Suffer Many Things (Matthew 16.21-28)

Introduction

 

The particularly observant among you, who pay close attention to what the preachers say, and what they leave out, will have noticed that last week I read, but did not speak about, at any time, v20 of Matthew 16.

 

If you were here, you’ll remember (hopefully) that last Sunday, we were looking at the episode in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” And Simon Peter, you might recall, inspired, comes out with the perfect answer: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 

 

And Jesus replies, “You’re blessed, because no one taught you that; it was a revelation from heaven. And this is the foundation I will build my church on and the gates of hell will not stand against its relentless advance.” I’m paraphrasing.

 

But in v20, Matthew goes on to add a curious detail; “Then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.”

 

Today we’re going to explore together why that is. But before we do, let’s read today’s passage, which immediately follows on from that - Matthew 16.21-28.

 

From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

 

But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

 

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 

 

And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

 

There’s an old lady in Cardiff who used to keep a budgie in a cage. And this bird could sing the first few lines of the classic hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” 

 

People would tap its cage, and it would start to sing, “What a friend we have in Jesus” and every time it sang, people would put a £1 coin in a little box. Every few months, the little old lady would send what had been collected to a missionary working in Kenya. 

 

That budgerigar raised hundreds of pounds! It actually did more than many Christians do; it praised the Lord every day, it stimulated much charitable giving, and it regularly supported overseas mission!

 

But crucially, that little bird didn’t have faith. It didn’t actually follow Jesus. It just recited words… Today we’re going to see what following Jesus looks like.

 

The Suffering Servant

 

But first, we need to connect the beginning of our passage today with the end of the one we were looking at last week.

 

Why does Jesus respond by strictly warning his followers not to tell anyone who he is?

 

You would have thought that, now they know, Jesus would send them out two by two to tell all the towns and villages that the long wait is over! That the chosen one has arrived. That all Israel’s longings and hopes are right now being fulfilled. That God’s only Son is here. But, in fact, Jesus does the exact opposite. He says as firm and as decisive a “no” as it is possible to say.

 

Why? Because, while the long-suffering nation is expecting an all-conquering hero, who will make Israel great again, and inaugurate a golden age of economic prosperity and military dominance, that is not the kind of Messiah they are going to get.

 

And so Jesus now sets out very clearly what the immediate future is going to look like. And in the next 8 verses the disciples are going to reel from one shocking statement to the next.

 

Up to now, Jesus has spoken about his death in veiled and oblique ways. 

 

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3.14).

 

“But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them” (Mark 2.20).

 

But now, to the disciples’ alarm and consternation Jesus now tells them in v21 “plainly” it says, that is explicitly, not in parables, not in figures of speech, that it is necessary (note that word) necessary for him to go to Jerusalem. 

 

And there he will be met, not with acclaim and adulation, as expected, but with derision. He will “suffer many terrible things” at the hands of the religious authorities. And these many terrible things will result in, not triumph and coronation, as universally anticipated, but “death.” 

 

And, though Jesus quickly adds that he will then rise alive from the dead on the third day, it seems that the twelve are so rocked and traumatised by what they have just been told that no one really hears it. 

 

They’re all reeling from what Jesus has just said. They are simply not prepared for the shock. And, as we’ll see shortly, it’s about to get worse. 

 

This is the first of three such predictions in Matthew’s Gospel. Each time, it becomes more explicit. By chapter 20, when the third prediction is made, Jesus is going into detail about what’s going to happen. 

 

“I am going to be betrayed and delivered over to the chief priests and teachers of the law. Then, in collusion with the Romans, they’re going to sentence me to death, mock me, publicly humiliate me, spit in my face, pull my beard out in lumps, flog me with a whip, and then they’re going to kill me by crucifixion.” This is not a metaphor. I really am going to die. “And then, after three days, I will rise from the dead.”

 

From now on in Matthew’s Gospel, the miracles are no longer going to be prominent. The dominant focus is now abruptly turning from signs and wonders to suffering and the cross. 

 

But at this point, in this first prediction, Jesus’ summary of what’s to come is concise and relatively short on detail. Nevertheless, Peter understands only too well. 

 

Because Peter, always the spokesman, always shooting from the hip, motivated no doubt by his love for the Lord, immediately intervenes. “No! No!” He takes Jesus to one side. And he lectures him. “No, Lord, this will never happen to you!”

 

The word ‘Lord’ is found 700 times in the New Testament to refer to Jesus. It refers to his authority, his leadership, his sovereignty, his headship. This word “Lord” (kyrios in Greek) always means one of higher status and greater eminence. It means “Master. It means Jesus is in charge, he alone sets the agenda, and he alone calls the shots. 

 

And here’s Peter saying, “No, Lord.” It’s a category error. There’s only, “Yes, Lord.” 

 

Peter, by saying, “No, Lord,” is effectively putting himself in charge and making himself the arbiter what Jesus can and cannot do. 

 

Can you see now why Jesus warns them so sternly in v20, not to let on to anyone that he is the Messiah? They cannot be trusted to say a word to anyone because they do not have the first idea of what kind of Messiah they are looking at. 

 

They all know about the prophecy of Isaiah 9, that the Messiah will be a great and exalted ruler.

 

And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called, 

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness 

From that time on and forever.

(Isaiah 9.6-7)

Every Jew in those days knew all this by heart. Every Jewish mother giving birth to a baby boy, would ask herself, “will this be the one to save us from our enemies?” 

 

But nobody made the connection from the prophesy of Isaiah 53 that the Messiah would also be a suffering servant.

 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, 

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him, 

and by his wounds we are healed…

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

(Isaiah 53.5, 10-11)

 

So Jesus silences them because they simply don’t get it. 

 

And listen, every time you read in the Gospels, after a great miracle or revelation, you read about Jesus strictly warning people to not tell anyone, every time, lift your head and praise God! For this is an expression of his determination and resolve to suffer many things and die in our place to rescue us from an eternity of deserved spiritual anguish in hell. 

 

Jesus is not going to let his mission be hindered or deflected by mistaken expectations of what the Messiah came to do.  

 

And in Peter’s attempt to dissuade him from going to the cross, Jesus sees the demonic; the devil’s strategy to oppose the plan of God and divert him from his mission. 

 

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,” he said, “and to lay down his life as a ransom for many.”

 

The Determined Disciple

 

But Jesus has not finished. There’s more. Not only is he going to suffer and die. In v24-26 he goes on to describe and define what all this is going to mean for them.

 

And far from setting out for them an attractive vision of them reigning victoriously with him, he speaks of them having to carry theircross and deny themselves and give up their lives as well.

 

And, while they’re all still absorbing the shock of these, for them, appalling words, he comes out with something else equally startling. In v27-28 he directs their attention towards the eternal judgement that he will personally carry out. 

 

You’ve got to feel for these disciples; they’re like a boxer on the ropes being pounded with one huge blow after another. 

 

What on earth do they make of Jesus’ invitation in v24, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

 

Here, we have three requirements for discipleship. 

 

1) You must, says Jesus, deny yourself. This is not about six unhappy weeks of chocolate deprivation during Lent. It is not about asceticism or living like a monk. This is far more radical than that. It means I cease to put self at the centre of my life. Instead, there is a Copernican revolution where Jesus becomes central and focal and paramount in my world.

 

2) You must, says Jesus, take up your cross. This is not a reference to putting up with some annoying burden. People might talk of a lazy husband or a hen-pecking wife as the cross I have to bear. Crucifixion was anything but an inconvenient irritation. These days people wear crosses. But in those days, crosses wore people. It was brutal. Jewellery in the form of a cross at the time of Jesus would have been unthinkable.  

 

The disciples expect that their enemies will suffer. They do not anticipate at all the prospect of suffering for Jesus as a direct result of following him.

 

Victorian Bishop of Liverpool J.C. Ryle once said that we are always trying to make religion ‘pleasant’ by sanding off the corners and edges of the cross.

 

But Jesus is clear that following him will require us to be willing to sacrifice and endure anything and everything dear to us – even life itself if it comes to it – because of our love for Christ.

 

And, let’s be clear. Taking up our cross does not contribute in any way to the unique, and sufficient, and complete work of Christ in our place to atone for and pay for sin. It is simply an appropriately grateful response of service and sacrifice for the Lord we love.

 

And 3) You must, says Jesus, follow him wherever he goes.

 

Last month, I read a brilliant book by Rachel Gilson called Born Again this Way. She describes her experience as a young woman growing up atheist in a thoroughly secular home in California. She writes about her coming out to her parents as a lesbian and having romantic and sexual relationships with girls. 

 

She then explains how, in her first year at Yale University, she unexpectedly became a Christian. And the book then explores how she came to terms with all that. She describes the pain involved in ending a relationship that she was in. The rejection she faced from the LGBT community who saw her conversion as a betrayal. 

 

She says, “I lost meaningful relationships, and it hurt. Two of my favourite friends from high school expressed disgust to my face and never interacted with me again.”

 

Why should it surprise us, following a Messiah who was despised and rejected by the world, if we find that it hates us as well? Some Christians are amazed when their words are attacked and opposed, when they are ridiculed and cancelled, but should we expect anything else when we follow one who was murdered for the things he said? 

 

The Christian rapper Trip Lee says it very plainly. “Don’t be deceived,” he says. “You cannot follow Jesus and be liked by everybody at the same time.”

 

And then, in v25-26, following these three requirements for discipleship, Jesus sets out three explanations of why following Jesus is worth it, despite the potential cost.

 

1) If you try to hang on to your life for my sake, says Jesus, you will lose it. A vain attempt at self-preservation will only result in the most catastrophic loss imaginable.

 

2) Conversely, if you give up your life for my sake, says Jesus, you will save it. 

 

3) Comparing life to the world of investments, with profits and gains and losses, Jesus sets out the fantasy return of gaining the entire wealth of every stock market, bond market, currency market, all gold reserves, every property portfolio, the priceless exhibits of every museum and art gallery on earth, the contents of every bank vault – the lot – and says, what kind of return is that if you forfeit your very soul? 

 

Losing your very soul has final, eternal consequences and the loss is unrecoverable. 

 

Andrew White was a Christian leader in Baghdad following the second Gulf war. In his book Faith Under Fire he writes these words. 

 

“In Iraq… there is no concept of being a ‘nominal’ Christian as there is in the West. If you are a Christian you go to church each week (which for Christians in Iraq happens on Fridays and Sundays) and at every festival. Christians take days off work or school for key holy days and, as a result, the fact that they are practicing Christians is easily noticed… There can be no hiding… which can make things very difficult and dangerous for believers. Nevertheless, our people refuse to deny the practice of their faith. 

 

Remember, this is a highly dangerous time of explosions and kidnappings and beheadings. 

 

Finally, Jesus sets it all in the context of the last judgement. Verse 27. The Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.

 

Remember that when Christians first read this Gospel, it would probably have been during the reign of Nero, and the first of many waves of persecution was crashing down on their hated community. Christians were being thrown to the lions in the Coliseum or burned alive as fuel to light up the emperor’s garden parties.

 

Those responsible for such atrocities will one day have to give an account of their wicked deeds to Christ. And those in North Korea, and Iran, and Afghanistan and northern Nigeria, and Pakistan and India and China will too.  

 

In the 1960s and 1970s the Chinese authorities decided to change the colour coding on traffic lights. They had Chairman Mao’s red book and a red flag so they thought that red should be seen as a positive colour.

 

So the government said, “Right. From now on, red means “go” and not “stop.” It was a disaster! Road accident statistics went through the roof. People were simply too accustomed to thinking that red means “stop.”

 

In our culture today, the same thing has happened with morality and purity and gender. People are trying to tell you “green means red and red means green.” “Go means stop and stop means go.” We are becoming morally colour-blind. 

 

Oxford-based church leader Simon Ponsonby says, “Every person, one way or another, has made a judgement about God: whether to love God or leave him out of their lives; whether to acknowledge and follow his revelation or ignore it and go their own way. And God has fixed a day when he will make a judgement on each human for the judgement they made about him.”

 

Ending

 

In their book The Amazing Cross, Jeremy and Elizabeth McQuoid share the story of Tim White and his son Ryan. 

 

In the first 15 years of his life, Ryan had over 30 surgeries. When he was about eight years old, he was in the hospital for another operation. 

 

This is how Tim tells the story: The medical staff began to roll his surgical bed to the operating theatre. As usual, we accompanied him to the two big doors that led to the place of surgery. That is where we stopped, and told him all would be OK for the last time before surgery.

 

This day, as we got to the doors and they opened, he sat up in the bed, looked at me in the eyes and pleaded, ‘Dad, don’t let them take me!’

 

At that moment my heart was broken. I would have done anything to take him off that bed except for the fact that he had to have the surgery. That knowledge didn’t ease the pain in my heart at all. I just stood trembling as the doors closed, and he disappeared. That is when I broke down in tears.

 

Shortly after, when I was asking God how such a good love could hurt so much, I realised that he had gone through the same thing. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed: ‘Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me.’ Translated into the language of a child, ‘Daddy, don’t let them take me.’

 

I allowed the surgeons to take my son for his own good. God allowed the crucifiers to take his Son for our good. That is how much God loves us. 

 

And as I end, I want to circle back to Jesus’ words at the beginning of our passage today. He told them plainly that it was necessary for him to suffer many terrible things. 

 

What greater expression could there be of God’s amazing love for you? Feel it wash over you again and again. 

 

Had he taken the acclaim and avoided the cross, and not willingly laid down his life for sinners, my situation, your situation would be utterly doomed and eternally hopeless. 

Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shoulds’t die for me?