The Call to True Discipleship: An Exposition of Matthew 16:21-28
Poor Peter! He had just had a most dramatic revelation and confession of who Jesus is. Because of this, Jesus had called him blessed. He had given Simon a new name Peter which means “stone.” Not only this, Jesus had personally given Peter two keys, and the authority to bind and loose. The same authority to bind and loose would later be given to the other Apostles as well, but not here.
We must remember the proverb: “Pride cometh before a fall, and a haughty heart before destruction.” (Proverbs 16:18) Peter would have been wise to have heard Jesus tell him that Peter did not figure this out with his own intelligence. Rather, it was the revelation of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose that God had ordained. All too often we get prideful and boast about our own spiritual gifts. Even when we give lip service to God’s gift, most people see us as bragging about ourselves. Thankfully, God does not usually meet our haughty hearts with destruction, but the rebuke can sting deeply. Peter who had just swelled with pride was about to be humiliated.
After Peter’s confession and being given the keys, Jesus shocked all of the disciples by saying that they were going to go to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going to be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes. Then he was going to be killed. But He would also rise the third day. This was contrary to Peter’s expectation. Jesus had already been decisively rejected by the most of the Pharisees, but this would have been seen as a setback. Surely, a trip to Jerusalem would set things on the right track. Peter, and the other disciples as well, wanted to hear: “We are headed now to Jerusalem and cleanse the city. We will chastise the priests and overthrow the Romans. We will then set up an earthly kingdom with a capital in Jerusalem. Then, we as your loyal followers will be rewarded with high positions in the government.”
But this was never Jesus’ intention. He knew of a far greater kingdom. He had not come to be an earthly king, but rather to die at Jerusalem. He had told the disciples as much before. When He sent the 12 out on a preaching tour, he gave a long commissioning sermon. He talked about rejection. He talked about family divisions. He talked about being put on trial in Gentile courts. He said that anyone who was not willing to deny himself and take up his cross and follow Him was not worthy to be called a follower of Jesus. The disciples knew or should have understood what Jess was telling them in Matthew 10. Revolts against Rome were dealt with harshly. Crucifixion was the punishment for treason, for a failed uprising. The followers were crucified first in front of the leader and the leader last. In their thinking, they might have understood this as meaning that Jesus was going to lead a rebellion in Jerusalem which would fail. Who would want to be a follower in a failed coup.
How relieved the disciples felt when their first tour went smoothly. To them it seemed a spectacular success. But further mission tours would become increasingly difficult. Jesus was actually preparing them for this. He knew the first tour would go well. But during the tour, John the Baptist was executed for his witness. It was a sign of what to expect. So Jesus had what we say in English, a bug in the ear. They would quickly forget Jesus’ commissioning sermon just like we are quick to forget the Sunday sermon. But Jesus would keep saying what His mission and the cost of discipleship again and again. And this is one of the places.
Jesus was addressing them from Caesarea Philippi which was well outside the confines of Israel. A Temple to the Greek God, Pan, was carved into the rockface (Petra). Underneath it, one of them sources of the Jordan River flowed from a cave called the “Gates of Hades” (Hell). A temple to the gods Baal and Asherah preceded this Greek temple. When we put these things together, we realize that this was the rockface upon which the church was to be build and not Peter (Peter is Petros, not Petra). The church was to be built, not on Mt. Sinai in a isolated desert, but in the Gentile world. (If you want to know more of this, you can see the videos done by Dr. Ray Vanderlaan. You can also read my sermon “Upon this Rock” which is in this sermon archive.)
I think it is important to note here that the church was not built upon Peter. Neither was it built upon Peter’s confession. The church is rather built on Jesus Christ. He is the capstone, the head and chief cornerstone of the church. It is about Him and not Peter. It is not about us either. We should dismiss the thought that Carly Simon sings about: “You probably think the song is about you, don’t you?” God has graciously included us in His story even as He did Peter and the Apostles. But it is not about us at all. If we recognize this, we can avoid the rebuke “Get thee behind me, Satan.”
Peter immediately takes Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus. The Greek is a little hard to translate into literal English, but is says something like: “This fate to you shall absolutely not happen!” This is not what Peter had signed on for. He wanted to serve as an advisor and not as an obedient servant. Before we get to hard on Peter, I would suspect the other disciples thought the same. And if we would confess, it is true for us also. The cost of being a disciple of Jesus is very great.
We must also remember, Jesus does not send anyone on a road that He himself did not travel first. He had suffered 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. There He had been tempted by Satan three times. Satan had tried to derail the mission for which Jesus had come and substitute it for something else. He tried to get Jesus to sell his integrity there. Here, Peter, by rebuking Jesus for sating that He was going to die in Jerusalem tried to derail the mission. Jesus rebukes Peter as sharply as one can be rebuked. No one wants to be called Satan, especially from the LORD. To avoid such a rebuke from the LORD, it would serve us well to listen carefully to what Jesus says our mission is. Even in this message of death, there is also a word of promise “on the third day rise again.” Death in Jerusalem is not the end of the story. It is a necessary part of the journey, but the end is resurrection, Not only would Jesus arise the third day, but He would ascend to the Father. There He intercedes for us in our dangerous mission. We shall die also. It is assigned for us also. Even if we are not killed on the mission field as a witness for Jesus Christ, we will die. But then we shall rise.
Now Jesus repeats the call to discipleship. The gospel of Mark says he said this to everyone including the disciples. Here is says that He said this to the disciples. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” We should note that Jesus’ mission was not a revolt. We should also not that He was first to be crucified and not last. We endure suffering because Jesus suffered for us first. When we are told by Jesus that one can demonstrate no greater love than to lay down his life in the place of his brethren that He was speaking of Himself first. He has run the race before us. He endured the cross because He could see the glory beyond the cross. This is how we are to endure when we are persecuted for being followers of Jesus. There is a theology of glory, but it comes after the theology of the cross. It allows us to look beyond the cross as well to give us hope.
It is also necessary to note that cross bearing is not enduring pain and suffering in general, such as is common to all men. We often talk about a particular infirmity or difficult family situation or the like as bearing our cross. God does give us comfort in these afflictions as well. But this is not what Jesus is saying here. This is a call to the dangers of following Jesus in particular. These are the sufferings which result directly for our proclamation of Jesus Christ. Peter and most if not all of the Apostles would follow Jesus in martyrdom. Countless others would do so also. But Jesus reminds us that the person who loses his or her life for the sake of Jesus Christ will find it. There is resurrection and eternal glory with Jesus Christ. If one looks for earthly riches, death still comes. All they have accumulated will be lost to them, if thieves or war do not ruin first. Then comes the judgment. What good are earthly riches before the judgment seat of Christ? All the money in the world cannot put off death. Ultimately it cannot put off worldly or eternal suffering as well. When we realize that Jesus is our only hope and our only escape, should we not willingly follow? Should we not remind ourselves daily of this, let we get distracted.
Verse 21 is interesting in that Jesus seems to promise that some of them would actually not taste death until the Kingdom comes in power. All of the Apostles are long dead. The kingdom, at least as we expect it, has not yet come. The answer is that the next text is that of the Transfiguration which is the fulfillment of what Jesus said. Peter, James and John would see what the glorious kingdom is. They would see it before they tasted death. Later on, Peter, who was facing death writes about the most excellent glory he had seen there. The glimpse of transfigured glory is for us as well. We get a glimpse of this before we have to face the chilling hand of death. So even though Jesus asks us to do hard things, we are reminded of how this ends. We are also reminded of the conclusion of the Great Commission with which Matthew ends: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen!”
