In Denial

The following is a sermon on Matthew 16:13-28 that I preached in chapel at North Park Theological Seminary on Thursday, March 1, 2007:

Who did Peter think he was trying to rebuke Jesus? I mean, really… just a few days before he had been telling everyone that he believed Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And now he takes him aside and rebukes him.

Jesus is trying to tell his disciples what is going to happen over the next few weeks… it is the first time he’s shared so openly and directly about the suffering to come, the first time he has really clearly stated that he is going to be killed and raised again..

And here Peter takes him aside and rebukes him. “Never, Lord!” he says. “Never! This can’t happen to you! This isn’t supposed to happen to you! You’re the Messiah! And Messiahs are supposed to…”

And here is where the problem is… Messiahs are supposed to what… Come on Peter, finish the sentence… Messiahs are supposed to what…

Peter got in trouble not because he didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah. He got in trouble because he believed he knew more about who the Messiah was than Jesus did.

We all have preconceived ideas of who Jesus is. They are shaped by our families, our faith experiences, our churches, and our cultures. Peter was no different. I don’t know what particular type of synagogue he was a part of. I don’t know about the faith of his family. But I know a little bit about the faith of his culture. I know that many were waiting for a different type of Messiah. One who would come with military power. One who would defeat the Romans and restore the kingdom of the Jewish people. And when Jesus started to describe what would happen in the next few weeks, it went against everything Peter thought the Messiah would be. And without thinking, Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him.

The response was swift and harsh. Get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You don’t have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns…

I cannot imagine how devastating it would be to one moment hold the keys to the kingdom and then, suddenly, be rebuked as a tool of Satan, a stumbling block to Christ…

Looking back, Peter’s rebuke seems ridiculous. Of course, Jesus had to go to the cross… we’ve built our entire faith around that idea. That is what a Messiah is supposed to be…

What are our cultural images of the Messiah? How do they shape our understanding of Christ’s mission? How, at times, do they cause us to miss what God is trying to do?
Peter was unable to understand the role of suffering in the mission of Christ. The way of the cross seemed to antithetical to who he understood the Messiah to be.

Peter’s concept of the Messiah was limited to human understanding. The rebuilding of kingdom on this earth. The rebuilding of a kingdom with Israel at its center.

We too seem to have a difficult time understand the role of suffering in the church and the mission of Christ. Like Peter, our goal is to avoid suffering at all costs. We avoid conflict. We avoid pain. We seek the easiest path in life. If we cannot avoid suffering, we pretend it doesn’t exist or that we don’t have any part in it.
I wonder how we can claim to look at the suffering of the cross, to claim it as a symbol of our faith, to grasp the depth of what Jesus did for us when we seem to be so blind to the suffering that is all around us?

When I first starting looking into issues of racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice, one of the hardest things was believing it truly existed We can provide statistics about unequal wages, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and racial profiling. We can tell you about the poverty level of women and children around the world. We can show you how the consumption of the United States is destroying economies and the environment. Yet we still have a hard time believing that there is truly a problem… believing it enough to act upon it. How could there be that much suffering in the world? How could I be a part of causing such suffering? How could it be that people would cause me to suffer like that? It was difficult to allow my mind to take it all in because the suffering was overwhelming and problems seemed impossible to overcome.

If we can’t look at the suffering of the world, can we truly say that we have looked fully into the suffering of the cross? Have we truly grasped the depth of love, the sacrifice, the impact of Christ death and dying? And can we grasp the true mission of God?

There are some areas of suffering that we have an easier time accepting than others. In our community, there are certain types of suffering that are socially acceptable. We do a great job of surrounding those who are dealing with grief, those who have lost loved ones. We are very supportive of those who are sick and in need of our prayers. We have a harder time talking about the financial concerns of our community. We have a more difficult time talking about depression and mental illness. We don’t talk about struggles in marriages or domestic violence. We don’t like to imagine that our students of color are experiencing racism or that our immigrant students are feeling isolated and alone.
We are able to talk about those types of suffering that are socially acceptable, but so much suffering goes on behind closed doors.

If we can’t look at the suffering in our own community, can we truly say that we have looked fully into the suffering of the cross? Can we truly say that we grasp the depth of sacrifice and love Christ has for us?

I am not suggesting that we don’t need to be good stewards of our time or set good boundaries for ourselves. I simply want to highlight the fact that so often we are blind to the suffering that is going on around us.

Peter was unable to see that the mission of the Messiah would lead Christ through suffering. Even when Jesus himself told him directly what would happen, Peter denied it, rebuked him…
We are in the midst of Lent… a season to reflect on the sufferings of Christ… we often give something up as a way of denying ourselves and taking up our crosses… but perhaps instead of giving something up we could try to attend to Christ’s presence in the midst of the suffering in our world today… perhaps we could give something up not to deny ourselves, but to bring a bit of salvation to others…

In closing, let me offer one bit of hope… while Jesus’ rebuke of Peter is swift and harsh, Jesus love for Peter never wavers, and his call on Peter’s life does not change. Peter will retain the keys of the kingdom, the foundation of the church will still be built upon the rock. Peter will stumble again, denying Christ… and yet Jesus will offer forgiveness and renew his call on Peter’s life…
Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep.