Sunday, August 30, 2026
Fourteenth Sunday of Pentecost
Text: Matthew 16:21-28
But [Jesus] 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.”. – v. 23
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Lead In – With no disrespect intended to Frank Sinatra fans, his hit, “I Did It My Way” is the antithesis to what Jesus taught His disciples in our Gospel Reading. Consider the first verse of the song. “And now, the end is near / And so I face the final curtain / My friend, “I’ll say it clear / I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain / I’ve lived a life that’s full / I traveled each and every highway / And more, much more than this / I did it my way.” When the Apostle Peter tried to do it his way, as we read in our lesson, he was severely reprimanded by Jesus.
- When We Try to Come to God’s Defense
I will remind you that the Apostle Peter had just made the good confession that Jesus was in fact the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus had just announced the founding and building of His Church. It must have seemed to the disciples that finally things were unfolding. The kingdom was arriving. It was high time for God’s enemies to be vanquished and for the grandeur of the Messianic rule to begin. Let prosperity pour in and the good times roll. And for the first disciples there would certainly be prestigious roles and offices to fill!
Well not so fast! In Matthew 16:20, the last verse of last Sunday’s reading, we read that Jesus strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. And then we read in our present lesson, “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.” What on earth was this all about? The long-awaited Messiah, the Davidic King, indeed the Son of the Living God, and Jesus is speaking about suffering a death?
In one of the more brazen moves made by any disciple, let alone of the twelve, we read, “Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him saying, “Far be it from you Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Yes, you heard it right. The student attempts to correct his teacher. A mere mortal contradicts what the Immortal One showed must happen. And Peter thought he could come to Christ’s defense.
Now there is no question that Peter was well intended. That he felt as much affection towards Jesus as anyone. No one would want to see someone they cared for betrayed, tortured, suffer, and put to death.
Have you ever felt the need to come to God’s defense? Perhaps you have heard someone make fun of the Christian Faith? You may have heard someone belittle Jesus and the things He said? I know you have all heard God’s name spoken in vain. And you have likely heard God blamed for all the pain, suffering, and evil in the world?
It’s noble that you want to come to His defense. But do you really think God needs defending, that He is not capable of holding His own? Let’s not confuse things. It is we who are in desperate need of being defended. But at this point Peter didn’t know any better. And often we don’t either.
The disciples will later learn that Jesus is going to suffer and die because He was willingly laying down His life for us as a sacrifice to take away our sins and their penalty. He was going to the Cross to defeat sin, death, and the devil. And He was going to die and be buried so that on the third day He might triumph over death and the grave, and so that His followers might share in His victory. Jesus spells this out in John 10:17-18, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
- Man’s Thoughts and Ways Are not God’s Way
Who could ever have imagined that the long-awaited Jewish Messiah would also be Isaiah’s ‘Suffering Servant’? We read of the Suffering Servant’s role in Isaiah 53:5-6, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Frankly, in Isaiah’s day no one knew who this Suffering Servant was. It was popularly thought that it might be the Nation of Israel given all it was suffering. Or, others thought it might be the prophet Jeremiah, or perhaps Isaiah Himself. But it was not thought to be the Davidic King, the anticipated Messiah, the Warrior who would defeat Israel’s enemies.
Jesus’ reprimand of Peter is as sharp as it gets. I wince as I read it. After Peter had rebuked his Master, Jesus turned to him 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.”
Please pause and consider for a moment how easily we can unintendedly serve at cross purposes with the Lord and Savior we so dearly love. When we try to defend Him. When we think our best intentions are good enough. When we think God’s ways are understood by us and will always make sense to us.
Hear the words from Isaiah 55:8-9. The Lord God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The words from last week’s Epistle Reading are also instructive. I read from Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
- The Clear Terms of Discipleship
The unexpected direction Jesus takes from this moment on, namely to His crucifixion in Jerusalem, also has implications for the unexpected direction Christian discipleship will take. The first disciples were not only looking for the restoration of the Nation of Israel, but they were awaiting the ideal King whose glorious reign would be forever. They could not understand why Jesus was biding His time, but they had no doubt of His miraculous powers, His being one with the heavenly Father, and His ability to call on the legions of angels. But instead of all this, Jesus had spoken of His upcoming suffering and death.
So, buckle your seat belt. If Jesus’ coronation would not come before His humiliation, suffering, and death, neither would His followers share in the coming glory come before their own humiliation, suffering, and death. That is why Jesus says to His first disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
The mention of taking up one’s cross would certainly have gotten the disciples’ attention. They had no doubt seen and been familiar with this tortuous form of Roman executions. They knew that the condemned were forced to carry the crossbeam to the place of execution. They knew the cross meant a death in utter agony, nakedness, and humiliation.
Jesus was forthright with His followers. Jesus knew He was headed toward suffering and death. That risk would attend His disciples as well. In John 15:18 Jesus said to them, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” And two verses later, in verse 20, Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
Eleven of the twelve Apostles were believed to have been put to death because of their witness to Jesus. Tradition claims that John alone died of old age. But not every disciple of Christ will be martyred. Through the ages a small percent of Christians has been martyred. But be sure of this, the potential always exists, and persecution of some sort will come to every true believer and follower of Christ. The devil, the world, and our sinful nature hates Christ. So willingly taking up our cross applies to all of us. And whether we are physically put to death for the Faith, there is something that needs to be put to death in all of us. Our ego needs to be crucified.
What do I mean by that? For all of us sinners our own lives, our sense of self, has become our idol, our false god. We view the world as revolving around our ego, our exaggerated sense of self. We are preoccupied with our perceived needs, our projects and plans, and our likes and dislikes. Instead, we should devote ourselves to God’s plan which also involves loving and serving our neighbor.
For the disciple of Christ, we must allow our ego to be crucified with Christ. This the Apostle Paul teaches us by example when he declares in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Someone might ask, why under such terms would anyone follow Christ? Why? Plain and simple, it is the treasure of knowing Jesus now, and the promised hope later beyond any temporal suffering we might endure. We are promised nothing less than His kingdom and sharing in a resurrection like His!
And Now for a Final Word – There is a famous quote by American Missionary of blessed memory, Jim Elliot, a martyr for the Faith. Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” When we hear Jesus say, “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” we might have trouble trusting this. The first disciples had trouble trusting it. But Jesus’ death and resurrection was the power that changed it for them. That same power comes to us through the preaching of the Gospel. It changes us from being unbelieving to believing. It is forming us to be His disciples as we await the coming of His kingdom. God’s Word helps us to set our minds on the things of God where we find peace, joy, and a refuge in the Lord. Amen.Faith. The very way Christ builds His Church. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.