Last Sunday we left off in our gospel reading with Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. We continued in our gospel reading this morning with the introductory sentence “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples..” From right after Peter’s Confession, Jesus began to show his disciples what it means to be the Christ, the destiny that awaits him as the Savior.
Clearly Jesus did not want the disciples to become too comfortable with the status that they were with the Son of God, without understanding the purpose for why Jesus came. He did not want them to become distracted by their allegiance to Jesus as a King for this world only.
In just a short time after Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Jesus. In Peter’s mind God’s Son was wrong. Wrong for saying that he would be betrayed and die on the cross. Peter struggled to accept that Jesus should be betrayed. He thought that he would die defending Jesus so that it would never happen. “This shall never happen to you.”
It is our human nature, like Peter demonstrated, to want Jesus to be a Savior on our own terms, a king who we follow and protect. We would like to fight for Jesus and fight for the cause of our faith and our church, rather than receive God’s gifts. That way we feel we have advanced the cause of righteousness, that we have opposed evil with good.
But this is not God’s will for us to vanquish all the enemies of the Lord and His Christ. Jesus did not come to be a conquering king. That was in fact the third temptation Satan brought before Jesus, “All the kingdoms of the world and their glory I will give to you if you fall down and worship me.”
In that moment Peter wanted honor and splendor and recognition for Jesus and all of the disciples. Perhaps he thought Jesus deserves all of the luxury and comforts available in this world. In response Jesus commanded to Peter, “get behind me Satan” He was setting his mind on the things of man instead of the things of God.
To set our minds on the things of God is difficult, we tremble to consider the cross as God’s plan and our road of discipleship. We have so many desires of our human nature we would like to follow instead of picking up the cross.
We would like to find the right balance in life where we are comfortable in our life circumstances, where we find fulfillment and enjoyment in all of the good things the world has to offer. We would like to always have sunshine, carefree days, and the freedom to live life without worry or responsibility toward others.
Picking up the cross can be a confusing phrase to us. What does Jesus mean when he says, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” It sound so familiar to us, that Christians follow Jesus and carry our own crosses in life.
How different it must have sounded to the disciples who were just wrapping their mind around Jesus talking about how he must be killed and on the third day rise. How strange it must have sounded to be asked to pick up a means of execution, a cross and carry it wherever Jesus leads- like Jerusalem where people are waiting to persecute them.
For us Christians to take up the cross can mean two things, it can mean to reject what is comfortable in our life and exchange it for hardship for the sake of the kingdom or helping others. It can also mean to follow Jesus despite the persecution from others. So bearing the cross is both our taking up hardships upon ourselves in the choices we make for the sake of others, and also suffering that may be inflicted on us for simply being Christians that is our cross to bear.
It is hard for us to willing take up crosses in life where we care for others first, where we face the persecution for our faith that sometimes comes with following Jesus. We feel we are giving up quite a bit of what we would like to do when we deny ourselves and follow Jesus.
Yes, we do appear to give up a lot when we take up our cross and follow Jesus, but in Him we gain everything that is of worth and value, in Him we gain God’s kingdom. For we know that if we have died with Christ we certainly shall rise with Christ.
The Lord has blessed us with his presence through the difficult moments we face day by day as we endure the crosses of this world. He has prepared us for these moments through the work of the Holy Spirit, through the ministry of the church.
Every Sunday we are given the opportunity to confess our sins and then receive the assurance that Jesus forgives us of our sins. The result is that each week the Holy Spirit is working in us through the words of confession to bring us to repentance.
And just as God turns our hearts so that we die to our old sinful nature, God also gives us new hearts through the words of absolution. In worship we take up our cross and die to our old sins and we are given new life as we receive his complete forgiveness for all of our sins on account of Jesus.
In the Lord’s Supper as we come to the Lord’s Table empty and defeated by our sin and the sin in the world, we are given new life. His body and blood brings us fulfillment and satisfaction in a way that nothing else in the world can. His gift of life and mercy fills our cup to overflowing, so that day by day the promises of the world sound less as and less appealing.
We heard from Psalm 37 in our Introit: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
When our heart’s joy is in Jesus, the desires of our heart are going to be much different than that which comes out of our human nature. We find our life and our true desires of our hearts when we die to our sinful nature and leave it at the cross.
In Christ our hearts seek to lift others up, to pray for those in need and those struggling with spiritual distress. In Christ we find the desires of our hearts met as we wait for him and trust in faith he will act to bring deliverance to his Church.
With our fallen human heart we could never follow the directive from our Epistle reading in Romans chapter 12. For our love to always be genuine, to always hold fast to good over evil. To love one another with brotherly affection and to always be fervent in spirit to serve the Lord.
In taking up our cross and following Jesus we learn how freeing it is to bless those who persecute us, we learn how to put aside our selfishness so that we are free to live peaceably with all.
Today we will find many circumstances in our lives where following Jesus will bring the cross of persecution. Through our defense of the sanctity of all life, especially the unborn we face derision in our culture. Through our firm confession that Jesus is the only way of salvation we will be accused of a cultural imperialism where we do not support and affirm the spiritual views of others.
Now more than ever we will face ridicule for our defense of God’s design for family rooted in the bond of marriage between one man and one woman. We will be called dinosaurs in a world with ever evolving ethics and codes about how to be respectful to people’s sexuality.
But the ridicule and the persecution that is on the horizon means little compared to the joy of walking with Jesus. There is nothing that man can do to us to change God’s love toward us.
Our gospel reading began proclaiming from that time on. From that time on Jesus spoke of the cross and the resurrection. That time has not ended, God’s Word continues to proclaim this to us, that whatever the challenge set before us as the church, we have the answer in the cross and the resurrection. Jesus tells us today I died for you and I am risen for you. Amen.