Backseat Driver
Both our daughters have recently started a driver's education course.
I can remember the very first time I was behind the wheel of a car. My dad decided to let me drive. He regretted it immediately. As he sat in the passenger seat directing me, I put my foot on the gas and drove us straight into the ditch.
Later when I was fifteen years old I took driver's ed during the summer while working at my first job. Coach Cook was my teacher. He would pick me up before work early in the morning and I would drive him in his vehicle around Houston. As he sat in the passenger seat, he would direct me where to go and what to do. It is normal when we are learning to drive, for someone older and more seasoned to teach us and direct us.
I can remember driving my dad later in life, driving my grandfather, and driving my wife. They always tend to be what we call backseat drivers. Whenever I'm in the passenger seat I can play that role as well.
"A backseat driver... is a passenger in a vehicle who is not controlling the vehicle but who excessively comments on the driver's actions and decisions in an attempt to control the vehicle. A backseat driver may be uncomfortable with the skills of the driver, feel out of control since they are not driving the vehicle, or want to tutor the driver while they are at the wheel. Many comment on the speed of the vehicle, or give alternative directions. Some backseat drivers exhibit this type of behavior simply because they feel the driver is taking risks they would not normally take, while others may have other reasons to be nervous, such as when the driver has a poor driving record" (Wikipedia).
In Matthew 16:21-28, in Eugene Peterson's Message translation, we read:
21-22 Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive. Peter took him in hand, protesting, “Impossible, Master! That can never be!”
23 But Jesus didn’t swerve. “Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works.”
24-26 Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?
27-28 “Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory.”
This morning I would like us to examine the first part of verse 24:
Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am..."
How often do we live our lives in frustration and anxiety because, although we have confessed that we trust Jesus for our salvation, been baptized in His Name, and filled with His Spirit, we sit in the proverbial passenger seat of our lives giving God directions rather than trusting that the route he takes to get us to our eternal destination is the one that fits our lives best?
How many times have we quoted Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV):
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
only to overly and anxiously question circumstances and situations in our lives as though someone else other than the Sovereign Lord of Life was sitting in the driver's seat of our lives?
What does it take to stop being a backseat driver?
Backseat Drivers
Our text is a turning point in the story of Jesus as told by Matthew. It is here that Jesus begins to tell his disciples that He is going to go to the cross and die. This was a drastic and unexpected revelation for them. Jesus has just performed the miracle of the feeding of the 4,000. The conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees will increase from this point forward and crescendo in the crucifixion of Jesus. At the beginning of the chapter, this group comes to Jesus asking him for "a sign from heaven."
As did the disciples, the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to be in the driver's seat. The Sadducees were more conservative and loved political power. The Pharisees were more progressive and religious. They refused to allow Jesus in the driver's seat of their lives for religious and political reasons. The disciples let Jesus drive more often than this group. Still, there were roads that Jesus told them, He was driving down that they wanted to avoid. I remember Josh, Jr. seeing a sign on the road we were driving down that read "Dead End." Hearing those words together scared him and he began, as a small child to beg and plead that we did not go down the road leading to the "Dead End." Not wanting him to fear, we went anyway.
Some of our greatest dread can come from our fear of loss. The Pharisees and Sadducees feared their loss of prestige and power and rejected Jesus. The disciples feared that their aspirations of what God's Reign should immediately look like was wrong and so they did not want Jesus in the driver's seat when it came to the cross.
Jesus asks His disciples who others think He is and who they think He is. Peter under the influence of the Spirit declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Son of Jonah.
Shortly after, Jesus begins to explain the implications of the truth that Peter has just declared. To this, Peter replies with a rebuke. He is unwilling to go down the dead ends of life with Jesus.
Jesus quickly corrects Peter and shoos the devil who influencing Peter away.
Peter rebukes Jesus and gets rebuked.
“Our memories are naturally like hour-glasses, no sooner filled with good instructions and experiments than running out again. It must be our prayer to God that he would put his finger upon the hole, and so make our memories like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths in the ark of the soul.” (Trapp)
The scribes and Pharisees had forgotten their national history. The disciples had forgotten what had happened only a few chapters before.
They had never really reflected on the story of Jonah.
Jesus brings them back to this story multiple times. He calls Peter "the son of Jonah". See chapter 12.
Slowing down and reflecting is essential to God being in the driver's seat.
Blues-style gospel song says:
Don't let the devil ride
'Cause if you let him ride, he'll wanna drive
Don't let him ride
Don't let him drive your car
If he drives your car, he'll take you too far
Don't let him drive...
