Matthew 16:21-28

Matthew 16:21-23 Jesus predicts his passion for the first time, and Peter objects

This the first of 3 predictions of Jesus’s passion (see also 17:22-23 and 20:17-19).

What does Jesus say will happen to him, and at whose hands?

The elders, the chief priests, and the scribes will cause him great suffering, and he will be killed.

What will the ultimate outcome be?

On the third day he will be raised.

The elders, the chief priests, and the scribes made up the Sanhedrin, the council with political authority over the Jewish people, under the Romans.  He says that they will cause him suffering, but he doesn’t say that they will kill him.  As we know, the Romans killed him, not the Jews.

When Jesus says that the elders, chief priests, and scribes will cause him to suffer, he is describing the Sanhedrin, the political body made up of political, economic, and religious leaders of the Jewish society.  Jesus’s passion begins with a political body and ends with the Roman government – political leaders, not the crowds of ordinary people.  How does that affect or shape your image of Jesus’s death?

Notice that Jesus doesn’t include the Pharisees in the list of those who will cause him suffering.  The Pharisees were like a religious or social group within the overall society.  Most Pharisees were ordinary people, not members of the political or religious leadership.  The political leadership, in particular, tended to be Sadducees, not Pharisees.

Why do you think Peter “took him aside” to object rather than saying something in front of the other disciples? 

What is Peter’s objection?

How is what Peter says wrong?

There are several different elements in Jesus’s response.  First, he says, “Get behind me,” implying that Peter is no longer following him.  In what sense is  Peter no longer following Jesus when he says this?

Peter is trying to lead Jesus instead of following him.

“Satan” is a Hebrew word meaning “adversary” or “accuser.”  Over time, it came to be used as a name for the devil: for example, when Jesus is tempted in the desert, he calls the devil “Satan” in Matthew 4:10.

When Jesus calls Peter “Satan,” he is using a Hebrew word that means “adversary.”  In what way has Peter become Jesus’s adversary, like Satan who tempted him in the desert?

Jesus’s command to Peter is, “Get behind me, Satan,” not “Get out of my sight!”  What is the significance of the fact that Jesus put it this way?

He is not telling Peter to leave him, only to stop trying to lead Jesus in the wrong direction.

Jesus also calls Peter a stumbling block or obstacle (the Greek word is skandalon).  What does it mean when someone is a stumbling block?

This is Peer’s first attempt to “bind” – to say what should or should not happen – and Jesus says, No.  You need to let me lead you, not have you lead me.

Have you ever unintentionally been a stumbling block to someone else?  When you realized it, what did you do about it?

Jesus says that Peter is not thinking as God does but as humans do (literally you are not thinking of the things of God but of the things of man).  What does this mean?

We face real problems and challenges, and we need to think in order to deal with them.  How can we think about those things in a way that reflects the thoughts of God and not just human thinking?

How can you recognize when your mind is stuck on human things rather thinking about the things of God?

Matthew 16:24-28 Everyone is called to carry their cross

In verse 24, Jesus says there are 3 things we must do if we want to be followers of Jesus.  What are they?

What does it mean to “deny” yourself?

A useful footnote in the New American Bible, revised edition says that “to deny someone is to disown him (see Mt 10:33; 26:34–35) and to deny oneself is to disown oneself as the center of one’s existence” (NABRE, Matt. 16:24 fn.).

To deny yourself is to live your life according to the principle articulated by Rick Warren in the first words of his book The Purpose-Driven Life: “It’s not about you” (Warren, p. 1).  This doesn’t mean you are not important.  It just means that everything about you must be seen in the light of the cross of Christ if you want to reach your full purpose.

To deny yourself means to always be asking: What is God trying to do here?  Based on the answer to that question, I might need to not do something, because it might get in the way of what God is trying to do here.  That doesn’t mean that what I might have wanted to do is inherently wrong or evil, only that it doesn’t fit the circumstances if the goal is to have God’s will be done.

What does it mean to “take up your cross”?  What is that a metaphor for?

Luke adds the word “daily” (Luke 9:23).  It’s not a one-time decision; it’s a way of life.

What does it mean to “follow” Jesus?  We’re not following him from town to town as the disciples were.  What does it look like in practical terms to “follow” Jesus in our time?

It is easy to say that we are taking up our cross while we keep living mostly for ourselves, so Jesus goes on.  What does he say about “saving” and “losing” our lives in verse 25, and what does it mean?

Most people don’t face the threat of death for following Jesus.  What do you think he means by “losing” our lives?

This could mean many things, such as not putting yourself first, not focusing on yourself and what you might get out of a situation, but focusing instead on what God is trying to do or would like to see happen.

In what ways might we be trying to “save” our lives rather than “losing” them for Jesus’s sake?

Jesus says something very similar in Matthew 10:38-39.

Is there something you might be trying to hold on to, that might be keeping you from following Jesus more fully?

In verse 27, Jesus tells us that when he returns he will give back to each person according to what they have done.  This teaching that that there will be an accounting of people’s lives at the end of time – how is that good news from a good and loving God?

Note that Jesus describes his return and the Last Judgment in similar terms, with much more detail, in Matthew 25:31-46.

How do you feel about the fact that, when Jesus returns, he will give back to people according to what they have done?

How, if at all, does this passage make you want to adjust anything about how you live your life?

For many people, denying yourself and taking up your cross is hard.  It sometimes gets easier with practice.  How can you develop in your ability to do this, so that it becomes more of an instinct and less of a struggle?

Some people find themselves in situations where they just keep deny themselves, giving, giving, giving, and people around them continually take advantage of them.  Are there times when following Jesus does not mean denying yourself to satisfy people who constantly take advantage of you?  How would you discern when that might be the case, and still be true to the point of this teaching?

In verse 28, Jesus says that some people will not die until “they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”  This cannot be a reference to the coming of Christ at the end of the world.  One interpretation is that it refers to the time when Jesus comes back after his resurrection.  In what ways is Jesus present in his kingdom now?

Anywhere that God’s rule is acknowledged and followed, the kingdom of God is present.  The kingdom of God is growing and spreading, and we help to spread it and help it grow by our actions and words.

There are other interpretations of verse 28.  Some scholars see it as a reference to Jesus’s transfiguration, which happens in the next passage, but there are no angels in the transfiguration story.  (There are angels present in the resurrection story).  Some scholars argue that there is a difference between the coming of the Son of Man and the coming of the Son of God (Brown, p. 190), and that we are in the era of the kingdom of the Son of Man now, whereas we will see the coming of the kingdom of God when Jesus returns in glory at the end of time.  Another interpretation focuses on the fact that Mark phrases this sentence differently.  In Mark 9:1, Jesus says that some people will not die until “they see the kingdom of God coming with power,” which could be referring to when the Holy Spirit comes, at Pentecost and in the later life of the Church.

Take a step back and consider this:

Up until this point, it must have been wonderful being a disciple of Jesus: there had been some modest opposition but Jesus had handled it easily, and Jesus had been doing exciting and powerful things that they got to witness and sometimes participate in.

But now, things have suddenly turned darker.  Jesus has started saying that he will suffer and be killed.  How could the one who had the power to command even the wind and the waves, who could walk on water, who could heal any disease brought before him – how could he possibly encounter any opposition that he couldn’t stop with a simple command?

And when Peter challenged what he said, Jesus had responded with the sharpest rebuke they had ever heard from him, followed by a stern teaching they didn’t entirely understand but that didn’t sound fun: that they needed to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him.  Follow him?  They understood that part.  But deny themselves and take up their cross?  What did that mean?

Those of us who were raised in the faith might have had a similar journey.  When we are children, most parents and teachers don’t dwell on the “deny yourself and take up your cross” part of the faith.  And it might be downplayed to adults who are exploring the faith for the first time, for fear that they will be put off by it.  Yet it is central to the Christian faith.  How do we deal with the truth that Christianity calls us to self-sacrifice?

When you are telling people about what you believe, is the part about denying yourself and taking up your cross part of the story you tell?  Why or why not?

How important is this teaching to a full and mature understanding of the faith?

How can you not only follow this teaching but explain it to others in a way that communicates the beauty and the joy of giving your whole self to Jesus?

And is that something you need to work on for yourself?  If so, how?