Old Testament: Exodus 3:1-15
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-28
Epistle: Romans 12:9-21
Matthew and Romans this week continue the discussions we
have been having the last few weeks. Last week, we discussed Peter’s confession
that Jesus is indeed “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But we all know
that right after this great statement of faith, Peter rebukes Jesus for teaching
that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed. It is no light thing to
be called of Satan by Jesus. But I think there is more at play here. A couple
of clues point to this being no easy thing for Jesus, and actually a temptation
he faced. It begins actually with the temptations of Jesus earlier in Matthew Chapter
4. The thrust of those temptations was to skip the pain and death that was to
come and to arrive at the glory and honor offered by the devil rather than that
offered by the Father through obedience to him. Peter confronts him with that
same temptation again. Jesus recognizes
it as the same temptation and calls him Satan.
The other clue pointing back to the Temptation of Jesus is
where Jesus goes right after this. He begins to teach about the cost of discipleship:
of taking up one’s cross, denying oneself, and being saved by losing oneself. I
think the crucial line is verse 26, “For what will it profit a
man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give
in exchange for his soul?” This was the question Jesus had to ask
himself when he denied the devil’s temptations in Chapter 4 and one he might
struggle with again as he approached the cross. Would it do Jesus, or anybody
else, any good had Jesus taken the easy way to fame and fortune the devil
offered? The answer of the Gospel is definitely not.
More and more, I think it is important to
understand Jesus’ life and ministry and his death and resurrection through the
lens of the Kenotic (emptying) Christ in Philippians 2:5-11. It explains his
Temptation and the work he came to do. It also explains his glorification to
the Father offered because of his obedience. Finally, it presents the model for
us to follow, which is what Jesus does as well here in Matt 16:26. Like Jesus,
we must take up our cross and follow down the road obedience to die to
ourselves so that, as we are found in Christ, we will find salvation and life
in him.
This is the message Paul teaches in many of
his letters in various ways. I have mentioned Philippians 2 as a great
theological statement about the nature of Christ. However, in our Romans
passage, Paul gets down the nitty-gritty of how we follow Christ’s example in
taking up our cross. Followers of Christ do things like abhorring evil and
clinging to what is good. They persevere in tribulation, are devoted to prayer,
practice hospitality, bless their enemies, and never take revenge. They live a
life of love that is counter-cultural to the way the world lives.
We don’t really have time to discuss the Old
Testament readings, but the calling of Moses has always struck me as a bit bizarre.
The first thing we have to do is remove ourselves from the Charlton Hesston “The
10 Commandments” version and approach the story with fresh eyes. One strange thing
is that it appears as if the whole thing is an accident. Moses happens to see the
burning bush and “when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst
of the bush.” The bush wasn’t put there for Moses to see, but the Lord used
it to call to Moses. It’s a good thing Moses saw the bush and God saw Moses,
because the Israelites had already been in slavery quite a while! I say this
partly in jest, but this is actually a good place to point out how some Old
Testament writers speak about God in ways that seem contradictory to what we
believe. My first question is, why does this need to be written; doesn’t God
see all and know that Moses was about to walk by? Often we read over these sentences
without even a pause because our worldview assumes that God knows and sees all.
We don’t even catch the strangeness of it. I don’t think we can resolve all of
the Old Testament exegetical insights and conundrums here, but I wanted to
point out the strangeness of this.
One last point about Moses calling- notice
Moses asks, “Who am I?” that he should serve God. The name given back to him is
“I AM.” It doesn’t matter who Moses is, because he serves the One Who Is. I
think there is a play on words here and God is challenging Moses to look beyond
his inadequacies to the God who Is.
We still serve the same God who said that
he was the great “I AM.” He has revealed himself in Jesus who showed us not
only who God is, but how we are to respond. God has called us to take up our
cross and follow Jesus. This week, think about some practical ways you can do
that. Paul begins to point out some ways
in Romans 12, but in all of our lives, opportunities present themselves daily
to take either the road of selfishness or the road of the cross. Let us find
the strength to follow Christ and take up our cross through the help of the
Holy Spirit.
Grace and Peace.
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