The crossroads of despair and deliverance....

Matthew 16: 21-28; Mark 8: 27-9:1; Luke 9: 22-27:

Part 1

Matthew 16:

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ ²³But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

The recognition that Jesus of the Nazareth sermon is the Messiah by Peter at Caesarea Philippi marks a turning point in the life of Jesus. Jesus has always been on His way to Jerusalem, His objective and life’s work has not changed but the disciples are as ready as they ever will be to hear how all this teaching about radical living culminates.  They are ready to hear how Jesus brings about the irreversible victory of the Kingdom of God over the powers that rage against them and their creator. Jesus speaks plainly and to the point. He has to go to Jerusalem and there He will be rejected by the ruling elites and the fickle crowd; they will kill him but He will rise from the dead. Funny isn’t it, that we hear only part of the story. Peter is upset, very upset that Jesus is not fitting into his plans and meeting Peter’s needs Peter’s way. What was it that Peter heard that caused him so much offence? Was Peter objecting to the death of Jesus, His resurrection or both? Ah! Peter is in a bit of a dilemma; he has heard something he does not like or want and this drowns out all the rest of the story. He hears only the trouble of the story and does not hear the redemption within it. Peter’s mind is consumed with a view of suffering and death based on despair while Jesus has just told him about a death and resurrection that leads to deliverance. Peter hears despair Jesus said deliverance; Peter’s mind is stuck again in the old way of thinking. Jesus is announcing the need to think and act in a new way that conquers death and suffering and brings life. The forces that rage against life do not want Jesus to go to Jerusalem and on to the cross at Calvary. At the cross the forces that rage against God and His creation along with their kingdom of oppression, poverty and violence will be defeated forever and the irreversible shift from death to life will take place in the death and resurrection of Jesus. At the cross there will be enough blood spilt to end the need of it, enough violence to end the need of it, enough oppression to end the need of it and enough of death to end the need of it. In the resurrection there is enough life giving power so that none need perish but all come to a radical change of mind resulting in resurrection life as Peter would one day write (2 Peter 3:8). Will we follow Jesus to Jerusalem and to the cross? Will we follow Him to the garden tomb? Will we follow Him to Galilee and meet Him there and participate in the resurrection from death to life? Will we come to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and admit that we need to change our mind about how we meet our needs and accept the offer of forgiveness for meeting our needs our own way? Will we come and accept the gift of life that can never be taken away from us?  It’s the most important decision we will ever make; may we hear all the words of Jesus and not be diverted by the lie that there is any other way to resurrection life.