ALONE: A Lutheran Legacy Jesus, It s Too Much! A Sermon on Matthew 16:21-26 Year A - Reformation Series 3 8 - October - 2017 JJ 1 I ve got a quick test for you. Raise your hand if you want to be healthy. Raise your hand if you want to be sick. Raise your hand if you don t want to worry about money. Raise your hand if you want to scrape and scrounge. Raise your hand if you want to be free from temptation. Raise your hand if you want to struggle against temptation and give in. Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven. Raise your hand if you want to go to hell. That was a pretty easy test, wasn t it? It was an easy good things versus bad things. It s pretty easy to want the things we think are good and to avoid like grim death all those things we consider to be bad. It s just human nature. But therein lies the problem human nature. In our world today, the term or idea of human nature is used to describe all kinds of behavior. I think more often than not, it s used to make excuses for bad behavior. But as you read the pages of Scripture, human nature is never described in a good way. It s just always awful. Now you might be wondering, Pastor, what s so awful about wanting good things and avoiding bad things? Well you see, friends, it all depends on how you define something as good or bad, and why you re desiring those things. It all depends on whether it s based in the promises of God and flowing from a heart of faith, or, flowing from your sinful nature. The account before us today clearly demonstrates this. After Peter s beautiful confession of who Jesus was, the promised Messiah, Matthew writes: From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to you! Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. What was Peter s problem? It was more than just not wanting to think about his dear friend and Savior Jesus suffering those things. Peter wanted a different Messiah than what Jesus said he was. Peter wanted a Messiah whose kingdom would be an earthly kingdom. Peter wanted a Messiah who would get rid of the Romans and establish the nation of Israel once again as a political and
economic powerhouse in the world. Peter wanted life to get better, not worse, both for himself and for Jesus. Peter had in mind the things of men, not the things of God. Peter was unknowingly speaking for Satan and his wicked plan. Peter was actually throwing a stumbling block in Jesus way to the cross. Peter was operating under a theology of glory. The depth of this problem can be hard to recognize because it s ingrained in us as deep as our DNA. Our human nature, our sinful nature, is obsessed with glory. It s a glory of me, myself, and I. It s a glory of wanting all the benefits of the Garden of Eden without the bother of having a relationship with God and his holy desires. It s something Luther battled against in his own heart and the world of his time, yes even in the church. In the church he battled the works+jesus camp on the one hand, and on the other hand he battled the anti-law camp. The works+jesus camp, like the Pharisees of Jesus time, found glory for themselves through their works-righteousness. The anti-law camp found glory in the false teaching which says the law no longer applies to Christians and therefore life is easy and carefree if you re really a Christian once saved always saved and I can live life as I please. Both of these theologies of glory surround us today. But Luther also saw that this natural human desire for glory went much deeper. We see the problem in Peter today as we see it in our own hearts. It s the desire for glory as opposed to the cross. Luther saw very clearly in Scripture that the life of the Christian is a life under the cross. But what is the cross? What does Jesus mean when he says we must pick up our crosses and follow him? The cross is not just every bad thing that happens to us. Bad things happen to unbelievers too. (Though, those things we consider bad can become crosses.) Jesus tells us. In it s essence, the theology of the cross is the suffering and struggle we endure through the denial of self. It is the turning away from all that is just for me and my imagined good, and turning to all that is for Christ and those God has given to me to serve. Today we see how we find this in our own lives as we cry out to God like Peter, JESUS, IT S TOO MUCH, what you ask of us! Jesus calls on us to believe and teach all of his Word. But teachings like fellowship, roles of men & women, sexuality etc., are unpopular in our world today. We convince ourselves that Jesus is asking too much of us and so we shirk the cross to avoid persecution or even just to be more popular in the world. God
says he wants our whole hearts, that he is a jealous God and does not want to share the prime position in our hearts with anyone or anything else. But we shirk the cross and tell God he s asking too much of us when he commands us to not love the world or anything in the world. We shirk the cross and seek glory by convincing ourselves that we deserve to be happy in this life. And then there s perhaps the greatest cross of them all, a cross of our own making. A cross we also don t want to carry. It s the cross we create by doubting God s love for us because of whatever thing we re facing which we consider to be bad. We given in to the devil s temptations and our own faulty reason that says these so-called bad things are evidence that God doesn t really love you all that much. This, perhaps more than any other time, is when you find yourself crying out, JESUS, IT S TOO MUCH! Too much? Can you really say that? How absurd to cry out that it s all too much to the One who not only carried every spiritual cross his whole life through, but literally carried a cross to bloody Calvary all so he could be crucified on it! Are you sure you want to complain that your physical pain is more than a loving God should permit when he s the One who was tortured by his enemies and nailed to a cross? Are you sure you want to complain that your pain of loss is too much when he s the One who didn t lose his only Son, but gave him up to save his enemies? Are you sure you want to complain that the ridicule you face as a Christian is too much to put up with when he s the One who never once slithered away from persecution even when it brought his death? Are you sure you want to complain that your burdens in life are too much to bear when he s the One who carried the eternal burden of all your sins in his holy soul to the point that there was nothing left in him his heavenly Father could love? Are we really so arrogant? Are we really so foolish? Are we really so blinded by Satan and the things of men?! We each deserve to have Jesus come, stare us in the eyes and say, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. And Jesus does do this, though not in these exact words. He does it through the law. He shows us how part of us still agrees with and wants what Satan wants. Through the law he shows us we have a long way to go in reforming our hearts and minds from setting them on the thing of men and on to the things of God. Friends, our lives here on earth are lives under the cross. How good that they are! God sends us crosses so that we would
not be attached to this world, but that we would long for the next. But first and foremost, how good it is that we live our lives on earth under the cross of Christ! And that is what every cross we bear in this life points us to drives us to! Christ who suffered and endured every cross, for you. Christ who willingly endured persecution head on, for you. Christ who never once turned away in shame because of mockery, for you. Christ who never kept his mouth shut, fearing that the truth would get him in trouble, for you. Christ who suffered the pain of physical torture at the hands of his enemies, for you. Christ who literally carried a cross to Calvary, for you, all so that he could be nailed there, for you. Christ who there on the cross carried the eternal burden of your sin in his holy soul, not even being spared by his heavenly Father the eternal torment you deserve, for you! Christ always and perfectly denied himself and his own best interests, and friends, he did it all for you! When we see Jesus and all he has done for us, our attitude quickly changes. We go from complaining, JESUS, IT S TOO MUCH, what you ask of us! to joyfully and humbly confessing, JESUS, IT S TOO MUCH, what you give to us! Friends, every selfish complaint, every doubt of God s love, every time you wanted glory and not the cross, every time you have set aside your cross, Jesus says, I forgive you! That s why I went to the cross, for you! Recognizing and rejoicing in Jesus cross, something happens to us and in us as we daily take up our crosses and follow him. The burden is easier to bear. Easier, not because the cross has been diminished or removed, but because our faith has grown stronger to trust all the more that God really does love us and his purposes are what s best. In God s love and forgiveness, we are refreshed and renewed. We are driven to go to God, not complaining, but calling on him in our need because we know he will help us! We go into the world with confidence in God s love and promises, not in fear or shame. Examples of faith-filled responses to the cross are numerous in the life of Luther. Before he knew the truth and had faith, the cross was too heavy to bear because he had to make his own way. The devil would accuse him and his doubting soul would say, God has abandoned you, just as you deserve! But in faith, Luther learned to deny his mind s reasoning and feelings and hang on for dear life to the promises of God. Luther endured persecution with confidence in God s grace, knowing like Paul that if he lived, he lived to the Lord, and if he died, he died to the Lord (Rom. 14:8). And perhaps, one of the best examples of Luther patiently and trustingly bearing the cross was in the death of two of his daughters. Their first daughter, Elisabeth,
died when she was just 9 months old. Less than a year after her death, Luther and his wife were blessed with another daughter, Magdalena. Magdalena was the most cherished by all in the family. But when she was 13, she suddenly became quite ill. Within a week, Magdalena died in Luther s arms. With Satan certainly pounding at his heart s door, suffering such a loss, Luther carried his cross and confidently proclaimed walking home from the cemetery: My daughter is now taken care of, both in body and soul. We Christians now have nothing to complain about. We know that it should and must be this way, for we are all the more certain of eternal life (Kroker, The Mother of the Reformation, CPH, p. 142-143). us. Jesus, it s too much, what you have done for me! Thank you! Amen. SDG 2 Friends, how beautiful Jesus cross is! How beautiful are the crosses we carry following after him as well! All things are working together for the good of those who love God. How do we know? Because he who did not spare his own Son, but graciously gave him up for us all, also along with him graciously gives us all things. In Christ, we re more than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from his love, no matter how heavy the cross. Why? Because Jesus carries it with 1 JJ is the acronym for Jesus Juve, which is Latin for Jesus Help. It is a short prayer used by many ministers and sacred musicians at the beginning of their work. 2 SDG is an acronym for Soli Deo Gloria, which is Latin for To God Alone Be The Glory. This is a statement of humility used by many ministers and sacred musicians at the end of their work to let themselves and others know that it isn t about getting glory for themselves, but about giving all glory to God. Artwork by Ian M. Welch Copyright 2013 Ian M. Welch. All Rights Reserved. paramentics.com Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.