Matthew 16:21-28 - "From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem..."

Matthew 16:21-28

The usual commentary on this passage is, "Look how fast Peter went from confessing Jesus as the Christ to becoming a mouthpiece of Satan! It just goes to show that one moment you could be doing great things for the Lord, and the next thing you know you are siding with the enemy. See how pride goes before a fall?" And so it does. I don't think Peter did a 180 within, say, five minutes of the magnificent confession we saw in the previous passage. It's possible several days or even weeks passed between these events. But it was no accident that the gospel writer placed this story of Jesus rebuking Peter immediately after the story of his giving Peter high praise. Certainly the contrast was meant to be both jarring and instructive.

But what interests me is the instruction that follows. There seems to be a loosely connected train of thought in Jesus' discourse. He goes from rebuking Peter for failing to understand the necessity of his death and resurrection to telling the disciples that they must not save their lives otherwise they will lose their souls. Then he says the Son of Man will return in glory to recompense mankind for their deeds, adding that some of the disciples will have a chance to catch a preview of said Second Coming very soon. I know it seems like Jesus often makes trapeze-artist-type leaps in thought. But instead of going along with it in lazy indifference, how about we try to unpack it a bit?

After Peter protested Jesus' disclosure that he must be killed and then rise again from the dead, I expected Jesus to turn to his disciples and instruct them on the doctrine of the atonement. "Guys, don't you see why I need to die? The sins of the world need to be paid for, man! I'm the Lamb! You'll die in your sins if I don't do this. You may not like it, but it is what it is." But instead Jesus instructs them on why they need to be willing to die. Now this is a familiar passage where we know he's talking about the cost of discipleship, but I think we assume that he isn't addressing Peter's protest directly. We think maybe he's just leaping to this topic because "while we're on the subject of dying, let me give you some more bad news, which is that you're also gonna have to die if you follow me."

But what if this instruction about costly discipleship was a direct response to Peter's protest? That is, Jesus was confronting Peter's reaction against a deeper principle: he only wanted to be a part of this program for the triumph, not for the suffering. Peter's concern was not just for Jesus but, more viscerally, for himself and what he's signing up for. This was not about Peter's failure to understand the doctrine of atonement, but his aversion to the principle upon which the entire kingdom of God operated. Salvation emerges out of damnation. Life is born out of death. Suffering must precede glory. When Peter exclaimed, "Lord, this shall never happen to you!" he was also saying at a deeper level, "May this never happen to me!" As human beings our problem with the gospel isn't necessarily solved by getting educated about doctrine. Quite often it's about challenging our heart to relinquish it's death-grip on this life, this world, the flesh and its idols.

Which makes it more incredible when Jesus follows up with "the Son of Man...will then recompense every man according his deeds." At first this seems like a slight disconnect with the costly discipleship discourse. That's because we normally think of evil deeds in terms of lying and stealing and sexual immorality and the like. But not taking up our cross? Not despising our own life? Not dying to this world? That's how Jesus describes the deeds that will be judged. He is saying evil is bigger than cheating on your taxes or even committing adultery. This is about cosmic principles at war with each other, where we must choose sides. Jesus has come to call us out of this world, out of enemy territory. Coming to him means nothing less than putting to death everything you hold dear. To reject this calling is not a neutral position, it is siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. That choice, and all the evil deeds that come out of it, is why the Son of Man will return to judge the world.