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GETTING BEHIND JESUS (Matthew
16:21-27)
It can be hard to get on the good side of Jesus as
Simon Peter found out. In Mathew 16 Jesus has informed
the disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer and
die. He gives no explanation for his dramatic statement.
But he said it, and I can imagine with a tone of voice
and a look in his eyes conveying that he meant it.
Simon Peter, who just before today's text, has been
claimed by Jesus as the human rock upon whom he will rely
in building his church, brushes aside Jesus' prediction
and tries to reassure Jesus that he is wrong in his dire
forecast. In effect, Peter is saying, "No, Lord, your
suffering and death aren't in our scenario. You must be
mistaken. You're too nice a guy for that to happen
to."
Jesus calls him "Satan." GET BEHIND ME, YOU
SATAN.
And here I would like to acknowledge and thank Garret
Ketzer who in his published sermon called "Simon the
Supportive" gave me the theme I now want to develop.
Mr. Ketzer suggests that Simon Peter was doing nothing
more than obeying one of the Ten Commandments, if not the
Golden Rule: THOU SHALT ALWAYS BE SUPPORTIVE?
Few words are more venerated these days than
SUPPORTIVE.
Everyone wants to be supportive or must seem to be
supportive: politicians, teachers, lovers, bosses,
employees, and of course ministers, counsellors and
therapists. To be judged as being non-supportive is to
be damned as unloving, unlovable, and unchristian.
The new vogue of supportiveness reflects our
increased sensitivity about the power of affirmation in
our human relationships. Affirmation, both
self-affirmation and mutual affirmation, are helpful
corrections to the emotionally stiff upper lip attitudes
which prevented too many of our paternal ancestors,
especially our bosses, and fathers, and ministers, from
saying anything positive toward others, much less ever
giving a hug.
In the movement to make our conduct kinder and gentler
to one another we have, however, moved off from some
older values in human relationships: straight talk,
honest criticism, accountability, discipline. "No fault
insurance" is a helpful balance to our overly litigious
inclinations; but can there be a "no fault" policy to
correct human relationships.
*********
Mr. Ketzer suggests that "when we listen carefully to
what often passes for our "support" of one another, we
hear a distinct echo of Simon Peter trying to cheer up
Jesus." If so, perhaps we need to take to heart Jesus'
rebuke of Peter as applying to ourselves.
In Peter's support of Jesus, we may hear someone
offering another person one of two bogus assurances: that
nothing bad can befall him, or that he is incapable of
doing anything bad.
"Friend, you're our leader so nothing bad can happen
to you." Or "You're too good a person for anything really
bad to happen to you." We may also detect in our embrace
of the other, regardless of the costs to truth, our own
desire to receive unconditional support in return from
those we support unconditionally. We're on thin ice,
however, by assuming we are capable of giving
unconditional support and then by confusing support with
unconditional love.
When Little Red Riding Hood visited her grandmother
and grandma excused her rather deep, wolfish sounding
voice as merely being a little sick, Little Red's
instinctive response was "Oh, Grandma, don't talk that
way! You can't really be sick. You'll outlive us all."
Or, "don't be so hard on yourself, Grandma. You really
have good intentions." (The better to eat you with, my
dear!)
"In rejecting Peter's 'support,' going so far as to
imply that it is satanic, Jesus tells us something about
the nature of evil itself. From what does most evil arise
if not from a false notion of one's own innocence or a
false notion of one's own invulnerability." The endurance
of evil is not primarily through the efforts of the truly
evil, who are few, but through the illusions of the good,
who are many.
Our morning newspaper, the SCMP, reported on the front
page today a survey of Hong Kong shoppers who were asked
if they witnessed a palpable case of thievery at their
market, what would they do. The finding was that only one
out of every five persons would do anything. It may be a
long evolution, but a logical one, that many most
citizens stand by mute when they witness shoplifting,
they may similarly stand by mute when they witness
political thuggery as with the Nazis smashing Jewish shop
windows in the l930s and Serbian provocateurs destroying
Bosnian properties in our decade.
While there is much positive to our new commitment to
be supportive of others, the downside is that finally no
one becomes responsible for conduct and its'
consequences.
GET YOU BEHIND ME, YOU SATANIC POLITICIANS AND
DIPLOMATS! AND YOU LUKEWARM LAW ABIDING CITIZENS!
We are fast destroying our planet, but we deny it;
we're not destroying the planet, we're converting it into
a more efficient economy. The decline in quality of air,
water, soil and other living species are merely the
unavoidable casualties of our laudable human striving for
a better and better life and progress. And anyway we
can always blast off to another one. GET YOU BEHIND ME
YOU SATANIC DEVELOPERS AND EXPLOITERS OF MY EARTH!
A recent survey of American households found that 90
percent of households keep at least three copies of the
Bible. Yet, two-thirds of Americans could not name one of
the four gospels and 50% could not name at least five of
the l0 commandments. GET YOU BEHIND ME YOU LUKEWARM
KEEPERS OF MY WORD!
Jesus was not a leader in the support one another at
any costs movement. Jesus knew his Old Testament
tradition and that the serpent in the Garden was the most
supportive of all creatures: YOU SHALL NOT DIE, BUT BE
AS GODS, KNOWING GOOD FROM EVIL. (Hisssssssss!)
*********
Jesus' approach to reality and to relationships is far
more bracing. He shares with his friends a prediction of
the worst that can happen, and he invites them to embrace
their destiny with courage, to carry their crosses as his
companions. In the end Grandma is going to die.
Maybe instead of trying to get on the good side of the
dying, the sick, the confused, or the spiritually
demented by supporting them in denials and romantic
notions, we should just get out of their way so that they
can come to terms with reality. That might also assist
them to meet God.
I attended the memorial service to John To last
weekend. Some of his friends may have comforted John with
shallow support: "John, you really aren't dying." But
most supported John in the truth that in his dying John
was carrying his cross for Christ. The result was
spiritual power and also considerable fun for John and
many around him.
In the end grandma and everyone else dies. Jesus
didn't want false friends and easy disciples getting in
the way of his death. And his word is clear: if others
wanted to be part of his life, they too would need to
take up their cross and follow him. That means that his
followers, each in her and his own way, would need to
come to terms with precisely what we don't want to come
to terms with - suffering and dying. Jesus uses three
verbs to summarise his advice to his disciples, knowing
that their first reaction would be like that of Peter.
…DENY YOURSELF. Deny ourselves! Deny our hopes
and ambitions and self interests? Yes. But is that
denial really bad news? Does authentic good news lie in
supporting the view that the meaning of our lives is
going it alone. The trouble with superficial support is
that it may prevent us from receiving the support which
really matters most: the support of God.
Deny yourself means open yourself to the greater and
deeper alternative that God is as real as yourself; that
the path of mature living is to try to walk with God. And
the equation is that we can affirm God only by denying
ourselves. For those who choose self-denial, Jesus
promises they will not go it alone; he will be with them.
It would be wise for some of you to deny yourselves long
enough to sign up and take part in our coming ALPHA
ministry.
TAKE UP YOUR CROSS. The cross we take up is no longer
a cross we have made but the cross which Jesus has
carried. It is the cross of risking our lives in love; it
is the cross of discovering that self-fulfilment comes
through helping others; it is the bold adventure of
gaining by giving away, of achieving by taking risks, by
finding safety by the bungee jump into the arms of God
instead of holding back on the edge of our self-contained
security.
Nothing weak about taking up the cross. It summons us
to as bold and courageous and daring self-expression as
we could ever imagine.
FOLLOW ME. Ah, there is the supreme adventure. Shall
one follow Jesus in discerning the shape of the landscape
of our lives, or shall we rely upon our own compass?
There is an inevitable mystery to following Jesus by
taking up a personal cross. There is finally no logic or
rational explanation to make it palatable and nice. The
way of the cross is a scandal. What Jesus knew and
taught is precisely what he experienced: his cross wasn't
good logic nor easy going but Jesus knew that in doing it
his way he constantly experienced feedback from God. His
faith grew because his faithfulness was real and it is
the experience which faith gives us that makes all the
difference and converts carrying the cross with Jesus
into sharing the crown of full life with him.
SIMON Peter was eventually able to pick up his cross
and follow Jesus because despite all his obtuseness and
cowardice and natural desire for self-preservation he
finally knew that he loved Jesus more than anything else
in life. If nothing ever goes wrong with a friend, our
support can remain untested, superficial, and
conditional. But things went wrong with Jesus, and Simon
Peter's support began to develop sinew and muscle and
backbone. When he finally understood that Jesus was
going to be crucified, Peter could then address the risks
related to his own crucifixion.
Getting behind Jesus, by which I mean being a real
follower and supporter of the Christ, and not a fair
weather friend, requires strong stuff. In today's text
Peter was performing just the opposite kind of support.
He was trying to jolly up Jesus so that he would forget
who he was. And Jesus response is cutting: "In that case
Simon Peter, to hell with you and your support."
I believe Jesus was so brutally direct with Simon,
because Jesus had hope in who Peter really was and looked
to the possibility that Peter would become the real
friend upon whom Jesus could rely.
Jesus wasn't wrong with Peter.
I pray he won't be wrong about me. How about you?
Pastor Gene Preston
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