Matthew 16:21-27
A. INTRODUCTION
If we were to examine our lives—look back on the past, and even draw a chart of the way our lives have progressed—we would probably all see points in our lives where our lives have taken a different direction. And if we thought about it, we may have been going comfortably along, when all of a sudden something happened to turn our lives completely upside down.
It may have been a change in family relationships, or an educational change. It may have been a move to another part of the country, or even another part of the world. It may have been a change in job, or it may have been a challenge to some of our long held accepted beliefs.
Whatever it was, that change in direction was the result of being faced (consciously or unconsciously), with something that required us to re-evaluate our lives—to think again. And the result was that our life was suddenly changed, facing a different direction.
B. TEACHING IN JESUS’S MISSION
1. Background
And something like that is what we see when we examine our gospel passage today. Because in our gospel, the first phase of Jesus’s ministry—the open preaching and exposure to the crowds of Galilee and Judea—had been completed. But now it was time for Jesus to enter a radical new phase in his ministry. From this point on, Jesus’s whole focus was to be centred on the private instruction of his disciples. And the content of his teaching? Well, it was to be based on the true nature of his mission. And this phase was to result in the disciples needing to seriously re-evaluate their own cultural and religious beliefs, so that they would never be the same again.
2. 1st Announcement of Jesus’s Suffering and Death (21-23)
And the story opens with Jesus telling the disciples some bad news: he would shortly be going to Jerusalem, and there he would die. But his death wasn’t to be of natural causes, or the result of an accident. Indeed, he would die as a result of an official execution. And it would be at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes.
However, what he had to tell them wasn’t all bad news, there was some good news too. And the good news was that three days later he would be resurrected back to life. And all of this was part of his mission as the ‘Messiah’, and it was necessary in order for him to bring salvation to the world.
Well, you can imagine the response of Peter and the other disciples to news like that. They were horrified. They were horrified by Jesus’s understanding of what it meant to be the Messiah. After all, that wasn’t what they thought the Messiah was about. They were also horrified by what they considered to be the unacceptable fate of their master. Jesus’s view of ‘Messiah’ was obviously very different in character to what they’d imagined and believed.
Now we don’t know exactly what the disciples’ view of ‘Messiah’ was—we’re never told. But it probably wasn’t a lot different to that of the rest of the community. Because they were looking for a strong political leader who would kick out the Romans and restore their country to some sort of independence. And, presumably, at the same time, in response to the corrupt religious leaders of the day, they were looking for God to be more central and more accessible to the people.
So, the consequence of Jesus’s teaching was that they not only found it hard to grasp his new teaching, but they found it difficult to believe that such a disaster could be part of God’s purpose. And they found it so hard to believe, that Peter, cast in the role of Satan as tempter, took Jesus aside and tried to persuade him that what he proposed just couldn’t be. It must all be a silly mistake, there must be another alternative.
To which Jesus’s response was to tell Peter and the disciples—and in no uncertain terms—that they’d got it all wrong. The disciples may have been sincere in their beliefs that Jesus was the Messiah, but they were seriously wrong in their understanding of who he was and in the role that he had to play.
3. Comment
At this point, then, for the disciples, their whole concept of ‘Messiah’ was turned upside down. The views of Jesus and the views of the disciples were seen to be poles apart. And as a consequence, for the disciples to accept Jesus’s view of ‘Messiah’ would have meant discarding life-long beliefs and adopting something quite different. And that is not an easy task for anyone to do.
4. Discipleship Will Also Involve Suffering (24)
However, if the disciples thought that was the end of it—that they’d been exposed to enough radical teaching—then they would have been very much mistaken. Because Jesus continued to rock the boat by telling them that their understanding of discipleship needed to be radically altered too. If discipleship meant identification with the master, then they too needed to be prepared to share in the fate that Jesus had just outlined for himself.
For the disciples, the possibility of their own crucifixion, or execution for their faith, was to be a painfully reality. The possibility of loss of life would be as literal for the disciple as it was for the master. Radical thinking indeed.
5. Judgement Day (25-27)
So, from that point on. the disciples were faced with two fundamental challenges: What it meant to be the Messiah and what it meant to be a disciple.
In other words, they were faced with one of those points in time where they were challenged to change direction. But which way would they go? Would they go with God and with these new ideas that Jesus had just exposed them to, or would they stay with the world and with the time worn ways that they had grown up with and accepted?
And the seriousness of the choice between the two, Jesus indicated, would be that in the future they would be judged based on the decision they made.
6. Comment
You can imagine the shock then—the jolt to the disciples. Up until now they had thought that they had known what the Messiah was all about. And they had probably thought that they had discipleship all figured out as well. After all, they’d left their work and homes because of Jesus. They’d spent much time and energy following him around, listening and watching, and even helping to some degree.
And now their whole world, which had already been turned upside down in the decision to follow Jesus, was being radically challenged again.
The change in direction of the ministry of Jesus, then, had begun in earnest. From preaching and being exposed to the people of Galilee and Judea, he’d changed to a much more focussed approach—principally the teaching of his disciples. And at its very beginning was a challenge to the disciples on their view of ‘Messiah’ and discipleship.
C. IMPLICATIONS
Now it seems to me that there a number of issues that come out of this passage, not least of which is the divine nature of Jesus. Because the divine nature of Jesus is clearly illustrated throughout the passage through the fact that Jesus knew when and where he was going to die; he knew intimately the process that would be involved; he was aware that he would be resurrected from the dead and when it would be; and he was even able to predict his place of honour on Judgement Day.
But I don’t want to concentrate on Jesus today. Instead, I want to look at the lessons that can be learnt from the challenges to the disciples. Because I believe that there at least three things that we need to consider that the disciples faced at that time.
1. A Willingness to Admit When We Are Wrong
And the first thing is, that we need to admit that there may be times when we could be wrong about our faith.
The disciples were challenged in their beliefs about both what ‘Messiah’ and discipleship meant. And in both cases, they were shown that their views were quite wrong. And if the disciples were wrong about such major things, then we need to be open to the possibility that, at times, whether the issues are big or small, that we might be mistaken in our beliefs too.
When Jesus reinterpreted what ‘Messiah’ meant and what discipleship meant, he effectively unravelled the beliefs that the disciples had held their entire lives. For sure their beliefs had been modified during the time they had spent with Jesus, but nothing to the extent that Jesus tried to teach them from this point on. The disciples may have been sincere in their beliefs, but they were still sincerely wrong.
Of course, the disciples’ initial response was to deny reality. ‘No, it can’t be true’. However, as the remainder of the New Testament attests, the end result was (for eleven of them anyway) that they accepted the hard lesson of being mistaken, and that they pointed their lives in a different direction.
Now we can look back and we can smile at the disciples wanting to hold on to the things that they were comfortable with. But shouldn’t we acknowledge that, from time to time, there may be things that we believe, that we are comfortable with, that we want to hold on to, where we could be wrong too? Even practices where we need to have a change in direction.
Indeed, there may have already been times where we have been challenged to believe something else. But instead of looking closely at the particular issue, we have simply responded in the same way as the disciples did that day.
2. A Willingness to Learn
The second thing, which is closely linked to the first, is that despite the fact that the disciples were shown to be wrong, they still showed a willingness to learn. Because no matter what is said about the early disciples—with their misunderstandings and their lack of faith—their continued presence with Jesus meant they that they were open to being taught new things.
There was something special in Jesus, and the disciples remained keen to watch and listen to the things that he had to say. They were open to new ideas and the reinterpretation of old ones. And although in this instance it was all a bit too radical a change in one hit, they did not abandon Jesus there and then. They eventually accepted his new teaching, and they went on to be the founders of the church.
Now with us, none of us can possibly know it all. And even to our graves there will always be more to learn about God and about ourselves. But the example of the disciples’ keenness to learn, should teach us something about our own faith.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we should accept any old teaching that comes our way. We need to test what we are taught. But like the disciples we should always be eager to learn more and more about ourselves, and about God. And like the disciples, that may well involve reviewing not only the way we see things and our practices, but the way we’ve always seen things and the way we’ve always practised. Indeed, we may need to be prepared to shrug off some of our hard held cultural and religious beliefs in order for our understanding to grow.
3. A Willingness to Follow Jesus
And the third thing? Well, if we are prepared to admit we are wrong and we’re prepared to learn things which may be radically different, then anything that Jesus asks us to do is possible. Even to the point of following Jesus to our own crucifixion. And if that’s the case there is no limit to the things that he may ask us to do.
And if we do that, we can then face up to our commitment to follow Jesus, wherever that may lead us, no matter how inadequate we may feel, and no matter how unlikely it seems to us that we should be picked for the task.
This then is the ultimate challenge to any disciple. A challenge to have a depth of commitment. A commitment that is far from superficial or shallow, and one that places us on the same path that Jesus trod—to give our all for the glory of God.
Now that may not be easy. And it’s particularly not easy when other things vie for our attention: family, friends, work, culture, long held beliefs, etc. However, it’s not only what God demands but, after what he has done for us, it’s what God should expect of us too.
D. CONCLUSION
Now I said at the outset if we were each to examine our own lives, even draw a chart of the way our lives have progressed, then I would expect we would all see points in our lives where suddenly our lives have taken on a different direction.
Because that is certainly true of Jesus’s earliest disciples. And in at least a religious sense, I hope that is true of us today, too. Because today’s gospel narrative is a good reminder that not only did the closest of Jesus’s disciples get it wrong but that we can get it wrong too.
Today’s story reminds us that we need to continually rethink who we are, what we believe, and what we do. And no matter how long we’ve held certain beliefs, that we should at all times be open to new learning and be willing to go in a different direction.
The disciples rose to the challenge despite some deep seated and long held beliefs. Indeed, after the initial shock of being shown that they were wrong, they were prepared to follow Jesus wherever he would lead them. The question today, then, is: Despite our own deep seated and long held beliefs, are we prepared to rise to the challenge too?
Posted: 11th November 2022
© 2022, Brian A Curtis
www.brianacurtis.com.au
