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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Has anyone here not ever stumbled over something and fallen? At some point we probably all have stumbled over something and fallen—whether when we were very young and first learning to walk, very old and losing our ability to walk, or at some point in between when we were in the prime of our lives and maybe just not paying enough attention. I remember the last time I fell while running: it was years ago when I still lived in Austin; I stumbled as my toes caught the raised edge of a section of sidewalk, and, the next thing I knew, I fell: legs, arms, and face down. (The weather was cool, so my long pants and sleeves largely spared me abrasions from the sidewalk.) In this morning’s Gospel Reading from St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired account, we uniquely hear Jesus say that Peter is a potential source of stumbling to Jesus (the English Standard Version I read translated the Greek word skandalon with “hindrance”, but the sense is more that of a “stumbling-block” or “trap”). In fact, Jesus’s first Passion prediction was arguably a source of stumbling to Peter, and so Jesus used the occasion to teach about discipleship. Yet, the first Passion prediction and the teaching about discipleship are not separate but are closely related, and this morning we consider the Gospel Reading as a whole under the theme “The Necessity of the Cross”.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Peter is fresh off his confession of his Divinely‑revealed understanding of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16-17), but Peter comes close to stumbling and falling permanently when Jesus begins a new stage of revelation, regarding the Christ’s work of redemption. When Jesus began to show His disciples that His suffering, dying, and rising were necessary, Peter, whom with the other disciples Jesus had rebuked to tell no one that He was the Christ, himself began to rebuke Jesus. Peter all but invoked God’s Name, commanding that such things should never happen to Jesus. Unexpectedly and severely, Jesus, as He had done with the devil himself during His earlier temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:10), called Peter “Satan” and ordered Peter away. And, having earlier called Peter a “rock”, now called Peter a potential stumbling stone. Jesus explained that Peter was not setting his mind on the things of God but on the things of men.
Admittedly, St. Matthew does not say precisely on what “things of men” Peter was setting his mind. Maybe in this case the best construction we can put on Peter is that he really cared about Jesus and so did not want Him to die but wanted to save His life, even though Jesus had said that on the third day He would be raised! Peter almost seems to have heard the part about Jesus’s being killed and then stopped listening. Regardless, God’s plan for Jesus to go the way of the cross to glory did not meet with Peter’s approval: Peter probably had his own ideas about a glorious kingdom for Jesus. To Peter, Jesus’s cross was offensive, a potential source of stumbling, and so Peter himself became an offense, a potential source of stumbling, to Jesus. Even though Peter had understood Who Jesus was, Peter set himself up in opposition to God and His will and so became an instrument of Satan, trying to keep Jesus from “The Necessity of the Cross” (a cross was later specifically named by Jesus as the instrument of His death [Matthew 20:19]).
Jesus’s cross was necessary for us and for our salvation—our salvation from both sin and the eternal death we deserve on account of our sin. Other prophets of the Lord before Jesus had in some sense suffered, as we heard described in today’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 15:15-21), but St. Matthew in the entirety of his account especially makes clear that Jesus’s bearing our sins and suffering at the hands of the Jewish leaders is unique. Such suffering, death, and resurrection on the third day are all the gracious will of God the Father for His Son Jesus’s mission to save us. The broader context of St. Matthew’s account helps us understand that in Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection the Son of Man comes in His Kingdom. Jesus Himself wills that His suffering, death, and resurrection take place, for Jesus knows, as He in the Gospel Reading goes on to try to teach His disciples, that without His suffering, death, and resurrection, He could not save them, and they cannot save themselves. (Even Jesus’s saving His own life by avoiding “The Necessity of the Cross” would have meant His being lost eternally, if that were even possible.)
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus says that those who would come after Him must deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him—follow Him as the Christ whose way to glory is the way of the cross. For us to try to save our lives in some other way is to lose our lives. Even if we would gain the whole world, we cannot give enough to save our souls, as a psalmist had said long before Jesus (Psalm 49:7-8). When we are honest with ourselves, how much do we really deny ourselves? Do we not try to hang on to some sinful habit or desire? When we are honest with ourselves, how much do we take up our crosses? Do we not more often try to avoid suffering on account of Jesus? When we are honest with ourselves, how much do we follow Jesus whose way to glory is the way of the cross? Do we not like Peter have our own ideas about a glorious kingdom? When we are honest with ourselves, we admit that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that, even after Divine revelation about Jesus’s identity, that sinful nature still clings to us and leads us into countless and unspeakable sins.
Jesus is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father and repay everyone according to what they have done. Before then, if we do not turn in sorrow from our sins, trust God the Father to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, and do Holy Spirit-produced good works as evidence of our faith, we, too, will be ordered away from Jesus and into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). So, we turn from our sin, and, with Holy Spirit-given faith, we receive God’s forgiveness for our sin in the ways that are in some sense “necessary” for us to receive that forgiveness. Jesus says unless at the Baptismal Font we are born from above of water and the Spirit, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). For, there is where we are connected with Jesus’s death and resurrection. And, Jesus says unless at this rail we eat His flesh and drink His blood in, with, and under bread and wine, we have no life in us (John 6:53). For, there is where we receive the benefits of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Baptism and Communion, along with preaching and Individual Absolution, are the ways God forgives us and brings forth from us good works such as those described in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 12:9-21) and our good work of bearing our crosses.
Jesus’s cross was a potential source of stumbling for Peter, just as Peter was a potential source of stumbling for Jesus, but neither stumbled and fell permanently. Peter himself later died, as tradition has it, on an inverted cross, and Peter will be raised again. Jesus’s cross was necessary for Him to save us, and our crosses are necessary for us to follow Him. Yet, more than simply an example for us to follow, Jesus makes our bearing our crosses possible. And, when we fail to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him, or when we fail in any other way to keep His commandments, we repent and He graciously forgives us, sort of like our getting back up after we, regardless of our age, stumble and fall. The cross is not the end or goal but the means to the glorious end or goal of eternal life in God’s Kingdom. God grant us that, for Jesus’s sake.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +