Matthew 16:21-28
A Correct Mistake
Is it possible to answer a question the right way, but still be wrong? That is, even though you can say the right answer, you don’t actually understand why it’s the right answer. I’ve heard stories about students who did math homework all wrong, and somehow still came up with the right answers. I’ve heard history discussions that can mention all the right causes of a war but can’t explain how any one cause contributed to the situation. I’ve heard of scientists who messed up so royally that they discovered something even better. Yes, sometimes it seems like a distinctly human trait that we can be right and wrong at the same time. For this is the distinction between being able to regurgitate simple facts and being able to comprehend the actual truth. That is, knowing why something is true is just as important as knowing that it is. Take this and apply it to faith now. You can say all the right words; you can know all the right things; you can know the right answer, but if you don’t know why, it still isn’t really helpful. For faith must be more than just knowledge. We must not only know Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, but we must also understand why. For many people can say all the right things about Jesus, and still not know who he truly is. People can say they’re Christian, and still not understand what that means. People can say, “I believe” and still be worshipping an idol.
Where do I get all of this from? From Peter. For this is the exact situation we have in our Gospel reading today. Immediately after Peter makes his great confession, he still doesn’t fully understand. He doesn’t know what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. So, let us not make the same mistake and rather listen to Jesus as he teaches us further about what it means. Let us learn and confess:
YOU ARE THE CHRIST WHO SUFFERES THE CROSS!
I.
Where we pick up today in the Gospel is on the very same day, perhaps even the same hour, in the same room where Peter brilliantly answers Jesus’ question. There’s no denying the significance of Peter’s confession. For so we must make his confession our own as well. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God! However, this is the part Peter has a problem with today. For so, we read, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you,” Matthew 16:21-22. Would you really try to correct your teacher after they just explained something to you? For so, this is where we really have to ask, did Peter truly understand what he confessed or was he just saying the right words?
This has been a struggle in our world, particularly in America, that we say one thing, but mean something completely different. We say we believe in Christ, but what we mean is that we believe in someone who helps us how we want to be helped. It’s the common American idea that Jesus is some sort of buffet that you can believe only in those parts you want and leave the rest. I’ll take a Jesus who tells me I’m a good person, tells me that he loves me, that I’m better than others. All that judgment and his demands, no thank you! This is why Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man,” Matthew 16:23. You can either have everything Jesus says, or nothing he says. You either follow Jesus, or you become Satan who is standing in his way. You become the hindrance to Jesus. You’re the one that yells for his death. You’re the one who betrays him for thirty silver pieces. For let’s get to the heart of this problem. We don’t want to face suffering. We don’t want to deny ourselves. We still want to be God.
II.
If we’re going to confess Jesus to be the Christ, then let us fully understand what that means. Let us contemplate the very mind of God so we may understand the heart of God. For so Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” Matthew 16:24-25. If we’re to follow after the real Christ, then we must take up our cross. Our life must become cruciform, that is, we must put to death our whole self. We must give up everything that we are, so that we can receive everything Jesus is! This is why if you try to save your own life, if you try to save your own wants and desires, you will end up losing Jesus and yourself. But if we lose ourselves, Jesus will save us and grant us life everlasting!
Thus, we must learn that the Christian life is defined by suffering. We suffer for our faith because our own flesh, the world, and Satan all want us to stand in Christ’s way. We also suffer the sins that plague us. But above all, we suffer because we follow in Christ’s footsteps who suffered for us. We walk with Christ through his suffering. That is, we walk by his side as he is betrayed. We bend over with him as he’s scourged across the back. We carry our crosses so we may be crucified with Christ. For Christ died for us to assume the suffering for all our sins, that by his death, we might receive life! As Paul will say, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,” Romans 6:8. For this is what it means to confess Christ. We confess Jesus to be the Christ who suffers cross and grave. We confess Christ who died for our sins, so that he may put to death the sin in us. We confess that by our baptism into Christ, we may daily drown the old man of sin, so that a new man in Christ may arise to live before him in holiness and righteousness forever!
May this be the confession of our lips and our hearts. For we confess Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, who died for us on the cross that he may put to death all sin in me, and give me eternal life! In Jesus’ name! Amen!