Don’t you dare criticize him for what he said. Honestly, you’re no different than he when it comes down to it. You claim you believe in God, but when push comes to shove, rubber meets the road, and truth be known, you’re as big a wuss, a real live phony, as Peter.

Right Answer. Wrong Approach.

Sure, he gave the right answer when asked. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  But Jesus had no sooner than affirmed Peter and what his words meant to the Kingdom of Heaven, when Peter blew it.

Jesus told the twelve not to tell anyone he was the Messiah. It seems counterproductive that the Savior of the World would not want his inner circle to broadcast his purpose, but Jesus knew them. Right away, Peter along with the others were so self-deluded about what Messiah meant that he just couldn’t accept Jesus’ words. No way should Jesus fall victim to the religious leaders who wanted him dead. No way he should die. (Be raised on the third day? By then Peter’s stuffed ears had quit listening.)

All of them, including Peter, and all of us, want God to be their kind of God. Our kind of God that is on my side. The kind of God that rights all that is wrong according to how they, you, and I see it. The Jews had suffered too many centuries under occupation by foreign, pagan rule. It was time for these conquerors to go. A Messiah should take care of that, not take on abuse and suffering and Heaven forbid, die! Peter “corrected” him, “This will never happen to you.”

That’s right. Messiahs and Saviors should take care of things, make our lives happy and safe. For instance, notice there is a war going on? Why do I live in a world where countries are still occupying other lands, forcing young and old to defend their country from slaughter, where children are snatched away from families brainwashed against their homeland?  While at home this weekend another racially charged mass shooting eliminated innocent lives, leaving us to wonder once again what God is going to do about it. Now is the time to say, God, this is enough. Get this gone!

Staring Down the Enemy

Oddly, the only one Jesus wants gone is Satan. That’s what he called Peter, the only human whom Jesus called out as Satan. Satan was Jesus’ antithesis, adversary, the spiritual equivalent of all that would destroy what the Kingdom of Heaven was meant to be. Peter’s words to back away from the kind of Messiah Jesus intended to be were a “dangerous trap”, a perspective of “seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.”

But wait a blessed minute here! This doesn’t make sense. These people were hurting, and the Hebrew scripture had promised a Messiah, a David-like king who would rescue the people. What were the Chosen People chosen for if they had to succumb to this tyranny all the time?

You mean even in the face of suffering, God, you have another plan, a way of bringing about a peace for us we cannot see right now? So what makes sense from our assessment of the situation isn’t how you see it?

Losing is Finding

Jesus gives it to them, and us, in blunt and brutal terms:

“If you want to be my follower, put aside your selfish ambition,

 shoulder your cross, and follow me.”

“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it.”

“If you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”

Good Lord, where does that leave us!

With bold-faced truth. Our century is not the first which has been subjected to blaring cacophonies telling us what will satisfy our lives. The lure of wealth, security, status are real, but even more so is the confidence that our way is the right way, we know how to fix things, and we have the only way to find satisfaction and meaning. Then again, if it worked, why do so many of us seek more and still sit in the tension of fearing what seems unknowable?

Jesus knew we were made for something better, something that is beautiful, fragile, vulnerable. Each person is more than a complex wiring of cells forming body, brain, thought and emotion. When enveloped together there is a soul which appeals to love, truth, beauty, justice, the essential and holy qualities of God.

“How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

And Loss is Gain

The question was asked of the disciples, and it echoes beyond time into an eternal now. It challenged the twelve to relinquish their limited understanding of who Jesus was and how they were to live out his mission. Likewise, despite the advancements of the human race, we are easily cut to our knees by the power hungry who would control with violence and hate. We sit where the disciples sat, waiting and watching for what God will do and what we are asked to do, what cross we are asked to carry, how we are to sacrifice the best of ourselves for the best of God’s design in this time in which we live, ugly and mean as it is.

It’s been said that Peter, if nothing else, is the epitome of God’s commitment to continually call and love no matter how often he got things wrong when it came to understanding Jesus. And if nothing else, Peter has tons of company in that regard. Plenty of us, despite both our own honest (ok, sometimes selfish) but misguided intentions, frustrate the will of God and mission of Jesus Christ. Yet, despite both our best and worst efforts, Jesus summons us to trust losing our lives all for the sake of the true meaning in our souls found in a shouldered cross.

Matthew 16:21-28

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