Jesus told them that he must suffer, die and rise again. Peter, who had just declared that Jesus was the messiah, was so overwhelmed by this that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. But as he did so and Jesus saw the other disciples watching, Jesus in turn rebuked Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Jesus went on to describe the way of discipleship. He instructed both the disciples and the crowd that they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Jesus.
How are often do we also find that God's plan does not match our preconceived ideas about how things should go? How often do we find ourselves rebuking God for all that is going wrong? How often are God's plans for us beyond our imagination? How often do we also find that God is turning our world upside down and inside out?
Below is what the Leader Magazine (from which our worship service is drawing from) has given me for the sermon seeds related to the Lenten theme...
The problem: In an age of
instant gratification, it’s tempting to assume that discipleship is substantially
about the perks we get from following Jesus. We expect to live in the peace of
Christ, to be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and to be protected by
the creator God. So we are shocked when hardships arise because of our faith. We
are unsettled when we hear God asking us to give up comfort and embark on a
journey for which we see neither hope nor future. Peter must have felt this way
when Jesus predicted that he would undergo great suffering, be rejected by the
religious community, and face death. These are not the signs of victory or a
successful movement. Though Jesus rebukes Peter for setting his mind on human
rather than divine things, how can we blame this most human disciple for
allowing his survival instinct to kick in?
The grace: Even though
Peter is upset enough to rebuke his teacher—and Jesus responds in kind—Jesus
does not seem angry about the path that lies before him. What Peter missed, and
what we often miss as well, is that Jesus has also said that he would rise in
three days. The suffering Jesus talks about is not the end of the story; there
is life even after death and hope in the darkness. Jesus is not calling
people to follow him into self-sacrifice out of wooden obedience, but to a way
of living and dying that changes the world. This change cannot come about
without difficulty. So it is in the promise that God walks with us that we are
able to hold on to the vision of new life, not only for ourselves but for the
world.
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