Hindrances and Crosses

Text: Matt. 16:21-28

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            There is a certain type of person, and I think I can safely include myself in this category, who enjoys something known as Type 2 fun. Type 1 fun is something that’s actually fun in the moment. Think of listening to your favorite music, or reading a book you’re thoroughly enjoying, or just enjoying the warmth of sun on your skin. Type 2 fun, on the other hand, is something that is not enjoyable in the moment, but afterward is rewarding and enjoyable in retrospect. Picture running, rock climbing, or backpacking in the wilderness. It’s painful, arduous, and hard in the moment. And for that reason, it’s not many people’s cup of tea. If it’s not yours, you’re in the majority. That’s because it’s a natural instinct of fallen humanity to avoid pain or suffering—anything that could be considered a trial or cross. It’s not something that’s ordinarily sought out because those things are, in our minds, bad.

            So when bad things happen, especially when they’re not supposed to be happening, like when we’re being good or moral (by our standards), we assume something must be wrong. The prophet Jeremiah speaks on all our behalf today when he writes: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord of hosts.” So far, so good. But now the turn: “So why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?” And in our Gospel reading, St. Peter demonstrates this flawed human logic that if we do good things, bad things won’t happen to us. When our Lord was bound and determined to go to Jerusalem and fulfill His destiny of suffering many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, even to be killed, Peter would have none of it. Those sorts of things don’t happen to good teachers. Jesus had never broken any Law of the Lord, so why should He be talking about suffering like this? He pulls Jesus aside and starts to reprimand Him. “This has gone on quite long enough, Jesus. Far be it from you! This will never happen to you—not if things are fair and I have anything to say about it!” Peter is only expressing what’s common to our understanding of life in this world: people who do good things only deserve good things; only bad people deserve bad things, like suffering and crosses.

            But Jesus shakes the foundation of Peter’s understanding, and ours, with a thunderbolt from heaven. He uses some of the severest language He’s ever used when He answers Peter. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” To try to derail Jesus from what He was sent to do—suffering and dying for the sins of the world—that truly is the work of Satan. Jesus’ life was not meant to be lived in soft clothes in kings’ palaces, or lifted by the applause of adoring crowds, or dependent on the opinions of fallen sinners. The cross and all that comes with it, even suffering and death, was the whole point of why He came. Anything that offered an alternative was a hindrance and a fixation on the things of man rather than the things of God. It was just a replaying of the Garden of Eden, with the tempter offering what was not given.

            But this announcement was not only for Peter’s benefit, or for the Apostles gathered there. It’s for us too. For Jesus continues, showing us how we are drawn into this same reality. “If anyone would come after me”—that’s you—“let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” He does not tell us to take up our comfiest, softest tasks. He does not tell us to avoid the harsh grain of the wood of the cross at all costs and just be constantly comfortable. These things that our fallen nature tells us are good, the things that the world and yes, even Satan, wants us to chase after at the expense of the things of God, those things aren’t the point. You were not made to hide in a velvet shell from the realities of following Jesus. You were not meant to lull your fallen nature to sleep with ease. No—you were called in Baptism to drown the old Adam. And you can be sure that he’ll resist it. You were called to look not to what the world offers, but what your Lord offers—treasures that will be yours through eternity, rather than the glittering clutter of the world that breaks and rusts and is taxed into oblivion. If we find our life in these things, we’ll lose it. We will become as temporary as the things we bind ourselves to.

            That’s not an easy truth to accept. That’s why Peter said what he said. That’s why Jeremiah lamented like he did. It’s why we think and do what we think and do. But that’s why Jesus expands our vision. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Jesus will suffer and go to the cross. Those who follow Him will trail in His footsteps and so we will have crosses too. But when that cross lets us die to the world and it’s temporary trinkets, when those crosses you bear let you die to the quickly passing things of man and the hindrances of Satan; that is all to say, when we lose our lives for Jesus’ sake, our lives that would rather be at home in this world than with Him forever—when all of that dies, that’s when we find our real lives. Jesus dies to this world and is raised to new life. So you can expect to die to this world and be raised as well; filled not with any life that the world or your old nature could offer, but raised with Jesus’ own life to live before Him in righteousness and purity forever.

            But if that intimidates you, I’ll let you in a secret: it’s already happened to you. In your Baptism, this whole whitewater ride began and your old Adam started his descent into the deep, where he’ll eventually stay. It already happened in the Absolution, when you died to yourself and all your excuses and self-justifications; raised to new forgiven life at the very beginning of the service. It will happen again when you come to the Communion rail to receive Jesus’ body, which you will hear once again was given into death so that you would receive forgiveness, life, and salvation that never ends. You’ve already received life that Satan or the world or suffering or even death can never take away. In bearing your cross, whatever form it takes, you are being drawn into Jesus’ cross. You’re given the strengthening words spoke to Jeremiah as he reshouldered his cross, finding hardships everywhere: “I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the Lord. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.” He does this for you, under the shelter of His cross until He comes with the angels to give you the crown of life. In the name of Jesus, who draws us to His cross. Amen.