Death and Resurrection – Matthew 16:21-28

A text – Matthew 16:21-28

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. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 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?

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. 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:

We know, because we live 2000 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection, that his life ended early because of men who were willing to do anything to put him out of the way. Here Jesus begins to speak plainly about that death that he is facing, giving his disciples glimpses ahead. But of course the disciples are looking for a Messiah that will overthrow Rome and restore the glory of the Kingdom of Israel, not a man who will be killed by the very religious leaders who have been awaiting the Messiah all their lives.

Death is a sure end to human life. But Jesus is also foretelling his resurrection, right there in the first verse of this passage…“on the third day be raised.” Jesus is wrapping his almost immediate return to life right into the same death sentence. Of course that doesn’t usually happen to people who are killed, and the disciples don’t hear it. They aren’t listening for it. They are just shocked to hear him say he will die.  Death is shocking to us all.

My own picture of the reality of death got shaken up recently when my almost 30-year partner in ministry at Church Innovations died suddenly. Pat Keifert was 75, like me. He was a larger-than-life person, so if we ever thought of him at the brink of death, we’d shake our heads and say, “Impossible. The world without him is impossible to imagine.” And yet, on August 6^th, mid-afternoon, he lay down to take a nap and vanished from this world. He had suffered illness this pat year, but we still did not expect the Lord to call him home. He never stopped being who he was, never stopped listening to others’ burdens or working toward creating spaces for speaking freely and worthily of the Gospel of Christ. He lived his calling right up until that last nap that became the long sleep.

Death is sure for us all. But, thanks to Jesus, we live in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection. Jesus is our proof. The disciples who knew him best had a hard time believing. But we know. God holds all our lost loved ones in the palm of his hand until the day we will dance and sing together once more in the Kingdom of God.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for Jesus, who told his disciples about his own death and who wasn’t believed. Thank you that we can believe in death and also in Resurrection. Help us to remember that hope and share it with others. Amen.