Romans 12.9–end – Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Matthew 16.21–end – 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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But 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.’ Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’
Sermon
There are moments in the Gospels when Peter gets it wonderfully right. And there are moments when he gets it spectacularly wrong. Last week we heard one of the good ones.
Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus praises him. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.” Peter has seen something others haven’t. He has understood who Jesus is.
And then, almost immediately, it all goes wrong. Jesus begins to explain what being the Messiah actually means. He must go to Jerusalem. He will suffer. He will be rejected and killed. And on the third day he will be raised. Peter can’t bear it. He takes Jesus aside and rebukes him: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” And Jesus replies with some of the strongest words he ever speaks to anybody: “Get behind me, Satan!”
Quite a turnaround. From “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah” to “Get behind me, Satan” in the space of a few verses. But I think Peter’s reaction is entirely understandable. He loves Jesus. He has left everything to follow him. He has just declared that Jesus is God’s Messiah. And surely, if Jesus is the Messiah, things ought to be getting better from here. Victory. Success. The kingdom of God arriving. Israel restored. Enemies defeated.
Instead, Jesus starts talking about suffering and death. Peter has the right answer about who Jesus is, but he hasn’t yet understood what kind of Messiah Jesus is. And that matters because the next thing Jesus says makes it clear that this isn’t only about him. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” That’s where the passage becomes uncomfortable for us.
Because Christianity can very easily become something we fit around the life we’ve already decided to live. We worship. We pray. We try to be decent people. We give what we can. We help where we can. And all of those things are good. But Jesus doesn’t say, “Fit me in where you can.” He says, “Follow me.” And following someone means allowing them to determine the direction of travel.
That is what Peter is struggling with. Peter wants to follow Jesus, but he also wants to tell Jesus which way they ought to be going. I suspect there’s a little bit of Peter in most of us. We are quite happy to follow Christ when Christ appears to be going roughly where we wanted to go anyway. It becomes rather harder when the road turns somewhere unexpected.
When forgiveness costs us our pride. When generosity costs us something we would rather keep. When standing alongside somebody unpopular costs us the approval of others. When speaking up for what is right makes life awkward. When loving our neighbour means loving the particular neighbour we find difficult. When faithfulness asks us not simply to believe something, but to change something. That is where discipleship becomes real.
I think we need to be careful with Jesus’ words about “taking up our cross”, because the phrase can be misused. We sometimes hear ordinary inconveniences described as “my cross to bear”. Worse, people enduring abuse, injustice or cruelty have sometimes been told that their Christian duty is simply to put up with it. That isn’t what Jesus is saying.
The cross is not a command to seek suffering, nor to accept suffering that could rightly be challenged or prevented. The cross is what happens when love refuses to give up.
Jesus goes to Jerusalem not because suffering is good, but because love is good. He refuses to abandon the people he has come to save. He refuses to answer violence with violence. He refuses to save himself at the expense of his mission. The cross is the cost of a love that will not turn back. And Jesus says: follow me.
Our reading from Romans gives us a picture of what that might actually look like in ordinary Christian life. “Let love be genuine.” “Love one another with mutual affection.” “Extend hospitality to strangers.” “Bless those who persecute you.” “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
None of that sounds particularly dramatic. There are no heroic gestures there. No grand religious performances. Just the stubborn, daily work of love.
And yet try doing it. Try genuinely blessing somebody who has hurt you. Try refusing to repay anger with anger. Try making room in your life for somebody who cannot repay you. Try listening properly to somebody whose experience of life is very different from yours. Try choosing kindness when you have a devastating reply ready to go. Try overcoming evil with good when every instinct in you wants to hit back.
Suddenly Paul’s words don’t seem quite so gentle. This is cross-shaped living. And it is important that Jesus doesn’t finish with the cross. Peter seems not to hear this, but Jesus has already said that on the third day he will be raised. The road leads through Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is not the end. That changes everything.
Christian self-denial is not about making ourselves smaller because God enjoys seeing us miserable. It is about becoming free enough to love. Free from the endless need to protect our status, defend our ego, get our own way and keep score. “For those who want to save their life will lose it,” Jesus says, “and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
There is the great paradox at the heart of Christian discipleship. The life we cling to most tightly can become very small. But the life we give to God can become larger than we imagined.
We find life when we give ourselves away in love. We see it whenever someone gives their time to a lonely neighbour. Whenever somebody quietly forgives. Whenever a church chooses welcome over comfort. Whenever people stand beside those whom others would rather ignore. Whenever somebody decides that compassion matters more than winning. Whenever, in a hundred ordinary ways, Christians choose the way of Christ rather than simply the way of least resistance.
And none of us gets this right all the time. Peter certainly didn’t. That’s one of the reasons I’m grateful that this story is here. Jesus doesn’t abandon Peter after this disastrous conversation. Peter gets things wrong again. He misunderstands. He boasts. Eventually he denies even knowing Jesus. And still Christ calls him. Still Christ works through him. Still grace has the final word.
So perhaps the question this Gospel leaves us with isn’t whether we are good enough to carry the cross. It is simpler than that. It is really, which way are we going? Are we willing to get behind Jesus? Because “Get behind me” is not only a rebuke. It is also exactly where a disciple belongs. Behind Jesus. Following him.