The Messiah We Don't Want

We naturally want a Messiah who leads us from glory to glory, but Jesus leads his disciples toward the cross. In calling us to take up our own crosses and follow him, Jesus shows us that our suffering is neither forgotten nor wasted—and that in losing our lives in him, we finally find the life for which we were made.

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We do pray, O Christ, today, that you would speak, that you would give us ears to hear, and minds to perceive and understand, and hearts to receive your implanted word, which is able to save our souls, that we might this day and every day not stand upon our own wisdom or our own reckoning or our own plans and achievements and accomplishments, but instead we would stand on your promises, which are unchanging. Speak your promises again to us today. We pray Christ in your name and for your sake. Amen. Please be seated. April 26th. It had only been six months since the world was set on fire, but April 26th of 1518 turned out unlike anyone had planned. You see, Johann von Staubitz, who was the leader of the Augustinian order of friars, the monks in Germany, he had called all the brothers together to Heidelberg, that lovely little town in Germany, nestled over the Necker River with the plains stretching out in front of them. He had gathered them to that great university town so that they might consider what it is that Martin Luther had nailed to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517. In those 95 theses, Luther had railed against the indulgences, the abuses of the papacy and of the Roman church, how they were not only binding up heavy burdens and laying them on people's backs without doing a finger to lift them, to paraphrase Jesus, but also they were exchanging the promise of God, of life eternal with him. They were selling those promises, those good and faithful promises that Christ offers freely to us by faith. They were selling them for cash, so that the Pope could finish his mighty basilica, which stands to this day in Rome. Well, Staubitz and others were assuming that Luther was going to walk in that day, and he was gonna, you know, he was gonna soften the edges, the sharp edges of what he had written, or he was gonna come, and maybe even recant for the sake of peace in Germany and in the Roman Church. If you know anything about Martin Luther, you know that is decidedly not his temperament, or what he in fact did. No, as Lutherberg arrived with his 28 new theses, what we think of or know of as the Heidelberg disputation, he doubled down on the gospel of God's grace to unworthy sinners. And he he wrote things like the theolog the theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. The theologian of the cross calls the thing what it is. He says with great hope to you and I today, I'm gonna suggest to you toward the end of his theses, he holds out those promises of God that says that God is not looking for lovely things to make his own possession. Instead, God is finding the thing that he loves and he is making it lovely. Well, for unlovely people like you and me, that's a really, really good word for us today. The theology of glory and the theology of the cross was the crucial point in Heidelberg that day. And I think it's the crucial point for us today in our text is, well, I was trying to figure out how we were going to kind of frame our conversation this morning. I'm gonna just very simply suggest to you there are two broad movements in the gospel passage that we read today. You can turn to Matthew chapter 16 in your copy of the scripture, and if you don't have yours, then grab that Pew Bible in front of you. And Matthew chapter 16 begins at the very bottom of page 771 and then goes into page 772. And you even see those movements in the divisions of your Bible. I hope you know that those divisions and those little uh headings, those are not actually in scripture, but it's a really helpful kind of commentary on scripture as you're making your way through. Beginning in verse 21, we find that first division, and the first division, if you're taking notes, the or the second movement, rather, the second division picks up in verse 24. What I think we find in that first movement is the messiah that we don't want. The messiah that we don't want. We read in verse 21, Jesus says that he must go to Jerusalem. That word must is freighted with language with weight and meaning, the language that's used there. Some of your Bible translations may not say must. It may say necessity. It was a necessity that Christ should go to Jerusalem. And what is he going to do as he makes his way to Jerusalem? He is going to do three things. He's going to suffer many things at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees, not just the religious leaders of the day, but the legal apparatus of the day. He's going to suffer many things. He's going to be killed by the law. His is a legal execution. And then, thirdly, on the third day, Jesus says he's going to rise. And we find all of that just jammed into verse 21, so freighted with meaning. Last week we were considering Saint Peter's confession. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But now Jesus comes and he puts Peter's confession in stark relief and contrast. As what we find out in this passage is that Peter still fundamentally misunderstands who the Messiah is and what he has come to accomplish. Sometimes we think about the cross, the suffering of Christ, the many things he suffered at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees. We think about his judicial execution. And we think that it is simply the means to his resurrection. That it's almost happenstance. It's just the result of circumstances, and really the important thing is the resurrection. And while the resurrection is incredibly important, the cross is more than simply precursor to the resurrection. Peter, he hears about this suffering and about this death. And he even hears the promise that he's going to rise again. And Peter is going to have none of it. Peter even goes to the point to do what? Did you catch? There's a lot of shocking statements, actually, in this passage, a lot of shocking phrases. What does it say that Peter did? He grabs Jesus by the elbow, he pulls him away from the crowd of the disciples, and Peter rebuked the Lord. Peter rebuked the one he had just confessed as Christ, Messiah, promised King, anointed one. He rebuked, he had the gall to rebuke the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter's well-intentioned rebuke, certainly well-intentioned, it betrays just how little he understands. Peter rebukes Jesus and he begins to rebuke Jesus, text says. So it seems like this is a long rebuke that's coming. Maybe Jesus in his mercy cuts him off. I don't know. Maybe, maybe Peter's kind of talking underneath Jesus as he goes on. But he says, far be it. That's a kind of a Hebrew turn of phrase that in some of your translations will be rendered, God forbid. God forbid, Jesus, that you should go to the cross and suffer and die. Far be it from you, Lord. God be merciful and spare you this. Peter doesn't get it. Verse 23, Jesus' response tells us just how insufficient Peter's comprehension of who the Messiah is. What does Jesus say? He doesn't say, get behind me because you're a distraction. He doesn't even say, get behind me, you just don't quite get it yet. He says to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan, for you are a hindrance. Some of your Bibles are going to have a little footnote there, and down at the bottom for hindrance, it's going to say something like stumbling stone. You are, in Greek, you are a scandalon. That word that actually comes right down to us in the English language as scandal. But when we think of scandal, probably because of the ubiquity of media and uh and maybe the politics of the 90s and going forward, we we have this really diminished view of what a scandal is. Scandalon in Greek means though it refers to some type of trap, like that stick that holds the box up, and then you come along and you trip it. Peter, you are acting as an agent of Satan, and you're trying to trap me. You, whose confession is the rock upon which I will build my church, you have become a stumbling stone to me, Peter. See the language that Matthew is using there to kind of draw our attention to the contrast of what's transpiring between these two events, these two occasions? Why does he call him Satan? Well, I think he calls him Satan because Jesus is hearkening back to his temptations. Do you remember when he's out there being tempted by Jesus in the, or by Satan in the wilderness? And what is it that Jesus tempts Satan with? I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will bow down and worship me. Peter is looking for a Messiah, because he knows the Old Testament, he's looking for a Messiah who rules and reigns over the nations. He's looking for a Messiah who has put the kingdoms of this world under his feet. Just like Satan, though, Peter is longing for Jesus to rule and reign without a cross. Without suffering. Just like Satan offered to Jesus, Peter is offering to Jesus the crown without a cross. And all the kingdoms of this world without any of the thorns. Yet behind me. Human beings, this kind of account of Peter, this first movement, shows us how we can begin with true observations about Christ. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And we can nevertheless draw false conclusions from them. Peter is looking for a theology of glory. A theology that cannot look at suffering and evil in the world and call it what it is, but instead calls evil things good. Peter is looking for, or living with, a theology that at the end of the day says, behind every dark cloud there's a silver lining. But what we need is not a theology of glory to glory. What we need is a theology of the cross. That's movement two. Jesus in this next passage, he makes plain the kingdom that we need. Because his death to this world and to sin is our death to this world and to sin. And indeed, if we are going to be united with him in a resurrection to pick up Saint Paul, we have to be united to him in a death as well. Faith unites us to the crucified Christ. And so we carry that cross because faith and our union with Christ, it places us in an eternal conflict with the devil and with the world and with our own sinful self. Now, we have to be very clear that this is not some type of self-chosen asceticism. It seems weird hearing Luther talk about this because what was Luther's chosen vocation? Monk. Dr. Luther, Saint Martin Luther was a professional cross carrier before he met the resurrected Jesus. So Luther is not saying that we need to go about inventing crosses to carry. We don't need all these religious works or sufferings that we have onboarded simply because they kind of line up with our particular piety or because they're going to look really good on the resume when we present that to the Lord or when we present it to those who are around us. No, Luther is not saying we need self-invented crosses. The proper cross is not the suffering we manufacture, but it's that which comes to us because of faithful obedience to what Christ has called us to. So take up your cross does not mean devise punishments for yourself. Certainly Luther did not believe that after the gospel. Luther went from a scrawny figure to a very corpulent individual because Katerina was a really good cook and she brewed the best beer in Wittenberg. So it doesn't mean devise punishments for yourself. It doesn't mean constantly seek out misery. It doesn't mean despise created goods. And it certainly doesn't mean earn divine favor through your suffering. No, taking up your cross means receiving the cost of following Christ rather than abandon Christ in order to preserve ourselves, our reputations, our comforts, or even our very life. Over the last month, as we've been meeting over at Uptown, Sam and I and Father Curtis with others, we've been considering suffering and evil in this world. The reality of suffering and evil, and how suffering and evil that's common to every human being's experience. We all have experienced suffering and evil in this world. Sometimes it's suffering and evil we brought upon ourselves, sometimes it's suffering and evil that other people have foisted upon us. Sometimes it's simply the suffering and evil of life living in a fallen world east of Eden. I was thinking about that as I was seeing those videos of the of the uh the glacial slide in Nepal and that flood that ripped through those valleys into thousands of people just in an instant. Perish. We live in a world where suffering and evil is common to our experience. And the theology of glory would say to those grieving people whose family members were washed away in that flood, the theology of glory would say to them, Behind every dark cloud a silver light. The theology of the cross, though, the gospel says to those people, your suffering is not insignificant. It says to those people, your suffering is not unknown by God, you are not forgotten by God. No, indeed, God has entered into the suffering of this world. He is identified with you and your suffering as Jesus was enthroned on a cross. And beyond just the cross happening to be the circumstances by which Jesus is raised, the gospel and the theology of the cross says he must suffer. It was of necessity that he should suffer and that he should die. The theology of the cross not only says God identifies with us and our suffering, but that suffering is the very means by which he is redeeming the world. He is unbreaking everything that has been broken. He is mending and piecing back together every torn relationship, every broken heart and mind and soul, and it is through suffering that he is bringing about his good and loving and gracious purposes for the world and for you. Your suffering, friends, is not wasted in God's account. Your suffering is not forgotten or swept under the rug by the God who sits enthroned. Jesus says to the disciples, take up your cross and follow me. Now I would point out that I don't think when Jesus says that that he's writing a prescription for how you make your way into the kingdom. I think that simply what's going on here is Jesus is making an observation, and that becomes clear as we consider verse 25 and 26. Whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world or forfeits his soul, or what shall a man give in return for his soul? We live in a world, strangely enough, of uh trillionaires. It's hard to imagine that, right? To those people who are really good at accounting, right? Who have a who have a mind for a profit and loss book, Jesus is saying, what will it profit a man, Mr. Musk, if you gain the whole world? Or even if you gain this world and Mars? What is it going to profit you, Elon, if you gain all of that and you lose that one thing that continues forever, your very soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What is it that you are going to offer to the God who owns all things so that he might deliver you back the soul that you have squandered and you have lost? Because you wanted a theology of glory and not a theology of the cross. When Jesus says, Very strangely, whoever would lose, save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake, we would expect him to say we'll save it. But that's not what he says, right? What does he say? If you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. He kind of turns on us there at the end. Soul, soul, life, life, all throughout that passage, is the same word in Greek. Suke, from which we get psyche, from which we get psychology. So this is not talking about just biological existence. That's another word in the New Testament bios, biology, right? Now he's talking about not just your biological life, not just the beating heart and the firing synapses and the lungs, the air filling your lungs. He's talking about the real you. You at your truest, in the truest sense, the whole you all together. If you are going to spend this life clinging to life as you have devised and designed and dreamed it, Jesus says, you're going to lose it. Because the life you've devised for yourself is insufficient in this life and eternity. And the life that you have dreamed for yourself is so much less than that life that God has designed you for. And through the joys of this life and through the sorrows and sufferings of this life, is indeed preparing you for with Him in eternity. If you're clinging desperately in an attempt to save your life, you're going to lose it. But if you, Jesus says, are willing to take up your cross and follow me, follow me where I have gone before. If you're willing to be my disciple, follow me, bearing your cross, and lose your life, then I'm going to give you your life back. And I'm going to give you your life even better than you dreamed it would be. Whoever saves his life, excuse me. Whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life will find it. Ruby Turban is a prosperous church going southern farm woman who, in the 60s, privately in her mind and in her heart, sorts everyone around her into a hierarchy. There are the social undesirables, then there are the freaks, then there are black people and poor whites, and then of course, at the top of that hierarchy are respectable, decent people like Ruby Turpin. Ruby is grateful to God. But she's especially grateful that God made her one of those decent, respectable people. One day, sitting in a doctor's waiting room, a troubled young woman attacks her and calls Ruby Turpin, the pig farmer, an old wart hog from hell. And that insult shatters her entire moral accounting. How could decent, respectable Ruby Turpin be a warthog from hell? Later that day, while she's washing down the hog pin and the hogs, she angrily demands an explanation from God. But instead of receiving some reassuring explanation, God gives her a vision, a revelation, of souls ascending toward heaven. And to her consternation, in this revelation, all those disreputable people, the people from the bottom of her social hierarchy, then enter heaven first. Chaotically and joyfully, there's no orderly cue, there's no proper southern line in which everyone waits his turn. It is a jumbled procession of joyful glory as all of these undesirables, what Ruby Turpin would call trash, as they make their way through the pearly gates. And at the back, lining up, waiting their turn, come all the decent, respectable Christians like Ruby Turpin, marching with dignity and good order. But as they make their way upward on this bridge, the only ones who are singing in tune, Ruby sees that even their virtues were being burned away. Ruby Turpin is one of Flannery O'Connor's last characters to write about before Flannery died an untimely death at the age of thirty-nine. Like Peter rebuking the Lord, Flannery's Ruby Turpin was a theologian of glory, one who could only ever envisage a world to come, that affirmed and confirmed her assumptions about decency and order and right. But the theologian of the cross calls evil what it is and recognizes that even our virtues, if our virtues are standing before God, even those God in his mercy will one day burn away. I invite you this day to take up your cross and to follow Jesus boldly and confidently where he has led, knowing that he is not leading you anywhere he has not first of God. Take up your cross and put away your theology of glory and become a theologian of the cross of Christ, knowing that in taking up your cross and following Jesus, he will lead you all the way home. Let's pray. Christ, this day, we praise you for being the king enthroned on the cross and in your mercy, breaking in our theology of glory and making us theologians of the cross so that we might know that it is through suffering that we are united to you. And if we are united to you in our suffering, we will be united to you in your resurrection. May that hope carry us this day and every day. We pray Christ in your name and for your sake. Amen.