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The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 17)
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The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Matthew 16:21-28
A Sermon by
Fr. Daniels
on
Matthew 16:21-28
✛
The Rock of Grace
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It’s probably not news to you that Christians can be a contentious lot. The divine command that we all be one, as Christ and the Father are one, has not prevented a fair bit of internal squabbling.
But I imagine that there’s one thing in which most all Christians, worldwide, are of one mind. I’d bet that we can all agree that if Jesus looked at us, directly in the face, and called us “Satan”, that would be a distressing experience. And that’s just what happens in today’s Gospel. Jesus “turned, and said unto Peter, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me….’” Why is Peter an offense? Because, Jesus says, he is setting his mind on human things, not divine things. Both Matthew and Mark in their gospels tell us that Jesus looked at Saint Peter and called him Satan.
It seems a little harsh, and all the more so given the context of the accusation. Our Gospel reading today begins at the 21st verse of Chapter 16, but Peter looms large in the verses of Chapter 16 that immediately precede today’s reading as well. This is what comes directly before: Jesus asks the disciples, “Who are people saying that the Son of Man is?” A few of the disciples throw out answers. And then Peter chimes in: “You are the Christ; you are the Son of the living God.” And Peter is right! Jesus replies, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah!” It is a transformative moment for Peter, because in response Jesus gives him a new name (Peter), and a new responsibility: “You are Peter,” Jesus says and, “on this rock I will build my church… I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” and so on.
So there are two things that I bet we can all agree on: the second being that, having Jesus look at us, and say “Blessed are you, so-and-so! You are the rock on which I will build my church”—that would be a great experience. And yet the immediate next thing that happens is Jesus saying “Get behind me, Satan!”
If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to be this devil’s advocate for a minute, though, because the man called Satan has a point here. Peter’s rebuke of Jesus, and then Jesus’ outburst to Peter, were precipitated by the fact that something had changed in the way Jesus was talking about his ministry.
Matthew says at the beginning of today’s reading that “From that time forth” Jesus started predicting his going to Jerusalem; his passion and death, and then resurrection. It sounds like this prediction of crucifixion was a new teaching to the disciples—it was certainly not a part of the original call to discipleship, or even the earliest teachings of Jesus. So Jesus was now saying what this mission was going to be, and what his life was going to come to. Now he was doing that, but not before.
It was a description of a life and mission that Peter didn’t particularly like; it wasn’t what Peter had signed up for, some months ago, when Jesus bid him simply “Come and follow me.” It felt like bait-and-switch. Think of it: at this point, Jesus is the most popular man in Judea. The crowds that are following him have gotten larger and larger, until it seems like the whole world has turned out to see him, and hear him, and be healed by him. A vast following, which meant that he was on the cusp of triumph: moments away from the final liberation of Israel. To now jettison that whole plan, and instead go willingly to the humiliation of crucifixion, would be to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So Peter says: “Be it far from thee, Lord: it cannot be that.”
Imagine Peter’s feeling: the cusp of victory had felt pretty good. The new world was just around the corner, and it would be a new world in which Jesus was triumphant, and the disciples—well, they figured they’d do okay, too. That is what Peter had signed up for; that is what he had thought they were all about: victory. And he tries to remind Jesus of this—he tries to remind him of what he thought they had all signed up for, and he gets: “Get behind me, Satan.”
Recall that this isn’t the first time there has been a “Satan” in Matthew’s gospel. Just before Jesus’ public ministry begins, he is led out into the desert, to be tempted by Satan. And the final temptation that Matthew reports is that Satan shows Jesus, all at once, all the kingdoms of the world (4:8). Not just Judea. Not just Judea and Babylon and Egypt. He sees all the kingdoms of the world, in all of their splendor. And Satan whispers in his ear: “This can be yours. It’s so easy: just reach out and take it.” And Jesus answers: “Away with you, Satan.”
Twelve chapter later, Peter is repeating Satan’s temptation: they’re both offering Jesus kingdoms of the world; they’re both nudging him toward victory. As a result they are both standing in between Jesus and the fulfillment of God’s will. So Jesus calls Peter a “stumbling block”: Peter, like the first Satan, is an obstacle on the road to Calvary; and Calvary is the goal of Jesus’ whole life.
So Peter is completely and uniquely right in the prior verse of this chapter; and he is completely and uniquely wrong in verse 22. He is “blessed”; then he is another “Satan.” And let’s take those terms seriously. Let’s take Jesus at his word and say that Peter is truly blessed for his declaration of faith, first; and that he is truly one of the evil forces of the world when he then tries to save Jesus’ life.
This worries me. It worries me that the same person can have the best of intentions, and yet be both completely right in one way, and completely wrong in another, and about incredibly important things! Note that Jesus didn’t respond to Peter in today’s gospel by saying: “That’s okay, old friend; nobody is right all the time!” Or, “Well, reasonable people can disagree!” No: the blessed Peter, the rock on which the Church would be built, was Satan. At least for that moment he was, literally, the enemy of Christ.
So it worries me. It worries me that Peter’s conflict with Jesus seems to show that it’s not always easy to tell if we’re on the right side of things. It worries me that we can be confident that we are doing God’s work, but in actuality we are enemies of God. It worries me that the good intentions, of good people, can be satanic. It’s as if Jesus is calling us into a permanent state of uncertainty, in which, for now, we see through a glass darkly; for now, we can’t even be entirely sure which side we’re on. This worries me.
Yet, it could be that, in actuality, this is not a cause for despair, but a blessing. It could be that this terrible incident with Peter is a revelation of the shocking possibilities of God’s grace; our absolute dependence on his grace; and the reliability of nothing else but grace. It is a little jarring: in this Gospel we see that human beings are not only sinful, but we are ignorant, too: Jesus is Lord, and we are not.
However, that very conundrum is actually the basis of our hope. The fact that Jesus is Lord is the only reason we can have any hope at all. Because he is who he is, then the sinful and ignorant—the sinful and ignorant, of all people!—can nonetheless become adopted children of God. That adoption is not earned; and it is clearly not deserved. It is as surprising a resolution as anyone (including Peter) could have imagined.
It is that revelation of God’s grace in Peter that we see at work in this very gospel: Peter was Satan, and yet even he could be saved and transformed by Jesus, and made use of in God’s plan of salvation. This gospel shows us that even being Satan doesn’t take you too far from the reach of God’s saving embrace.
So there is the hope in the midst of our uncertainty: the knowledge that God’s transforming and saving grace can reach out all the way to us, even if we can’t be entirely sure that we’re not doing the work of Satan. That is where we can find our courage: in the fact that it was ignorant sinners, like you and me, for whom Christ died; ignorant sinners, like you and me, whose lives he changes; and in the fullness of time it will be ignorant sinners, like you and me, that he will welcome home with open arms.
