Matthew 16: 21-28 (Common English Bible)
It might come as a surprise to many people, but the cross was an issue for the early church. For Jewish Christians, to be “hung on a tree” was associated with an ancient curse. The Apostle Paul refers to it in Galatians 3:13, where it says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed if anyone hangs on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). And we really have no idea what kind of cross Jesus died on. It could’ve been a T-shaped cross or just a gnarled tree as was the case in the movie “The Last Temptation Of Christ.” Unfortunately we have been conditioned to believe the later medieval portraits of the crucifixion scene with the cross we know today. Same with the later medieval portraits of Jesus with light hair, white skin and sometimes even blue eyes. I assure you, the real Jesus probably had dark skin and his eyes were never blue.
The Romans used crucifixion as a campaign against anyone suspected of rebellion against their Empire. It was a humiliating and gruesome way to die. The victims were stripped naked and ridiculed and abused by the onlookers. There was a law that no Roman citizen could be crucified. Crucifixion was only for slaves and foreign revolutionaries. The message was clear, if you rebel against Rome, you’re going to end up like Spartacus and his followers. Spartacus and 6,000 of his supporters were crucified and put on display on the Appian Way leading to Rome around a century earlier.
The cross as a symbol was so unpopular that it did not gain wide acceptance until nearly 300 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. To the early Christians, it would be like wearing a symbol of the electric chair, gas chamber or noose. The earliest known image of the cross referring to Jesus was done by a pagan mocking the Christian faith and their crucified Messiah. And that was found amid the ruins of Pompeii. It had to be carved sometime before 79 AD, because Pompeii was destroyed by a volcano that year. Until the 4th century the majority of Christians used the “fish” symbol as a sign of the Jesus faith. The Greek letters for fish could also be used as an acronym that translates, “Jesus Christ, Son of God Savior.”
Peter was horrified when Jesus told him of his fate. Peter could not accept his beloved teacher and Messiah being crucified. This is not the way it’s supposed to happen, he told Jesus. And Jesus really rebuked Peter, saying, get behind me Satan! Now, Jesus did not believe that Peter suddenly turned into Satan. The word “satan” really means Adversary or Tempter. This is about the same situation Jesus was in during his 40 days in the wilderness. Satan promised Jesus the world if only he would turn to the Dark Side. And remember, Jesus was very human like the rest of us, perhaps even more human, considering the title calling him the Human One or Son of Man. He had emotions like the rest of us and realized what lay before him.
In a sense this reading doesn’t have the impact it should have, because we already know the rest of the story. We now know about the resurrection to come, so the horror and disgrace of the crucifixion no longer has the impact it did in the 1st century. And Jesus seems to be no longer a threat to the established socio-political systems many religious groups lobby to uphold. Unfortunately, in too many situations modern Christianity no longer confronts the status-quo, but endorses the way things are. The result is that for many professing followers of Jesus, they do the opposite of what Jesus taught. Two thousand years have almost passed, and the language of the cross has turned stylist amid the millions of crosses that decorate churches, clothing, backpacks and even on skin by tattoos. Now, I’m certainly not saying it’s wrong to wear the cross, but if worn, it should be taken seriously and what it really means.
If we are to make disciples as it says in Matthew 28:19, this reading makes us consider what kind of disciples we are making. Encouraging people to follow a suffering Savior can easily create suffering followers who measure their discipleship by how much they suffer. Rather than naming and struggling against death-dealing people and abusive systems of power, they become complicit by silence within their own suffering. Their only confidence is believing they are suffering like Jesus and that is their ticket to Heaven.
What they are doing is comparable to what some Christians did during the Middle Ages who wore hair-shirts as a sign of suffering to bring them closer to Christ. But all that accomplished was scarred backs and chests. But a real disciple is able to see that all the sorrow, pain, injustice, oppression inflicted by life or by others is not the will of God, but instead can be opposed rather than accepted.
Peter’s problem, according to Jesus, is that his focus is on “human things” rather than divine things. In short, Peter still thinks according to the way the world thinks. There is a bit of selfishness that pervades Peter’s understanding of how things should go. There is an assumption from Peter that Jesus and his disciples should be beneficiaries of the system instead of opposing the system. Read Mark’s gospel, chapter 10, verses 35-45, when both James and John, Zebedee’s sons, ask Jesus to set them in high places when God’s Kingdom comes. They were looking forward to an easy and powerful life.
When Peter reacts to Jesus’ prediction of being crucified, he views it as the ultimate scandal. But how scandalous have many Christians become today? Have the majority of Christians in this nation and other places been so caught up in the world’s thinking they will not condemn current religious and political leaders who by Jesus’s standards, are doing the wrong thing?
Jesus challenged the human standards of striving and achieving or having the most money. That is one reason much of what Jesus taught went over people’s heads. And it still does today, if one really studies the gospels. Jesus talked about a different way, one that turns worldly standards upside down. Jesus completely upends all customary concepts of gain and loss. True life is not in getting, but in giving. The one who lives like Jesus, the one who gives for others, will receive true life.
The reading concludes with these puzzling words from Jesus, “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see the Human One coming in his Kingdom.” Matthew wrote his gospel around 80 AD. He knew that many Jesus followers had already died during the past 50 years. This statement could be interpreted in several ways. Some believe Matthew was thinking about the Transfiguration of Jesus. Others believe it refers to the day of Pentecost. My own opinion is that the Kingdom of God came into real power during and after the resurrection of Jesus.
But the question remains, who is Jesus for us today? He is the One who promises to deliver us to a more holistic, humane and beautiful way. The journey will not be a triumphal march like the Roman Emperors had. It could involve suffering as all movements of love, kindness and justice face. It will have its share crosses in many forms and more than its share of resurrections when all seems lost. In the end, little by little, it will open our hands, it will soften our hearts and make us the children of God we were made to be. It won’t be easy. But Christ is with us, whispering, “Come Follow Me.”
AMEN.
