Pentecost 11

Pentecost 11 “Take up your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:21-28)

Divine revelation does not restrict human choice.

We heard in last week’s gospel reading how Peter had declared Jesus to be the Messiah. Peter not only stated that Jesus was the Messiah, he also asserted that Jesus was the Son of God.

It is easy to miss the impact of that statement. In our time and culture we assume that if God exists then all people are God’s children. The Bible and the people who lived in the ancient world believed God created all people but all people were not his children.

The Bible speaks in terms of “sonship”. Sonship had a very precise legal meaning in the ancient world. When a Roman child was born the attending midwife laid the infant at the father’s feet. If the father picked up the child he acknowledged it as his and it became a real person and a member of the family and society. If the father refused to pick up the child and walked away, the baby was a non person. A slave would take the child outside the city walls and abandon it.

In Abraham God adopted a single family as his children. In Jesus, God offers adoption to all people everywhere. In Jesus God unites the co-eternal Beloved Son with human nature. In Jesus, God incorporates humanity into His own Triune Life.
The adoption is available to all. The adoption is not imposed on any.

Peter exemplifies this as he makes a choice to reject the inward and spiritual meaning of the new reality our Heavenly Father revealed to him. Peter was just not ready to enter into the fullness of God’s unmerited favor and unconditional love.
Peter had the words but he not only missed the meaning he refused to accept the meaning.

Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. He assumed the sonship was the adoption through Abraham. He refused to accept the reality that God was truly Jesus’ father. Peter also assumed that the Messiah would do the things and be the person everyone expected.

The expectation for the Messiah was very precise. The Messiah would be a military leader who would destroy Rome, enslave the nations, execute corrupt priests and impose one religion on everyone. It was an imperial vision of religion and politics united in a new king.

When Jesus told Peter the Plan of Salvation involved suffering, death and resurrection, Peter would not accept God’s Plan. Peter had his own plan and Jesus identifies the source of Peter’s plan as Satan. It is Satan’s Plan because it does not derive from the teachings of Moses and the Prophets. It is Satan’s plan because it is a distortion of the grace, peace and mercy God had revealed to Moses and the Prophets.

Satan had tempted Jesus in the wilderness three years before this moment. Satan had attempted to convince Jesus to pursue the path of power and abandon the path of sacrificial love.

The outward and visible sign of sacrificial love is the cross. Death on a cross was shameful and excruciating. The man who died on the cross died as a rebel against human government and divine order. Whoever died on a cross died under a divine curse.
The way of salvation is the way of the cross. Only by dying on the cross could Jesus trap sin and death in order to transform them into love and life. Jesus was no mere mortal. He was fully human and fully divine. As he suffered and died he literally assumed the sin and death of the entire human race. Since he was fully human he suffered unimaginable torment. Since he was fully divine he transformed sin and death by the power of his own infinite and eternal love.

The Plan of Salvation is reunification and transformation.

Peter missed that reality. He was looking for a quick fix that would impose divine will on human will through human politics and institutions. Peter was working with the wrong assumptions about God and humanity.

It just wasn’t Peter. And, it just isn’t Peter. God revealed to Moses and the Prophets that the problem that defines human nature in separation. We as a species chose to separate from God. In that separation we are lost. We are not only lost we do not want to be found.

We don’t like the world we have created but we want a solution to the problem that allows us to be in charge and impose our will on others. This is where Peter was stuck. This is why Peter missed the point and refused to accept our Heavenly Father’s Plan of salvation.

And, this is why Jesus teaches that whoever follows him must follow the Father’s Plan of Salvation. God only has one Plan of Salvation. It is Jesus Christ.

Satan offers an amazing array of alternate plans in religion, philosophy, science and politics. They all rely on the human will to power. They all encourage us to say: my will be done. They work within the context of fear, self will and pride.
The way of the cross is the way of Jesus who prayed: heavenly Father not my will but Thy will be done. This is not just religion. It is a new life that produces a new way of living.

The way of the cross is the way of salvation. It is the way of God’s unmerited favor towards us and God’s unconditional love for us. It is the only way of Salvation because it is the way our Heavenly Father designed and accomplished in His only Son, Jesus Christ.

Peter offered a different Plan of Salvation. It seemed very reasonable and in keeping with the cultural expectations of the day. It was not our Heavenly Father’s Plan. Jesus not only rejects Peter’s Plan he tells Peter in no uncertain terms that his plan is really Satan’s Plan. It is a Plan of Damnation grounded in separation and formed to suit the human will to power.

The Way of the Cross begins at the cross and then continues forever both in this world and in the life of the world to come. It is the way of reunification and transformation. It is the way of sacrificial love that seeks wisdom and practices compassion.

Above all else, the Way of Salvation is the way of self examination and purification in the unmerited favor of God and the unconditional love of God. As St. Paul wrote, now we understand in part. In this life we will always understand in part. We will always grow and transform as we practice the Presence of God in worship and service to others.

The way of the cross is not the way of submission to Law or even religion. It is the way of surrender to Divine Love. Jesus is the way of salvation because Jesus is the Divine Bridegroom who invites us to participate in the joys of the wedding feast.
The way of salvation is Jesus because Jesus is the gift of reunification with God the Father, transformation in God the Holy Spirit and celebration in the eternal love of God the Son.