Gospel
Mt 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and
suffer
greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be
killed and
on the third day be raised. Then Peter
took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such
thing
shall ever happen to you." He
turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to
me. You are thinking not as God does, but
as human beings do."
Then Jesus said to
his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must
deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his
life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to
gain the
whole world and forfeit his life? Or
what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's
glory, and
then he will repay all according to his conduct."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesus
began to show his
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the
elders, the
chief priests, and the scribes. There he would be killed and on the
third day be
raised. It was then that Peter took Jesus
aside and
began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen
to
you." Jesus turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You
are thinking not as God does, but as
human beings do."
Then
Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to
come after me must
deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his
life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to
gain the
whole world and forfeit his life? Or
what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's
glory, and
then he will repay all according to his conduct."
I
know we’re all familiar
with the temptation of Jesus in the desert.
On the first Sunday of Lent each year, we hear about that. Jesus is about to begin his public ministry
and in preparation for that he goes into the desert where he fasts and
prays
for forty days. At the end of this
fasting and preparation period, the devil appears to him and tempts him. First, he tempts Jesus with food.
Jesus is obviously hungry, so the devil tempts him with
the comfort of food. Then the devil takes him
up on a high mountain and he tempts Jesus with immortality. He says, “Throw yourself down and your angels
will catch you.” Finally,
the devil shows him
all the kingdoms of the world and he says, “If you fall down and
worship me
then these kingdoms will be yours.” He
tempts him with wealth and power. Of
course,
Jesus resists these temptations. But
interestingly that scripture ends with words that say something like,
“after
this, the devil left him for a time waiting a favorable opportunity”.
Perhaps
this was the next favorable opportunity for the devil to use someone to
tempt Jesus. He used Peter, Jesus’ dear
friend and confidant. Now the setting,
of course, of this gospel is important to keep in mind as well.
Last week we heard one of the hinge, perhaps
the hinge point of Matthew’s gospel.
Everything that Jesus had done to that point led up to the
question,
“Who do you say that I am?” Of course,
the disciples said, “Well, some say Elijah; one of the prophets; John
the
Baptist.” However, Peter says, “You are
the Christ, the Messiah, The Son of the living God.”
Of course, Jesus is delighted with Peter’s
response and he goes on to say, “You are Simon Bar-Jonah.
You are Peter, the rock upon which I will
build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against
it.
Whatever you bind will be bound.
Whatever you loose will be loosed.”
However,
today we see Peter going from head of the class, to class clown. Because when Jesus continues this dialog with
his disciples he says, “Now must the Son of Man go to
Jerusalem
and there
he will suffer at the hands of
the elders
and chief priests. He will be put to
death and he will rise again on the third day.”
Peter then rebukes him. He takes
him aside and rebukes him. Rebuke means
to criticize or reprove sharply; to reprimand.
Older versions use;(I love this old word we used to hear) that
Peter
took him aside to remonstrate with him.
Remonstrate means to reason or plead in protest, to present an
objection. Then, in other words, what he
was saying to Jesus was, “No, you can’t suffer.
You’re the Messiah.” Jesus
becomes angry with him. “Get behind me
you Satan, for you are thinking not as God does but as man does. You are an obstacle to me.”
Satan;
there are many meanings to Satan. It
means adversary, hinderer, tempter, accuser, or enemy.
Those are not the hallmarks of a good
friend. Jesus is angry and no doubt
Peter hurt Jesus by attempting to keep him from doing what he came to
do; to
suffer and to die, to do that so that we might have eternal life. He was especially hurt because it’s his
friend who tempts him, who tries to take him off the path of
righteousness. Instead of accepting and
supporting Jesus in his messianic mission, Peter discourages him, even
rebukes
him because he wants Jesus to be his kind of Messiah.
He wants Jesus to be comfortable. He
wants everything to go smoothly. In effect
he is saying, “Look Lord, don’t do
the right thing, do what is comfortable, easy.
The main thing is that you avoid suffering at all costs.”
That
sounds familiar to us. We live in a day
and an age where we think we can actually get through this life without
suffering. There’s a nurse at LAMC who
gets frustrated with patients who refuse to accept their
suffering.
He goes in and regardless of their religion or
lack thereof, he says to many of them, “Is this the hardest thing
you’ve ever
done in your life, this dying, this suffering?”
Inevitably, they say, “Yes.” He
says, “Then how foolish you are to waste it.
How can you waste the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do; it
must have
some meaning. It must have something
that you need.” I’m sure he’s converted
many. I’ve got a few calls from him to
see someone before they die. What we do
is we conform ourselves to this age as the scripture says by avoiding
suffering
and also by tempting those, even those we love, to avoid
suffering.
Romans 12 says, “I urge you, brothers and
sisters, by the mercies of God to offer your body as a living
sacrifice, holy
and pleasing to God. Do not conform
yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your minds
that you
may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and
perfect."
We
must be careful, all of us, never to do what Peter did, to tempt others
to
avoid doing the right thing. Yet, frankly, it happens all of the
time.
Not long ago a man came to see me and he
said, “I really need to talk to you.
I’ve been carrying around a terrible burden for many years.” He
said, “Several years ago my granddaughter
came up to me and she said, ‘Dad, I’m pregnant.’ She came to me because
she
trusted me. She knows I’m a good Christian
and she wanted my advice and help. Now
Father, you have to understand that she was about to start college and
she’s a
brilliant girl. Her whole life was in
front of her. It was a life filled with
promise, of success, and good things. Frankly,
this pregnancy would have interfered with all those things had she
carried the
child to term. I told her, ‘Well, you do
what’s right, what you think is right and I’ll support you.’ And
she had an abortion. I’ve been carrying
it around for years. Father, did I do
the right thing?” I said, “Why don’t you
answer that.” He says, “No, I didn’t.”
I’m
learning it’s always better to ask that question back at someone
because when
we hear the truth from our own lips, it’s more effective, isn’t
it?
He says, “No, I did the wrong thing and I’m
sorry.” I said, “Well, God can forgive
you. If you want God’s forgiveness, it’s there.
His mercy extends to everyone.”
What
he did though, simply put, he did what Peter did. He
told his granddaughter whom he loved, ‘I
want life to be easy for you, comfortable.
I don’t want you to suffer in any way.’
Another example is a lady who
would see me all the time. She’d say, “I
give my daughter birth control pills.”
She was fifteen or something. “I
don’t want her to be sexually active but, just in case.
Am I doing the right thing?” I
said, “Well what do you think?” She went
on and I said, “NO, YOU’RE NOT DOING
THE RIGHT THING. You’re doing the wrong
thing.” Every month she’d see me and
ask, “Am I doing the right thing?” I’d
say, “What part of NO can’t you understand?
Are you fighting with the N or the O?
Here, let me help you.” She
conformed herself and her daughter to the age.
What do you think her daughter thought?
“Why is Mom doing this? She
doesn’t trust me. I guess it’s okay if I
do whatever I want to.”
Now,
I can’t quote a bishop who said this but I know some bishops have said
this, “I
know Father So-and-so cannot be trusted with children but there’s such
a
shortage of priests. Besides, if I
remove him, word might get out and bring discredit on the Church and on
me.” We all know that has happened; they
were conforming themselves to this age.
Some of the leaders of our Church have not done the right thing
and we
have all suffered as a result.
Finally,
recently a high school teenager came up to me and said, “You know I
have a good
friend who’s using methamphetamine, meth and I’m worried about
him.
It’s changing him. He’s
not the person he used to be and I’m
afraid he could die from this terrible thing.
I’ve confronted him but he won’t listen to me and I thought
about
telling his parents but I don’t want to ‘rat him out’ because he’ll
know who
told them and I’ll lose his friendship.”
I said, “Are you more concerned that your friend will no longer
be your
friend? What will you think at his
funeral? You’re not doing the right
thing. You’re conforming yourself to the
fear, the pressure of the age.”
It
is all about comfort and ease of life and the absolute need to avoid
suffering
at any cost. Frankly, what we want is
salvation ‘on the cheap’. It’s not for sale and it’s certainly not
cheap. What profit would there be for one
to gain
the whole world and forfeit his life?
You know, Peter didn’t get it. He
wanted a messiah who was a political, military economic leader, not a
suffering
messiah. Interestingly, in the first
reading, the prophet Jeremiah got it but didn’t like it.
“You duped me Lord and I let you dupe me.” It
goes on to say: As a result of doing the
right thing and speaking for God Jeremiah complains that he suffers
derision
and reproach all the time. “I say to
myself, ‘I will speak his name no more.’”
Peter
didn’t get it. Jeremiah got it but he
didn’t
like it. I hope we get it.
I hope we understand that we have to do the
right thing if we are to follow Christ-not the easy thing, not the
popular
thing, not the convenient thing, but the right thing.
It’s a principle and we’re men and women of
principle because we have a God of principle.
Never should any of us ever betray those we love by giving them
advice
or even by being silent when they need our help. Be
a loving parent, a good friend, a loving
sibling, a good boyfriend or girlfriend.
Be a good spouse. Never be an
adversary, a hinderer, a tempter, an accuser or an enemy.
In
Philippians we read:
Whatever
things are true whatever things
are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever
things
are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue
and if
there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things and do them as
well.
We
pray with Paul through Christ our Lord.
Amen