One thing that Lili and I have run into in our time of parenting is that expectations affect the way you hear. We see this often when one of our young ones asks us if he can do something. For example, if one of them says, “When we get finished with dinner, can we have some screen time (which is our phrase for watching television or playing on a computer),” and Lili and I say, “Possibly,” things are about to get real hairy.
You see, when we say that we really mean possibly. However, the young ones are so conditioned to be bummed by a negative response that when we say “possibly” it has a way of turning into “certainly” in their heads real fast. In this way, it’s the exact opposite of dating, where, guys, when the girl says “maybe” when you ask her out, you should probably just hear “no” because in the dating world “maybes” turn into “noes” real fast. But in kids’ heads, “possiblies” turn into “yeses” real fast.
So then when, after dinner, Lili and I reflect on what needs to be done before bed time, we often will say, “Sorry, kids, screen time isn’t going to work for the night,” and the little ones are crushed. And it’s not because we were dishonest. We really did mean that it was possible; we just needed to reflect on it. They’re crushed because their powerful expectations forced them to hear “possibly” as “absolutely you’ll be able to have screen time.”
We see that same kind of situation take place in Matthew 16:21-28. As we saw in the previous section, Peter has just had a good moment. Jesus had asked who people were saying that he was. The disciples had noted that some said John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Then, after Jesus asked them who they said he was, Peter had stepped forward, declaring, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And not only was Peter right, but Jesus really encouraged him, noting that the Father had revealed this truth and that Jesus was going to build his church on Peter (and the other apostles), gathering people world-wide who would confess, like Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
There are a number of times Peter seems to act or speak up, and he gets it wrong. So, this was a good moment for Peter. He’d dared to declare that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and Jesus had made clear that Peter was right. But here’s the problem, when Jesus affirmed to Peter that he was indeed God’s promised Messiah, the king who had come to establish the Lord’s eternal kingdom, Peter didn’t exactly hear what Jesus was saying.
You see, Peter (and the other apostles) had a certain expectation of the Messiah. He was coming to, in the words of Mary, bring “down the mighty from their thrones” (Luke 1:52) and establish God’s kingdom. Now, of course, that will happen upon Christ’s return, but not in his first coming. So, when Jesus says that Peter is right and he is God’s promised Messiah, Peter heard, “I’m about to bring down Caesar, overthrow Rome, and establish my own throne with the twelve of you at my side.” And the problem, of course, was not with Jesus’ affirmation of Peter’s confession; it was with the expectation Peter had of the Messiah that caused him to hear something other than what Jesus was saying.
This is why Jesus’ next conversation with them throws Peter and the other apostles for a loop as he begins to tell them of his coming suffering, death, and resurrection. We see the confusion as Peter begins to correct Jesus, but, as we’ll see, the conversation had more to do with Jesus’ followers than the suffering Jesus himself would face. In fact, I think the main thing Matthew 16:21-28 shows us is that Jesus’ redemptive mission has costly implications for those who follow him, but following him is worth every cost. That is what I want to show us from the text this morning. But, first, let’s just walk through the text a bit.
Matthew begins this section with what we have already noted, writing, “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” (v. 21). And the fact that he mentions the three groups of the elders, chief priests, and scribes is quite intentional. These three groups made up a court who would declare Jesus guilty of blasphemy and hand him over to Rome with the charge of treason. So, Jesus wasn’t simply suggesting some kind of violent mob attack but a judicial rejection where he would be found guilty and sentenced to death.
And, as I’ve already noted, this didn’t sit well with Peter’s understanding and role of the Messiah. The Messiah doesn’t suffer and die but lives and conquers. So, according to verse 22, he took Jesus aside and “began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’”
Now, let me pause here and try to answer a few questions. The first of these is: “Why exactly is Peter rebuking Jesus?” Well, as we’ve seen, death doesn’t fit well with Peter’s expectation of the Messiah. But I also think there’s a selfish reason here. I think that the very second Peter hears of Jesus announcing his suffering and death, Peter thinks, “We’re going to die.” You see, whenever someone proclaims himself as a rival king and then is killed by the reigning king or government, they typically don’t say to that dead leader’s followers, “Now you go about your way and be happy. We know you weren’t responsible for that man’s rebellion against the king.” No, they kill his followers. That’s how you send a message that not only should no one make himself a rival to the king but not one should even think for a second about following the man who does. So, when Jesus announces his own death, I’m pretty sure that Peter thought, “Our happy little mission here of following Jesus is going to end in the death of all of us.” This is why his self-preserving instinct kicks in and he rebukes Jesus. Sure, he graciously rebukes him by first taking him aside, lessening the humiliation he thought Jesus might feel, but he rebukes him nonetheless. And the reason Peter feels so bold as to do this? Well, it’s because when you’re seeking to save your own life, you find boldness you didn’t think you had. Desperation to live can turn cowards into brave men real fast.
That’s the main motivation that I think led Peter to rebuke Jesus. And the reason I think that to be true is not only that it makes sense but because this is where Jesus takes the conversation with Peter and the others—to the cost his followers will know, to their self-preservation, and the like. But this leads to another question, namely: “Why didn’t the disciples stop and say, ‘Sweet, I think he just said that he would rise from the dead on the third day after being killed’?” After all, Jesus does explicitly say he would “be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Mark’s gospel is helpful for us here. Mark tells us in 9:10 that after Jesus mentioned to them that he would rise from the dead, the disciples “kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.” You see, people rising from the dead wasn’t more common in the first century than it is today. So, when they heard Jesus say he would rise from the dead, they didn’t just say, “Right. Of course.” Rather, they thought, “He obviously doesn’t mean that in any literal way. What does he mean by that?” And they didn’t bring it up. After all, when they thought they’d figured out what he meant by the “leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” they’d been quite wrong. Better this time to just keep your mouth shut than expose your ignorance.
So, they heard his prediction death, thought his predicted resurrection was some kind of metaphor, and feared for the loss of their own lives. But why then does Jesus call Peter “Satan.” I mean, it would make sense for him to rebuke them for thinking only of themselves, but why resort to name-calling? We’re told that Jesus turned to Peter and said, “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” (v. 23).
Well, the answer here is that Jesus wasn’t engaging in name-calling. Rather, he was recognizing the source of Peter’s declaration. Earlier, in Matthew 4, we saw that Satan had tempted Jesus to get the whole world, the kingdom of the earth, by avoiding suffering and death and simply bowing down and worshiping Satan himself. Satan’s temptation, in short, was: get the crown without going the way of the cross.
But that was not the Father’s will. The reason Jesus said in verse 21 that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, and be killed is because this was the Father’s will, and Jesus was obeying his Father. This is why Philippians 2 describes Jesus’ death in terms of obedience, saying, “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Yes, it’s the Father’s will to bless his Son, to highly exalt him, and to have all people bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But it is also the Father’s will give his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, something that the Son lovingly wills as well.
Satan’s temptation to bypass the cross is a temptation to rebel against the Father’s will. That’s why Jesus rebukes Satan in Matthew 4, and it’s why (when this same temptation comes from Peter’s lips) Jesus recognizes the source of Peter’s rebuke to be from Satan himself. Peter had just received revelation from the Father in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, but now he had aligned himself with the devil’s schemes and thoughts. That’s why Jesus notes that Peter was not setting his mind on the things of God. He was thinking as man thinks, as they are led along by the enemy.
So, if you understand these things, then Jesus’ foray into the cost of following him doesn’t seem out of place. It’s actually addressing the very issues that had come to the fore with Peter’s rebuking response to Jesus: temptation to prize self-preservation above all else, selfishness, death, and the great cost of following a Messiah whose mission involved suffering and dying. And what we see first in Jesus’ response to all of the disciples, which begins in verse 24, is:
We might put it this way: Peter’s assumption was right; when the leader you follow suffers and is killed, you might should bank on something similar for yourself. Here’s what Jesus says to his disciples: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (v. 24). That is to say, Jesus speaks to Peter, the other disciples, and every potential follower through the ages. You must put loyalty to Jesus ahead of self-preservation if you’re going to be a follower of Christ.1 Jesus pulls no punches on this point.
You’ve got to deny yourself and be willing even to die for the sake of obedience to Christ. That we must be willing even to die is obvious in the fact that Jesus tells us to take up the cross. It was well known that the cross was an instrument of death in Rome at that time, and that a man condemned to die by crucifixion was often forced to carry at least part of his own cross in that time.2 So, this would not have been lost on the disciples. To follow Christ means that you must be willing to be obedient to him whatever the cost, even if it costs you your life. Jesus could not make that more clear than he does here.
And this is helpful for us in a few ways. Obviously it means that if the day comes that you must face martyrdom, you need not think what went wrong but know that this is part of the road of following Christ. But, in reality, that might happen to very few of us. But it is helpful in other ways as well. For one, it’s a reminder that we need to remove from our thinking that if we’re obeying Christ all will go smoothly. When things go poorly for us and our reaction is to say, “But, Lord, I’m obeying you,” it reveals that we’ve misunderstood Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 16:24. Jesus made clear that following him doesn’t guarantee a smooth past. In fact, things may well go more smoothly for you if you don’t follow Christ. Following him means self-denial and a willingness to die.
This clear teaching from Jesus is also helpful for us when we come to places in life where we believe that obeying Jesus means making difficult, life-altering choices. For example, caring for your mother when she has Alzheimer’s is a painful, life-altering reality. But Jesus teaches us to honor our parents. It may be that picking up your life and moving to another area to plant a church is what Christ is calling you to, and if so, it will be hard. Let’s acknowledge that. But following Christ comes with cost.
In other words, this teaching helps us avoid self-pity when we find ourselves facing great struggles as we simply try to obey Christ. In my home Lili and I regularly remind ourselves when we face hardship because of simply trying to obey Christ that this is what we signed up for. We’ll often say, “What do we think this life is about? It’s not about us and finding peace in this life only. We’re living for eternity.” And I find that to be one of the most helpful reminders I have.
But in the midst of mentioning the cost, let me also show us one other thing that Jesus makes clear:
In his kind and gracious and loving way, Jesus follows this dire warning of the cost of following him by showing that it is utterly worth every cost. In fact, the cost of not following him are too great. Let’s look at it from both angles. First, if we choose the route of seeking self-preservation and refuse the risk of following Christ, we will actually guarantee our eternal loss.
Jesus says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it. . . . For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 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” (vv. 25-27).
You see, Jesus invites us to follow him, and it is an invitation. It is an invitation that is so glorious it sometimes sounds too good to be true. The invitation is to give up on trying to do enough good and realize that we can’t do enough good to be justified before God. Rather, we are invited to repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead on the third day. And if we do, his perfect righteousness is credited to him, his payment for our sins counts for us, and we are forgiven and will be raised to eternal life at his return. That’s a glorious invitation.
But Jesus’ invitation is also a command. It’s a command because mankind does not stand in a place of neutrality before God. We have all sinned and rebelled against our Maker, and we, consequently, stand condemned before God. So, we hear the invitation from a place of already standing condemned. It is an invitation because we can flee from that condemnation by fleeing to Christ. But it is a command because if we refuse it, we will face God’s eternal wrath as our condemnation, and that is more terrible than we can imagine. Revelation 14:11 describes the eternal wrath of God as being tormented without rest day or night.
This is why Jesus issues his bid to come follow him as a command. Follow him or the cost will be eternal divine judgment. You may preserve your life now, but you’ll lost it in the end. You may gain the whole world now, but you’ll lost everything and your life in the end. And you’ll know that loss because the Son is coming with his angels to judge all those who have not fled from sin to Christ. The cost is too great not to follow Christ. Sure, you may miss some difficulty in this life, but you will know eternal wrath on the day of judgment.
On the other hand, Jesus says that “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (v. 25). Yes, obedience to Christ may cost you everything, even your own life, but on the day of judgment, you will have no regrets. Throughout eternity, you’ll never regret having happily taken up your cross in obedience to Christ. Every ounce of suffering will be well worth it and more.
Jesus even gives Peter, James, and John a glimpse of that glory six days later in the transfiguration (referred to in v. 28, I believe), letting them see clearly that all of his promises are true. Therefore, let us this morning simply renew our faith in and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ this morning. It may cost us everything, but we will soon know that the suffering of this world is simply not even worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us. Therefore, let us fix our eyes on the promises of Christ, obey him whatever the cost, and hold fast to Christ, even in our darkest suffering, knowing that the one who calls us to lay down our life for his sake has first laid down his life for ours. Amen.