concerned with my personal comfort and safety. Ultimately, God does not care whether I am happy or not. Well, maybe there is a better way to put it.
What God primarily cares about is the quality of my life. Not just my physical life, not just the continuation of my breath and the health of my cells—but the depth of my life, the scope of my interests and my concern for my neighbor in need. The deep secret of Jesus’ hard words in this passage is that our narrow boundaries, our always “playing it safe”, our fear of suffering and death in the long run, rob us of life, because fear and death always turn into fear of life, into a stingy, cautious way of living that is not really living at all. The deep secret of Jesus’ words is that way to have abundant life is not to save it, but to spend it. It is to give it away—if you don’t believe me ask anyone who makes serving and tithing a core value in their live. Ask anyone who spends timeserving at the local food shelf or serving meal on wheels.
Ask anyone involved in a Habitat for Humanity project. Ask any of the confirmation mentors who have sat down and spent quality time with their student.
Ask my friend Pastor Brad Thom from Christ Lutheran in Glencoe who just got back from Iraq after 18 months as a Navy chaplain. Where it not for his son who is a senior in high school, Brad would go back to serve the troops, providing a ministry of hope and grace in a contradictory setting.
Quality of life—not quantity of stuff: that is at the heart of our calling.
And when it is there, it will come out whether we are aware of it or not.
Consider the story I read about a few years back. Tatyana Sapunova was a 27-year-old Russian woman who was driving with her mother near Moscow when she saw a sign planted by the roadside. The sign said: “Death to Yids.” Tatyana pulled off the road, got out of the car, and attempted to tear the sign down. That’s when the explosive device rigged to the sign exploded.
The blast tore through her face, hands and legs. She is reported to have lost sight in one eye.
Tatyana, for the record is not Jewish. In fact she is a baptized Christian.
Quality of life—sensitivity to issues more important than our own personal safety and well being, a life that is shared with others, that is poured forth in love despite risk and danger. The truth is there is pain and risk in being human, but we cannot be ruled by this if we are to follow the path of the Son of Man. Jesus enemies counted on his fear of death to shut him up, but they were wrong. Jesus may have been afraid—and we can hardly fault him for that—but he did not let his fear stop him. He did not get stuck on the suffering and death part. He saw something beyond suffering and death and offers that vision to us as well.
Comforting the afflicted or afflicting the comfortable.
Today’s gospel might come across as afflicting only if we are living our lives for ourselves, if we are only concerned with our own self-interest with little regard to the interests or concerns of others.
Today’s gospel might very well afflict your comfort level if you insist on playing it safe and never venture forth from your comfort zone. These hard words may very well cause you discomfort and that is unfortunate because it indicates that self-preservation in the short term takes higher priority that abundant living in the present and the long term.
Today’s gospel reading also promises something more than creature comfort, it promises abundant life, a life filled with joy and purpose, a life defined not by what you have acquired and stored away, but by what you have given away and shared.
Today’s gospel reading reminds us that we were not created to look out for number one, but rather we were created in the image of One who gave his life so that we might have abundant life, eternal life and a life blessed by God so that we might be a blessing to others. Amen
Pastor Stephen P. Blenkush
Zion Lutheran Church
Milaca, MN
(Sermon Archive)
