Posts
From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
- Matthew 16:21-28
Yesterday, we read that when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." My study bible has many notes regarding today's passage. Here, it tells us: "After Peter's confession [see yesterday's reading], Jesus reveals the true nature of His messiahship: the mystery of His Passion. It was expected that the Messiah would reign forever, so the idea that Christ would die was perplexing to Peter and remained scandalous to the Jews even after the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 1:23). Peter unwittingly speaks for Satan, as the devil did not want Christ to fulfill His mission and save mankind through suffering and death."
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." A note explains that the cross, which was a dreaded instrument of Roman punishment, is also a symbol of suffering by Christians imitation of Christ. "We practice self-denial for the sake of the love of God and the gospel. Accepting this suffering is not a punishment, nor is it an end in itself, but a means to overcome the fallen world for the sake of the Kingdom and to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires" (see Galatians 5:24). Elsewhere, Jesus has promised His disciples that those who lose all for His sake will be rewarded a hundredfold, with persecutions (Mark 10:30). In my estimation, God provides the means for understanding that which we are asked to sacrifice; entering by the narrow gate assures us that we will be called upon to let go of the things to which we are too attached. At the same time, the blessings that do come in this process of seeking to live the life He teaches are clearly those things for which we are grateful; we are led to recognize the true Source of every good and perfect gift.
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." My study bible tells us that "the central paradox of Christian living is that in grasping for temporal things, we lose the eternal; but in sacrificing everything in this world, we gain eternal riches that are unimaginable (1 Corinthians 2:9)."
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" According to my study bible, this question, What will a man give in exchange for his soul? emphasizes the foolishness of the accumulation of worldly wealth or power in the sense that none of this can redeem a fallen soul, nor benefit anyone in the life to come.
"For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." My study bible says that this is a reference to those who would witness the Transfiguration [17:1-9, in tomorrow's reading], as well as those who, in every generation, will experience the presence of God's Kingdom.
This question of losing the whole world but keeping one's soul is an essential one we all have to consider, all the time. I feel that there are many temptations to follow a rule or an order the entire world might seem to praise, but losing one's soul is losing the mark, the true plumb line, of the one thing we can't replace through worldly pursuit. We can't add to our true stature by some sort of pursuit of what just sounds good or what will impress others in some way. To possess one's soul is a kind of possession you can't"get" from someone else, but it is a work that we have to do ourselves by truly loving God, and putting God first before everything else. It is an exceptional form of personal integrity, the one irreplaceable thing that is our thread to true life. Being true to God, in my perspective, is absolutely the identical thing to being true to our true selves, the thing that fills us with what can't be taken away except by our own doing, and others must also do for themselves. It's like the story of the Ten Virgins which comes much later in Matthew's gospel (Matthew 25). There are things we must be careful, on guard, alert, to keep and to fulfill on our own; these things can't be gotten from others like a material commodity, but must belong to each, through the faith and fruits of each life, each choice. And that is the depth of the integrity that is like the pearl of great price, which is worth the cost of everything else we might have. It is the one thing necessary. And we find it in our love of Christ and the place that love takes us. If you have ever been through a great temptation to grasp something the world thinks is fantastic, a source of great worldly status, for example, that isn't truly what God desires for you, and come out having been true to what God wanted for you instead, you will find the relief of knowing that you still possess your own soul. It is that unassailable place of His rest.
