“You’re in the hot seat,” Regis Philbin would say to the contestant on the hit game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” It seemed like everybody was watching that show when it first came out back in 1999. It was dramatic and tense. The one contestant had to answer a series of 15 trivia questions and each one moved him up the ladder towards a million dollars. At any time he could decide not to answer and walk away with the money he had, but that next question was so tempting, worth so much more than the last one. Maybe just a guess? But with a wrong guess, he could lose it all.
I think most of us like the thought of being a winner on a game show like that, but at the same time I can say that I would not enjoy being under that much pressure. Just watching it could be nerve-wracking. Who wants that? So for as much as I might like the potential prize, I don’t know that I’d actually want to be on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
Our Gospel for today from Matthew 16 is about a big question, one that at first seems like it would be even easier to turn down. Who wants to bear a cross? “Nobody, right? Why would anyone want that?” But as our Lord Jesus teaches us here about the cross, what it is and what it means, something amazing happens. By his grace, bearing a cross becomes something we do want – more than a million dollars, more than the whole world.
The events of our Gospel took place in a remote area in the north of Israel, near a place called Caesarea Philippi. The city was at the base of Mt. Hermon, which is likely where Jesus’ transfiguration took place, since that was on a mountain and it was shortly after this. Just before this account Jesus had asked his disciples a question, “Who do people say I am?” and then followed it up with “Who do you say I am?” This wasn’t just a trivia question. “Jesus is Lord” is really the most simple confession of faith. The Apostle Paul tells us, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit. People had many different ideas of who Jesus was, but Peter spoke on behalf of them all to answer the question with “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Where our text begins then, Jesus indicates a change in his ministry. Previously his whole work was summarized by his proclaiming that the kingdom of God is near. But now he began more openly to look ahead and to teach his disciples about what was coming for him. Matthew says,
From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised again.
“He had to.” Notice that wording. This wasn’t just one possible route or one choice among many. This wasn’t something Jesus feared was coming, the way a man going into battle might say, “If I don’t make it back, tell my wife I love her!” Jesus simply laid it out there, he had to do this. He had to suffer. He had to die. Jesus would teach this same thing many times, both before and after rising from the dead. Luke records nearly the same wording when the risen Jesus was talking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus asked them, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter his glory?” Long before the Pharisees and Sadducees had come up with a plan to have Jesus crucified, Jesus was already telling his disciples what would happen, and not as someone who was resigned to his fate, but with real strength, as someone who was bold and determined and ready to do what was necessary.
But how could this be? Peter didn’t understand it, and the others probably didn’t either. Had Peter not just said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God?” Was this the kind of attitude the Son of God should have? What good would he be as Christ or Messiah if he was dead?
And so we see that the disciples rightly confessed that Jesus was the Christ, but they misunderstood just who the Christ was to be. Certainly they remembered the glorious things. He will rule on the throne of David. He will defeat Israel’s enemies. He will be a king of peace. But what about the other passages of the Old Testament? Pierced for our transgressions? Led like a lamb to the slaughter? Laid in the dust of death? It seems that it would be difficult—impossible even—to have both a cross and a crown. You’re in the hot seat. Which one will it be? And so the disciples said, “This choice is easy. Who wants to bear a cross? We’ll take the crown.”
So Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Most English translations of Peter’s words use a sort of generic exclamation like “Never, Lord!” but what he literally said was, “mercifulness to you” or “may you receive mercy, Lord.” And I think that’s a phrase worth knowing because there’s a great irony here. Mercy always comes from someone. The mercy Peter was wishing for was God’s mercy. “Jesus, you’re talking about suffering and dying? May you receive God’s mercy so that such a thing never happens.” But what Peter didn’t realize is that the cross is God’s mercy. What he was asking for was not that God be more merciful, but that God take his mercy away from all mankind. Jesus didn’t have to suffer for his own sake. He had no sin to pay for. Nor did he have to suffer because of God the Father’s coldness or lack of mercy. He had to suffer because it was the only way that he could pour out his mercy and his salvation on the whole world.
“Jesus, you don’t have to die. Look, the kingdoms of the world, their splendor, their majesty. All this I will give you, if you bow and worship me.” That was the Devil’s temptation when Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days. Peter didn’t hate Jesus. He didn’t want Jesus or his work destroyed. But he was unwittingly serving as the mouthpiece of that same Devil, who now hissed even through Jesus’ closest companions: “Why should you die, Jesus? You don’t need to. You don’t want to bear a cross. May you receive mercy! This will never happen to you!”
But Jesus didn’t even hear Peter out, much less weigh this suggestion as a valid option. His rebuke came with a force that must have knocked Peter back on his heels. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a snare to me because you are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men.”
If only we would always think the things of God, and not the things of men! Imagine if Jesus had listened to Peter. Peter had everything backwards. Peter would have wished away Jesus’ cross and he would have wished Jesus’ throne of righteous judgment and he would have wished himself right into hell. But can we really blame Peter? Haven’t we thought the same things, praying the words, “Thy will be done” but all the while thinking, “and you know, Lord, that my will is right.”
The cross was God’s will because it was God’s will to put to death our sinful nature with Jesus and to save us. It was his will to give us through him a life and resurrection that we can never earn or deserve. It was his will to raise us with him as his own dear children.
And it was his will that we too must bear a cross.
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25In fact whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26After all, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul?”
Who wants to bear a cross? Our nature recoils at such a thought. Not I! Humiliation? Pain? Suffering? Death? No, thank you. I’ll take just about anything else! But there is no such thing as following Jesus on a golden palanquin of silk pillows. You can live your life for the wealth and pleasure of this world. Or if you want to follow the crucified Lord you too must bear a cross.
So what’s it going to be? The cross, or the world? The world is an awfully tempting place. Look at all these kingdoms, their splendor, their majesty. You can have it all!
But hold on. Take a step back with Jesus and view the big picture. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. All our wealth, all our entertainment, all our comforts, can’t save us. They can’t do anything for us. Not like Jesus and his cross.
What does it mean to bear a cross and follow Jesus? Many people have faced suffering and death for the sake of their Lord, with no confidence in anything other than the sure words of Jesus, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” But the cross that Jesus speaks of is more than that. The cross you bear is your crucified nature. “Deny yourself,” Jesus says. It’s to forfeit everything for the sake of Jesus. Paul echoes this, saying, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
To bear the cross is to be one with Christ. To have a part in his suffering and death. To be baptized into his name. To be fed and strengthened by his body and blood. To cast your sin and guilt at his feet and live in the freedom of his forgiveness. To face all things, even death, knowing that the life he has won for you can never be stripped away. This is Jesus’ gift to you by his grace.
Who wants to bear a cross? We do, together with all God’s children. Thy will be done, O Lord — thy good and gracious will. By your cross conform us to your image. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson