“The Cross Before the Crown”
“The Cross Before the Crown”
Matthew 16:121-28
Matthew 16:21-28
In the name of the Living God and the Risen Christ. Amen.
If you turn back a few pages in Matthew’s gospel, and turn the clock back about three years previous, you’ll recall at the beginning of his earthly ministry, Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. To summarize Satan: “Show yourself to be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread, avoid the pain of the cross, seek the Kingdoms of this world, bow down and worship me.” Though physically weary and wilting under extreme hunger, Jesus’ spiritual strength arises, and he rebukes Satan, refuting him with the word of God. But now, twelve chapters and three years later, we’re towards the end of his earthly ministry. The same tempter comes again, but this time under the skin of Simon Peter—his follower and friend. The form is different but the temptation the same: “Be the Messiah of glory; choose the easier road; never, never the cross.” That’s the kind of savior Peter wanted, and thought he needed. But Jesus rebukes him here, as he did in the wilderness: “Be gone, get behind, Satan.”
It’s a dramatic scene. As we heard last week, Peter is named little rock, “Petros,” because of his great confession of faith, Petra: “You are the Christ, the son of the Living God.” But when Jesus begins to explain to them what this would really mean: to go to Jerusalem, to suffer much, to be killed, and to be raised again on the third day-- Peter pulls him aside and rebukes him. “No way. Never!” He’s having none of it. So passionate is Peter, but so wrong. Jesus turns and rebukes him, “Be gone, get behind me, Satan.” Anything that would turn Jesus away from his mission of the cross would be a diabolical distraction, a satanic suggestion.
This mission was necessary. Necessary first because of our sin and rebellion against God. A world and lives soaked with sin. We seek first our kingdoms; we compromise and take the easy road; we sell our souls for the empty and fleeting and destructive gods of this world. We place self first, and glory above all else, and want the world to work out our way, in our timing, with us at its center, rather than being patient and waiting upon the Lord, trusting him. The mission of Christ was necessary first, because of our sin. Not just “wrong choices,” not just “misunderstandings,” but a willful turning away from God’s plan and purposes for us and a turning our backs on those around us. And isn’t it true that, just as Satan was in the skin of Simon Peter, the evil one gets in our skin too? “Easy road first; sell your soul; glory above the cross”?
The mission was also necessary because of God’s love. What a wondrous love is this, indeed, that God in Christ would not let anything distract him from the mission of salvation! So great his love, that not even everything waiting for him at Jerusalem—the slander and lies, the drops of blood sweating from his forehead; the weight of the world on his shoulders; the betrayal; the false accusations; the abandonment by his friends; the whip tearing at his back; the thorns in his brow; the spikes through his flesh and bones; the gasping last breath—not even all this which lay ahead would turn him away from his work of salvation.
Now do you see? How tempting it would have been for him to saddle up with Peter…and Satan and seek first the power and the glory! But no, it was necessary because his love for you and me led him, focused him, drove him forward, with Satan rebuked away and our lost condition before him all the way to the cross.
His love drove him there, but this love did not stay dead. For the Lord of life and love could not be defeated, not even by the worst that Satan and hell and all the rebellious creation could throw at him. Love lived when God raised him from the dead to bring new life and eternal life for all gathered into him by the waters of baptism and into the fold of the faith.
This account of Jesus rebuking Satan in the skin of Simon was a turning point in the mission and ministry of Jesus. Now it would be the cross. But it is a turning point for us as well—we who are also called to take up our cross and follow. You see, no longer is anything in this world worth the exchange of our souls. Not all the world with its false promises of permanence, its enticement to riches, its acclamations of “glory.” None if it matters now. None of it is worth it. We’ve seen the Christ, followed him to his cross, and know the glory of the life of the world to come. Not the piles of power or the weight of the wealth of all the world can purchase this away from us. Let the crosses come, and the persecution, and our own bloody sweat too, if necessary. We’ll lose our lives, knowing they’re ultimately safe in His eternally. We’ll give tirelessly for “the least of these” and offer all we have on the altar of his church. What can we not give up? What sacrifice is too great? What mountain is too high to climb or cross too hard to bear? Christ already went there. Our lives are secure in his. Nothing can separate us from his love. Eternity with him is secure.
Take up your cross and follow.
Come soon Lord Jesus.