Jesus Prepares for Battle – Matthew 16

A text – Matthew 16:21-28

16:21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
16:22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
16:25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
16:26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
16:27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
16:28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

A reflection:

It must have been a challenging time for Jesus and his disciples. Jesus was becoming well known for healing hundreds and hundreds of people, for preaching the good news of God’s love, for encouraging people to be good to their neighbor and not to hate their enemies. Yet Jesus’s ministry was itself making enemies among the very people Jesus talks about in verse 21, the elders, chief priests, and scribes.

When Jesus was preparing his followers for the events that will happen in Jerusalem, they were seeing a battle on the horizon between Jesus and the faith leaders of their land. Most Jews had always thought of the Messiah as bringing a battle to whomever was overlord of Israel and Judea at the time of his coming – in the case of Jesus’s era, Rome. All these people, Jesus’s followers and the general Jewish population, were thinking about a battle that would overturn power, because Jesus and his followers would vanquish their enemies and rule in their place.

But Jesus was not about to do battle with soldiers or zealots or leaders of any kind. Jesus was about to do battle with death itself and win – be resurrected – so that none of us who believe that Jesus did that would ever have to fear death again. We would know that belonging to Jesus would mean we would leave our earthly life and move to the next life with God – no ifs ands or buts about it. If God kept God’s promise to Jesus, God will keep God’s promise to us. Believe it. God keeps God’s promises. Always.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you being a God who keeps your promises. Thank you for raising Jesus from the dead, for convincing his followers to tell the story so more of us could believe. Help us to bring hope to those we love in that same way because we love them and you love us all.  Amen.