The counter-cultural cross
Text: Matthew 16:21–28
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our gospel reading for today can conveniently be divided into two parts: the cross of Jesus and the cross of the disciple. In the first part, Jesus describes what He is about to endure at the hands of the highest religious authorities. In the second part, He calls His disciples to their own kind of suffering.
The cross of Jesus
So far in Matthew’s gospel, the disciples have been learning about who Jesus is. Last week, we heard the result of all of that learning in Peter’s great confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah who will rescue God’s people and put and end to all suffering and death forever.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Matthew 16:21
The disciples are confident that they know who Jesus is. From this point on, the disciples will learn (and witness) what Jesus must do. Yes, He is the Christ, but He is also the suffering Christ.
Isn’t that an oxymoron, a contradiction? Jesus is supposed to put an end to suffering and death, not fall victim to it Himself. That’s what Peter thought, as we’ll hear shortly.
“…Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer…” He must go. In the Greek, the little word dei means “absolutely necessary.” It is God’s will. It simply has to happen that way.
“The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah prophesied (53:6). Our sin doesn’t just disappear. Forgiveness has a cost. When you forgive someone, you surrender the payment due to you. If someone wrongs you, you are entitled to compensation. Forgiveness only occurs when that compensation is given up and the debt is cleared.
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified,” Paul writes (1 Co. 1:22–23a). What could we say today? What do the people around us demand and seek? What are people searching for in this life?
While I was going through school, I had a principal who was nearing retirement age but he wanted to stay in touch with his students. How do they talk? What are they looking for in life? What do they imagine a good relationship to be? He figured the best way to do that was to watch Home and Away.
If we, as Christian people, are to preach Christ crucified in our community, how will you know how to connect that message to their world? How can you engage with the way people around you are thinking and feeling? The gospel certainly speaks into our world, but we need to be able to make the connection.
The cross of Jesus was counter-cultural, even at the time. Peter thought so: “This can’t happen to you!” Peter couldn’t imagine a Saviour who suffered and died, so much so that he seemed to miss the bit about being raised.
The cross of Jesus is still counter-cultural. Try to explain the idea of church to someone who’s never been before. “Oh, we come to an old building every week to say some words on the screen, hear a book being read, here a bloke talk about it for 20 minutes, sing some songs and then have a cup of tea like nothing happened.”
Nearly everything we do as a community is counter-cultural. Even something as simple as a weekly commitment is becoming rarer—most people tend to prefer keeping things open and flexible than meeting at regular times and places. Things like sitting still for an hour and singing songs are even more counter-cultural.
The cross of Jesus is as opposite to the status quo as it gets. Even the most religious people in the world thought Jesus was a heretic. It makes no sense to us that Jesus would suffer and die, but that was God’s plan.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
Set your mind on God’s plan, not yours. His Son was brutally punished and killed, but God brought good from that. Expect Him to work things for good even when you can’t see it.
The cross of Christ is what makes our faith what it is. It’s the reason we’re here. It’s the reason we are forgiven our sin every time we repent. It’s the reason Christ could then be raised and it’s the reason we can be, too.
The cross of the disciple
After describing His cross, Jesus tells us about how we are to carry our own.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:24
What does it mean to “come after” Christ, to follow Him? As Christian people, our lives follow a similar sequence to Jesus’ life: baptism, suffering, rejection, death, eternal life. To follow Christ is to follow His sequence for life and do it in a way that He does. It is to deny ourselves: deny our preferred sequence, deny control over our life, deny our ability to save ourselves. Once we do that, we can begin to accept God’s provision and direction for our lives.
If you struggle with humility and self-denial, don’t worry—God has a way of making you humble from time to time.
We know the starting and end points in baptism and eternal life—the middle section is where it gets challenging.
The suffering we endure, the cross we bear, is the stuff we would be quite happy to get rid of from our lives: sickness, grief, loss, pain, anxiety, stress… We bear these things without choosing to. This is what is called “passive cross-bearing”.
We passively endure these things with the hope of Christ’s resurrection becoming our resurrection. That hope doesn’t put an end to suffering, but it changes the way we suffer.
There is also such a thing as “active cross-bearing”: being deliberate in the way we witness to Christ. Being a Christian person is counter-cultural—being outspoken about it is even more so.
By nature, most of us prefer to be quietly-spoken. When we disagree with something that someone says or does, we rarely say it to their face. Instead, we might keep it to ourselves or let someone else know about it.
For example: our recent meetings about the College constitution changes. There were people who disagreed with the changes and had deep concerns. Naturally, they preferred to discuss their concerns together and speak anonymously through a spokesperson. Their concerns were heard that way instead.
This is how most of us are—it takes someone very brave (or stupid) to stand up and put their opinion out there, knowing full well the kind of responses you could get from people. That kind of courage is usually only shown when someone has very deep convictions and simply must say something.
“Active cross-bearing” is about those moments. It’s about sticking your neck out for the gospel. It’s about taking a risk in order to speak defend our Christian faith or to actively promote it in difficult circumstances. That kind of courage can only be brought about by the Holy Spirit. If it comes from within yourself, there’s a good chance what you’re saying does, too.
There is an extremely fine line between this kind of “active cross-bearing” and being unnecessarily aggressive or argumentative, though. Christians need to be extremely careful not to cross that line, lest they do the exact opposite of what they intend and become a poor witness to the gospel.
A part of bearing your cross is denying yourself—which includes your own opinions—so that Christ can work and speak through you.
As a general rule, “passive cross-bearing” is how we live every day. “Active cross-bearing” is done only when absolutely necessary and after a lot of time in the Word and in prayer.
Conclusion
The cross of Jesus is not what Peter expected or wanted to hear, but Jesus’ promise to Him was still true: “on this rock I will build my Church.” “This rock” is not Peter the human being—it’s the rock of his unapologetic faith in Christ as the Son of the living God.
That is the faith the Church is built on, counter-cultural as it is. It is the faith we were baptised into. It’s the faith we still live in each day even as we suffer, both passively and actively, for the sake of the good news of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.
As you carry your cross, may that faith be strengthened in you this day by His Holy Spirit. Amen.
