August 30, 2026

Matthew 16:21-28

How quickly things change. When Jesus asked the disciples who they thought Jesus was, Peter confessed, “you are the Christ, you are the son of the Living God.” And Jesus called Peter blessed, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah.” He taught that God the Father had given him this rock- solid confession and said the whole entire church would be built upon it. Now, only five verses later, Peter is telling Jesus how to operate His plan of salvation.  I mean last week we saw Peter allowing God to work through him as he boldly and faithfully made his confession about the Christ. This week….we see Peter allowing Satan to work through him to cloud his thinking and to affect his speaking. How quickly things change.

Satan was working to find ways to convince Jesus to take the easy way out, to avoid going to the cross.  We especially see that when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, all the way back at the beginning of Jesus ministry. Among other false promises Jesus was offered the entire world if He would just do what?….bow down and worship the devil. That was Satan’s deception, that if Jesus did what was offered and took the easy way out then He would have this smooth road of earthly power. And doing that, giving in to any one of Satan’s temptations, would’ve meant that God’s plan of salvation would not be fulfilled. Jesus had set His mind on things of God not things of man. And He answered the devil’s temptations with “away from me Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”

But the devil doesn’t give up so easily does he? So here he is again, working in and through one of Jesus closest friends. And the answer to Jesus’ question “who do you say that I am?” Peter declares “Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And that is true, great job Peter! God revealed to you a wonderful thing. That’s the answer to who is Jesus? You are the Christ, Peter says. Then comes the how… How is Jesus the Christ? How is He Savior? And Redeemer? And Messiah?

Well, Jesus answers that question. Matthew says Jesus began to answer His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders and chief priests and the teachers of the law. And that He must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. That’s how. And Peter listens to that and he is shocked… He’s upset…. He’s horrified. I mean, this makes absolutely no sense to Peter. So, Peter takes it upon himself to give Jesus a little lesson in theology. He pulls Jesus aside, away from the other disciples. Ya know Peter assumes this posture with Jesus as a superior instructing a subordinate. And probably with his arm draped over Jesus shoulder, Peter quietly yet sternly corrects Jesus, Never Lord! This will never happen to you! Lord didn’t you hear what I just said? You are the Christ, the Son of God. The king. Now is not the time to talk about crosses, and suffering, and death. Now is when we plan our trip into Jerusalem for your coronation.

Of course, because we know this text, we know what’s coming. Jesus rebuked Peter really, in much the same way, He rebuked the devil. “Get behind me Satan.” Jesus calls Peter, the apostle Peter, a Satan. But not just that, Jesus says “you, Peter, are a stumbling block to Me.” Jesus calls Peter a stumbling block, a scandalan, which in greek refers to a rock over which somebody stumbles. Peter is still getting referred to in rock terms. Remember Jesus called him petros, which is a rock, on which I will build My church. But Peter is not a foundation stone here anymore, no, now Peter is a trip hazard. And poor Peter. He just didn’t get it, not yet. And I think we understand why. Crosses hurt. Crosses are not pleasant. Ya know the Romans designed crucifixion to maximize pain and suffering. I think we sometimes forget about that. And we see a cross as kinda a decorative piece of artwork to hang on the wall or we wear as a piece of jewelry and that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. But we’ve got so many crosses around that maybe they lose a little of their sting. Ya know, the cross is a reminder of something very bitter. The cross is an instrument of death, and Jesus says yes Peter, I am the Christ. And this is what being the Christ means, it means, a cross. And then Jesus says something else that’s kind of unpleasant. He says “if anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” mm, ya know following Jesus might not be so bad if it means going out and doing nice things. If it just means following Jesus example of compassion and good deeds for people, if that’s all what Jesus meant by “follow me,” well that’s not too bad. Maybe those good deeds and compassion might be a little bit of a stretch for us, but ya know we can work on that. No Jesus actually says “deny yourself.” Jesus says “take up your cross.” And there’s where the suffering comes and there’s where the pain begins, crosses hurt.

Often times we are very much like Peter, he didn’t want any talk of suffering and death. He didn’t want any talk about crosses, not for Jesus certainly not for himself and we would prefer to skip the pain and the suffering of a cross too, wouldn’t we? Besides taking up a cross, that is very, very counter cultural. Following Jesus and denying ourselves and carrying a cross as a believer that totally goes against the grain of our society. The cross means weakness, the cross means vulnerability and the cross means servanthood and the cross means suffering and the cross means sacrifice. We don’t want a cross, do we?

But Christ, without a cross is not Christianity. And a Christian not willing to carry a cross is not discipleship. And so Jesus, rebukes Peter. And He’d rebuke us too, if we tried what Peter tried. We cannot think that there is a Christ without the cross. And we cannot think we can live the Christian life without following Him by denying ourselves and picking up our own crosses. That is having in mind the things of man, not the things of God. Now later on Peter would understand.  Later on, he would understand that we need this Jesus of the cross. Cause Peter came to understand very, very clearly that sin runs deep. The sin in his heart, even caused him to deny his Lord. Remember, Jesus had said before the rooster crows you will deny me three times. And Peter says there is no way! “Even if everybody else falls away on account of you I will not.”  Whoa, sin runs deep. And Peter certainly did deny his Lord. And denied Him three times.

But by the Spirits work, Peter came to know that the only solution to his sin problem is the cross of Christ. Peter would write in his first epistle, he says this, “for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  (1:19) That’s the solution to the sin problem it’s the precious blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross.

Peter is not the only one who’s got a sin problem, you know. Our sin problem runs pretty deep too. That sin, it shows up in a mirad of ways, maybe your sin shows up in pride or worry or anxiety about the future. Maybe it’s self- importance or self- righteousness or plain selfishness. Whatever it is, our sin problem runs deep.

But by the Spirit’s work, we come to know that the only solution for our sin problem is the cross of Christ. We are redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus shed on that cross of Calvary. It is that cross of Christ that gives us hope.

In the small European country of Lithuania, in the capitol city of Vilnius, there is this place called the hill of crosses. And on this small hill stands, as the name suggests, crosses. The exact number is unknown, but estimates at around 200,000. It began in the mid 1800’s when Lithuanian citizens were being murdered by the Russian czar. And the people would memorialize the victims with a cross on the hill. Soon many more crosses of fallen family members and loved ones began to go there. For years the crosses stood as a reminder not of the Russians power but of God’s power, His power to love and to redeem and to save. And Russians and later the Soviets, they hated those crosses. Even tore them down and bulldozed the hill. But they came back. The memorial kept coming back even after repeated attempts to destroy it. And it stands to this day. What began as a memorial of death became this defiant symbol of hope. Hope, merged from the crosses. The cross of Christ always gives hope. For us, Christ followers, who have been called to carry our own cross… His cross give us hope. Because our cross that we bear is never bigger than His. Our cross that we bear is never heavier than His. Our cross that we bear is never unbearable because our cross is merely an echo, a shadow, of His. Cause Christ has already gained the victory. Christ has already conquered the devil and He’s already conquered death and He’s given us life. Christ through the cross gives us hope. And so in hope, we can take up our crosses and we can follow Him, we can deny ourselves and accept the sufferings of this life and especially the sufferings that we undergo because we are followers of Jesus the King. We know that God can and God will work for good, through our suffering, just as He promises. We hold onto joy, even in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trials and we follow Jesus. We follow Him all the way to the end, when we will lay down our cross and receive from Him the crown of everlasting life.  Amen.