+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
As we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus declared his disciple Peter blessed, after Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:13-20), but then, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, which immediately follows in St. Matthew’s Divinely-inspired Gospel account, Jesus addressed Peter as “Satan”, after Peter began to rebuke Jesus for beginning to show His disciples the Divine need for Jesus as the Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection, in order to save all people from their sins. Peter’s almost immediate change from confessing Jesus to essentially denying Jesus is striking—striking both in its recording in St. Matthew’s Gospel account (confer Mark 8:27-38), and even in our hearing that account one week apart on two separate Sundays. By this point in St. Matthew’s account, the devil has tempted Jesus based on Jesus’s being the Son of God, which temptation culminated in Jesus’s saying to the devil, “Be gone, Satan” (Matthew 4:1-11). Also by this point in St. Matthew’s account, Jesus has told His followers that everyone who confesses Him before people Jesus will confess before His Father Who is in heaven, but whoever denies Jesus before people, Jesus also will deny before His Father Who is in heaven (Matthew 10:32-33). Later in St. Matthew’s account, when questioned by the Jewish leaders, Jesus confessed Himself to be the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 26:57‑68), while Peter outside in a courtyard three times essentially denied even knowing Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75). And, still later in St. Matthew’s account, when Jesus was crucified, those who passed by, the Jewish leaders, and those who were crucified with Jesus all mocked and tempted Him over His claim to be the Son of God (Matthew 27:32-44). This morning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we consider primarily today’s Gospel Reading, in those immediate and broader contexts, directing our thoughts to the theme “Denying ourselves and confessing Christ”.
At first listen, Peter might sound like he is just concerned about the Lord’s well-being, that, out of His love for His Lord and Master, Peter simply does not want anything bad to happen to Jesus. An alternate English translation of the Greek version of what Peter says, which translation the English Standard Version puts in the margin of its text, would have Peter say, “May God be merciful to You, Lord!” And, certainly later in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Himself prayed that, if it be possible according to the Father’s will, Jesus be spared what was ahead of Him (Matthew 26:36‑46). But, our Lord’s rebuke of Peter in today’s Gospel Reading indicates that something more than Peter’s love is in play. At a minimum, the effect of Peter’s “sentimental intervention coincided precisely with the devil’s intent to deflect the Savior from His path to the cross” (Marquart, CLD IX:63-64). Furthermore, Jesus says that Peter was not setting his mind on the things of God, but on the things of men (confer Fickenscher, Looking Forward, 212).
Too often we also immediately go from confessing Jesus to essentially denying Jesus. Too often we also do not set our minds on the things of God but on the things of men. We hear our Lord’s statement that that everyone who confesses Him before people He will confess before His Father Who is in heaven, but whoever denies Him before people, He also will deny before His Father Who is in heaven, and we might come up with all sorts of reasons why we should not confess Him as He intends us to. Instead of setting our minds on the things of God, we set our minds on the things of men, prioritizing what we think are our rational reasons for not confessing Jesus fully in word and in deed. We may use our “love for others” or “sensitivity” in order to mask our unwillingness to suffer such things as the loss of what we might think is “Synodical security”. We may be unwilling to bear personal costs struggling through the battles that faithfulness to Jesus requires, and so we may step back from our service to our Lord and His Church. Such conduct is hardly “Denying ourselves and confessing Christ”, taking up our crosses and following Him! We may save our life in this world but lose our life in the next world! So, from such sins and from all our other sins, as from our sinful nature itself, God calls us to repent!
What Jesus said to the devil at the end of his temptation in the wilderness—“Be gone, Satan!”—is similar but not identical to what Jesus said to Peter in today’s Gospel Reading—“Get behind me, Satan”—using the same phrase that Jesus speaks next about one’s coming “after Me”. One commentator likened Jesus’s statement to Peter to a drill sergeant’s shouting at a raw recruit to get back in line (Flohr, CPR 36:3, p.50; confer p.53). Out of God’s great love and mercy, God the Holy Spirit calls and enables us both to turn in sorrow from our sin—our sin of failing to deny ourselves and confess Christ, or whatever our sin might be—and to trust God the Father to forgive us for the sake of God the Son, Jesus, the Christ. When we realize the full power of sin and death over us, then we better‑realize our need for Jesus to shed His blood in order to atone for our sin by His death. As Jesus prophesied, He truly went to Jerusalem, suffered many things from the Jewish leaders, was killed, and on the third day was raised—all for us and for our salvation. Interestingly, in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, Jesus mentions His followers’ taking up their crosses before He mentions His own cross (confer Matthew 10:38; 20:19; 27:32). But, make no mistake, Jesus defeated the devil once and for all by triumphing over him in Jesus’s cross (Colossians 2:15). When we apply the benefits of Jesus’s death to ourselves, then God forgives us.
For some people, how God forgives us is more of an issue than either Who Jesus is as the Christ, the Son of the living God, or what Jesus does by suffering, dying, and rising to save all people from their sins. God forgives us through His Word of law and Gospel read and preached to groups such as this group, and God forgives us through God’s Gospel applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are the Body and Blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins and so also give eternal life and salvation. In all of these ways we are “Denying ourselves and confessing Christ”, making clear both who we are as sinners and Who Jesus is as our only Savior from sin. In all of these ways, God forgives our sin, creating and strengthening our faith.
One commentator suggested that each of today’s Readings describes the life of a faithful disciple living in the midst of an unfaithful generation: in the Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 15:15-20), Jeremiah, whose faithful ministry came at great personal cost; in the Psalm (Psalm 26:1-12; antiphon: v.8), David, who pleaded for the Lord not to sweep away his soul with sinners nor his life with bloodthirsty men; in the Epistle Reading (Romans 12:9-21), Paul, who anticipates the Christian’s struggle in an unchristian world (confer Flohr, CPR 36:3, p.50); and in the Gospel Reading, arguably Peter as one who should be willing to lose his life for Jesus’s sake in order to find it. As the faith that God creates and sustains in us leads us to at least try to make a total commitment, we still struggle with “Denying ourselves and confessing Christ”. We still struggle with being content in our circumstances, with being patient in our tribulation. So, as we did in the Collect of the Day, we ask God to grant us courage to take up our cross daily and follow Him wherever our Lord leads. And, when we fail to do so, as we will fail, then, with daily contrition and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins.
Yes, Peter’s almost immediate change from confessing Jesus in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading to essentially denying Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading is striking, and we have beneficially considered our own “Denying ourselves and confessing Christ”. As in last Sunday’s Gospel Reading Jesus assured Peter that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, so in today’s Old Testament Reading the Lord assured Jeremiah and assures us who may be discouraged that, as we are faithful, He makes us a fortified wall of bronze, whom enemies will fight against but will not prevail over, for the Lord is with us to save us and deliver us.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
