Matthew 16, Take Up Your Cross

Simon Peter has just had one of those mountain-top experiences. Jesus had asked the disciples who they thought he was, to which Peter had replied ‘You are the Messiah, the son of the living God’. Jesus affirms Simon, naming him Peter – ‘rock’ – and on that rock, Jesus said, he would build his Church. So when Jesus took it a step further and began to explain how he would be the Messiah – to suffer, die and then be raised to life – Peter took exception. In typical Peter fashion, he goes straight in: this will never happen to you, he tells Jesus. This was not how Peter saw Messiah-ship being played out, and could not believe that it might mean dying that way. So, Peter goes from praise to stinging rebuke: ‘get behind me Satan!’. Peter was thinking as humans thought, not as God did. Jesus continued by teaching the disciples what following him meant: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. Following Jesus meant following him down the path he had just laid out for himself.  (See Matthew 16:13 – end).

It seems to me that Peter’s habit of opening his mouth when the rest of the disciples kept quiet is responsible for both of his statements. It enabled him to say that Jesus was the Messiah, something they were probably all thinking but only Peter had the courage to say out loud. But it also meant that soon after he was the only one to say what they were probably also all thinking; that Jesus, as Messiah, would never die in the way he suggested. They were rooted in their cultural ideas of who the Messiah was, and what the Messiah would do. But Jesus calling as Messiah was something different; something it would take them a long time to understand, but understand – and follow – they would. Eventually.  

What has that to do with us? We all have our own ideas about Jesus, about who he is and what he means to us today. The question we need to ask is: are those ideas rooted in human things or in the things of God? and to accept that the answer is probably both. I think it is less about being certain that we have got it right, and more about having the humility to accept that we might be wrong. It is complicated, because there is – and needs to be – some basic understanding of what Christianity is; there needs to be a way of saying that this particular belief is not Christian. When my mother was training to be a Lay Reader, she had to do a course in Church History, which I know she found difficult, in particular with all the various different heresies that came up. But there are heretical ideas, and it is important they are labelled as such. At the same time, we should be humble about our understanding of our faith, and develop an ability to listen to those we disagree with. It would be easy to say here that we are guided by the Spirit, as the apostles were, and I am sure that is correct. But we should remember that the Spirit works in a variety of ways, and none of us can claim to have total understanding. We might say ‘I know this, for the Spirit told me so’, but that can go against the humility that is a vital part of our listening; our listening to God, as well as to each other.

It is about who we are, as well as about what we believe. Who we are as people of faith will show itself in our lives, albeit sinful lives. To spend time in prayer and reading the bible; to learn to love as Jesus loves us. To know the things of God is to come to know Who God is, something that takes a lifetime and more to discover, like the image of a vast sea, where we swim deeper and deeper and are drawn further and further in. We come to know, and deepen our knowing of, the love of God, and hopefully reflect something of that in our own lives. Which brings us to the next part of Jesus’ response, found in Matthew 16:24 and 25. If we want to come after Jesus we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. We cannot seek to save our lives, but must look to lose them for Jesus.

What does this look like for us today? We cannot literally follow in Jesus’ footsteps, as the disciples did; neither can we be crucified, or even, in most cases, killed for our faith. But it is less about seeking for these things, and more about our focus becoming ever more on God. It is quite possible to seek martyrdom while still looking towards ourselves. If you are uncertain that you are taking up your cross, or looking to lose your life for Jesus, then you are probably on the right path. Again, humility is vital. It is something that is always worth coming back to, something that we can always take to ourselves more deeply: to centre our lives ever more around God, and God’s path, rather than our own. What that involves for you is something for you to answer. Ultimately, it is about commitment: in the depths of our hearts, are we committed more to ourselves or more to God? are we prepared to accept whatever cross is laid on us, at whichever point in our live we are? We will never get this perfectly right, but then we are not called to. We are asked to follow; our arriving is in God’s hands.