Roger's Postings

Saturday, August 27, 2011


Matthew 16:21-28.    Winning and losing, or losing and winning!!    28/8/11

 (21)  From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. {22} Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" {23} Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." {24} Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. {25} For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. {26} What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? {27} For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. {28} I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

 Our reading here today has a lot to say about winning and losing; saving life or losing life. How appropriate this message then is for us today. For today we live in a society where everyone wants to be a winner: everyone wants to have life in all of its fullness: everyone wants to ‘get on’ in our world and not be a loser.

 But it is right here that Jesus steps in and puts a real and important dampener on this thinking that we have in this regard. He says quite clearly that we need to pull ourselves up short, right here, so that we do not lead ourselves up the garden path. He wants us to get it clearly in our heads that our efforts to win and gain life by the standards of the world around us could very well lead us to lose out completely.

 This can be seen quite clearly by Peter’s understanding and response to Jesus’ talk of his own suffering and death. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"  Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

 The attitude of Peter is no different than what we hear and see all around us today, even in the church and our own lives. We all would like to think and believe that the Christian life is all good and rosy: it is all positive, health, wealth and happiness stuff. We want to see and hear power and glory, miracles and wonders; that which will make us happy and feel good.

 On top of that we hear again and again that we must not focus on sin and the negative stuff of life. We don’t want to have a focus on the confession of sins or Jesus’ suffering and death. We don’t want to see good in sickness and suffering, drought and hardship. We don’t want a theology of the cross.

 This is particularly the case when it comes down to our own lives. We want the easy road through life; the glory road. We want what we want and we want it now. We want life on our terms of what we think is good and right. Anything that is negative, hurtful and hard is bad and should not be a part of our lives. Suffering and death should not be there for us.

 Yes, in life we are out to win: to be a success; and in many cases we will do almost anything to get there. Some will do it for the praises of others; others will do so simply so that they can have the easy life; others in the hope of gaining some sort of recognition from others and even God himself. But we are all out to win and to gain some sort of life for ourselves. We, I, me and myself will do whatever we can to have that which we want and believe is good for us, even if it means going against God and his Word.

To which Jesus replies, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Yes, any thought or action which takes Jesus down off of the cross and that wants to take the focus off of Jesus’ suffering and death for the inadequacies, disobedience and rebellion of ourselves; these thoughts and actions are all from Satan. Any thought of ours which wants to look merely at the good things and power and glory for self, is a problem.

Here don’t be fooled into thinking we have to do anything in order to bring about our own salvation; even our cooperating or somehow finalizing and bringing to completion our acceptance by God is false. Neither should we be fooled into thinking that now that we are a Christian, we can somehow take our focus off of Jesus and the cross and that we won’t lose our way. 

 The whole thing about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is that it was completely and fully necessary for our salvation and Christian life. His death had to be. There was and is no other way for us to gain eternal life. His death alone won for us freedom from sin and eternal life with our great God. His death on the cross, alone, has done everything necessary for each and every one of us to be forgiven and accepted as God’s children. It is all there for us, guaranteed.

So don’t be deceived by much that is peddled in the name of Christianity which says otherwise and which seeks to shift our focus away from Christ and his death on the cross. At the same time do not walk away from and turn your back on this Good News, thinking that if this is the case that Jesus has done everything, that we can now get on with our lives doing as we please. These are deceptions of Satan: the lies that he wants you to believe. No, Jesus says to us; "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

 Here again we need to listen to Jesus. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

 So if we don’t want to lose; and nobody wants to be a loser; If we want to keep that life that Jesus has already won for us; then let us give heed to this advice from Jesus. If we want to be a true Christian: if we want to have eternal life with God here and in eternity; then we must forget ourselves: we must deny this constant obsession we have with ourselves and what we want. That of course is not easy, because our natural sinful tendency is to look always to number one and put ourselves and what we think, do and feel on a pedestal.

 But no, we must now deny ourself and take up our cross and follow Jesus. Our thoughts and focus is to now be on Jesus. We must discipline ourselves in such a way that we see our own life as of little consequence; knowing all the while that our Lord has already taken care of it. By now denying our natural urges and tendencies which are not good because they only promote ourselves, and in turn focussing on him and the cross, we can then allow him do his work through us. By forgetting ourselves we can take up our cross: we can allow our lives to be used and abused for the benefit of our Lord and his kingdom. We also will be prepared to suffer in order to not only make sure that we do not lose the Christian life that we have been given, but also to help others around us see the greatness of what our Lord Jesus has done for us through his death on the cross.

 Now that also means that we will follow Jesus throughout our lives. Our life will be led and directed by Jesus and all that he said and did. As Jesus throughout his life always had his focus on the cross so also will we. We will do so because we now know that there Jesus has done that which was all important for us and for our salvation. Everything we do will follow that lead and that focus. Jesus Christ and his word will be central in all that we think, say and do.

 As we lose our life in this way we are assured that the life that has been won for us can not be taken away from us. Yes, our life and the way we live it, will not conform to this world’s thinking. We will not be winning according to this world’s point of view. But we now know what Jesus has said if we seek to gain the whole world so to speak, we will forfeit our soul. We also now know that there is nothing that we can think, say or do that we will be able to give in exchange for our soul. Yes, by following Christ we will be considered losers by many, but we know that we have already won. We are assured of life; real life; a joyous; and an ongoing life with our Lord for all eternity.

 So then let us deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Jesus: Always remembering that he suffered and died so that we can be sure that we are truly winners; our life has been gained for us. So to him again, be glory and honour, now and always. AMEN.

 Pastor Roger Atze
Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish


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