The Way of the Cross
Matthew 16: 21-28
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17)
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel reading Matthew 16. While I was at the seminary I recall one of my classmates coming up to me after a test to talk to me. He said that he noticed that I was not nervous before the test. He told me that he does get very nervous before tests and wanted to know my secret. He wanted to know what he could do so that he would not be so stressed out before taking a test. I told him my secret. I told him that I went to every class and during each class I took down careful notes. Later that day I would review those notes so that I would remember the material. At night I would spend hours in my room or at the library studying the pages that the instructor gave the class to read. When the day of the test was coming near I would go over my notes again. I told him my secret to being confident before a test. Go to all the classes, take good notes, review the notes, read everything assigned and study the material days in advance of the test. My classmate looked very dejected after hearing my answer. He then said, “Do you have any other suggestions?”
All of us are like my classmate that I just described. We are not interested in taking the hard and difficult road. We would rather take the easy road instead. How many people have you heard say, “If only I could win the lottery then my life would be good?” People are always looking for the easy way out. People are always looking for the magic formula that will make everything to their liking. People are looking for that magic formula that will lead to wealth, happiness and success. We very much like satisfaction without sacrifice. That attitude can come into the church as well. We want an active church without being active ourselves. We want the church filled without actually asking anyone to come. We are not interested in sacrifice. We want our life to be free and easy.
When we look at our Gospel reading we see that the disciples had the same kind of attitude. The disciples had been enjoying the peak of our Lord’s popularity. Crowds of people clamored to see him and hear him. The disciples were with Jesus when He performed miracles and healed the sick. They were part of His fantastic ministry. I am sure they were looking forward to the honor that they would receive because they were the Lord’s disciples. Life was looking very good.
But as we look at our text for today we see that Jesus had a different plan. Let me read a portion of the reading. “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised”. Jesus told His disciples to forget about popularity and honor because He was going to Jerusalem to be mocked and beaten. He was going to Jerusalem to die. Peter and the other disciples were upset at what Jesus said. They thought that they were going into the city with power and strength. But the Lord told them that He was going to the cross.
Peter was so upset about what Jesus said that he actually rebuked the Lord. “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus then responded to Peter’s objection. “But He turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man”. Peter wanted Jesus to take the easy path. He wanted Jesus to go down the path of power and might. Jesus told Peter that He was not going to take the easy path but that he was going to take the difficult path. He told Peter that He was going to take the path that would lead to the cross.
Let us be thankful that Jesus went the way of the cross. There is no easy way to remove sin. There is no easy way to defeat death. There is no easy way to crush the head of Satan. The only way to remove sin, defeat death and crush the head of Satan is the way of the cross. The only way to bring light in this dark word is the way of the cross. The only way to make everything right in the site of God is the way of the cross. The cross is not the easy way but it is the only way that can bring to us life and salvation. It is the only way to restore all things. Jesus went to the cross and died in our place. All of our sins were placed on Him and then He shed His blood to wipe them away. He died to atone for our sins and in doing so crushed the power of Satan. Jesus went to the cross to defeat death itself and He did just that. We know this because of His glorious resurrection from the dead. Jesus took the hard path of the cross so that we could receive forgiveness and life. He took the hard path of the cross to give to us peace with God.
Jesus took the hard path of the cross in order to save us and now He calls us to be His disciples. Recall what He said in our reading. “If anyone would come after me, let Him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. God’s way does not conform to our expectations. We want to exalt ourselves. Jesus tells us to deny ourselves. By the power of the Holy Spirit we deny ourselves by turning away from our sins and turning to the Lord. We trust that God is gracious to us through His Son Jesus Christ. We have our own ideas on how God should operate in the world. To deny yourself means that we trust that God’s way of doing things is far greater then are own understanding. To deny yourself means to turn away from “my will be done” to “God’s will be done”.
Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and take up our cross. To take up your cross means to confess the truth about Jesus even if it means hardship. Christians all around the world face persecution because they confess Christ. We might not face direct persecution in our country right now, but times are changing. We live in a culture that is moving away from God’s Word and in some cases it hostile to it. To hold to Biblical teaching could mean a loss of prestige and status in this world. There may come a time when Christians will face heavy persecution even in our own country. To take up the cross means that we will confess the truth about Jesus and hold to God’s Word even if it means hardship and death.
Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow Him. To follow the Lord is to be guided by His Word. It is a life of genuine love, forgiveness, prayer, and service. There is a wonderful description of the life we are called to have in our epistle reading from the book of Romans. We follow Jesus through the power of the Word. That is why we hear, read, mark, and inwardly digest the Word of God. Jesus has called us to be His disciples. That is to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow Him.
The way of the cross is the way of God. There is a good reason for this. It is the Lord’s desire to confront all that is evil in the world with goodness. It is God’s desire to confront all that is dark in this world with the light of Christ. The Lord has come to us and He is gracious to us. It is now His desire to work through us to reflect His love into the world. That is to meet sin with forgiveness. To serve each other, and to confront what is evil with what is good. It is goodness that comes from God.
To be a Christian in this fallen world is not easy but we must always remember that a life without the Lord Jesus leads to eternal ruin. We go back to the words of Jesus. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what He has done.”
The way of the cross is not the easy way, but it is God’s way. Let us never be discouraged about the life of the cross. God has already done the hard part. The Lord has done what we could not. The Father in heaven has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to be our Savior. Jesus has given to us life and salvation through His sacrifice on the cross. The Holy Spirit has created our faith in Christ and He continues to sustain our faith through Word and Sacrament. It would be impossible to even be a disciple of Jesus without the power the Holy Spirit. So as we wait for the Lord to visibly return on the last day we live as disciples of Jesus. That is we deny ourselves, we take up your cross and we follow the Lord. Amen.