Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
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Readings: Romans 12: 9-end and Matthew 16: 21-end
Today’s gospel reading is a continuation of last week’s which we only used at the 8.00 Communion service. Peter made what we call ‘the great confession’ – proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah. In today’s passage, Jesus expands on what is to happen to him – what it actually means for him to be Messiah.
Peter’s view of Messiahship is quite different from how Jesus saw it, and the Lord berates the man he described as ‘the rock’ after Peter rebuked Jesus for predicting his own suffering and death. He said to Peter, “You are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.” Suddenly, the man named as the Rock becomes the adversary. He becomes the stumbling-block, even called ‘Satan’ by Jesus. Then came the direct instruction, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.”
Some of St. Paul’s words in the reading from Romans today back-up those of Jesus. Paul instructs his readers: “Bless those who persecute you; do not repay anyone evil for evil; do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” All those verses from Romans chapter 12 have direct parallels with Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. You might say – well, there is nothing particularly surprising about that; it’s all sound Christian teaching.
But, of course, at the time it was radical. And if you look at it from the point-of-view of how difficult people today find it to live up to that teaching, then we could say it’s still radical. But for people in the first century hearing those words, people brought up on ‘eye for an eye and tooth for tooth’ – it must have been hard to hear Paul say “Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God. Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And if we think that is a bit harsh and not in the character of the God we worship, let us not overlook Jesus’ warning in the gospel, which could be rephrased, “The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he will repay each of us according to how we have behaved.” Not revenge, exactly, but intimation that we will receive our just deserts.
But today, revenge is still all-too-common in life. We see it internationally: between Russia and Ukraine; in the ongoing antagonism between Israeli and Palestinians and other Middle East trouble-spots. We see nations, tribes, sects, ethnic groups getting their own back in terrible ways for wrongs meted out to them previously. So much of gang violence today amongst a minority of young people seems centred around revenge – getting your own back after a slight, or when one leader of a group has been ‘dissed’ by another – disrespected. Such attitudes are not limited to young people. Some older folk can’t see their way to forgiving relatives or friends for some wrong done years and years ago.
And today, society’s emphasis seems so often to be on its rights; on safety, on protection, on correctness; this has led us into a blame culture where fear of litigation now prevents many good things happening.
The Cross reverses all that sort of negative thinking. Peter wasn’t expecting to hear Jesus talk about suffering and death, and I expect part of his rebuke to Jesus stemmed from a realisation that if this was what was in store for the master, wouldn’t it also be like that for the followers? ‘Don’t expect me to get too involved, Lord.’
Each of us has a choice as to how much of ourselves we will give to God, or be spent in his service, however widely you interpret that. St. Paul gives us many instructions about Christian behaviour by which we would demonstrate our devotion to the Lord. “Bless those who persecute you; live in harmony; do not be haughty; do not repay evil for evil; live peaceably with all” – and so on. Paul is not interested in advocating cosmetic changes to the way we live, but urges a total transformation of how we see and evaluate everything. This transcends the futility of tit for tat and overcomes evil with good. Maybe the curious phrase about burning coals being heaped on enemies’ heads refers to purifying coals and not coals of torment.
But it sounds a little more frightening when Jesus says that we must take up our cross, and that “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” He rebukes Peter for setting his mind on ‘human things’ not divine things. ‘Human things’ could be the avoidance of any sort of pain or exposure to difficulty, or the desire for an easy path to discipleship. Some people, of course, have given their lives to the point of death, and the sacrifices of the many Christian martyrs over the centuries inspire and challenge us.
But that exact situation will not apply to many of us. Taking up the cross, leaving self behind, could for us mean the letting-go of some of the conventions and restraints and reserve that hold us back from serving God and neighbour. One writer says, “We must abandon our normal ways of doing good, our careful moral balances, of rights rewarded and wrongs paid back. Generous, self- giving, overflowing love, meeting the other where they are, and always with blessing and peace. No cursing, no pride, no vengeance, but quiet confidence that the God of the cross has triumphed over evil, and will at the last put all wrongs to right.”
I was struck by this observation by the Reverend Angela Ashwin, writing in Church Times. She was talking about prayer; the effects of prayer, both on the one praying, the one being prayed for, and the world generally, and she wrote: “Through our human interconnectedness, every loving action and attitude releases a positive energy into the world. And whenever our good intentions become prayer, even our most distracted intercessions will be taken up into Christ’s healing, redeeming work in the world.” Thus how we behave within the body of Christ, for it is the church in Rome that Paul is addressing, will have repercussions far wider. “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep” he urges, “let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.”
If some of our thinking today has reminded us of selfishness, hate or revenge in the world, it is good to consider the better way, and that thought that ‘every loving action and attitude releases positive energy into the world.’
I’m sure Jesus didn’t mean ‘taking up the cross’ to be an unmitigated burden. In fact, it could be a liberation from old ways. The term ‘living sacrifice’, as we were considering last week, seems to have something ambiguous about it: giving up something but finding something else more life-giving. That sort of approach might entail losing our current way of life, but we will be taking on a far better one.
Jesus asks, “What will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?’ C.S.Lewis, in a book entitled ‘How to be a Christian’ considers that saying of Jesus – ‘How hard it will be for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.’ Lewis believes that Jesus doesn’t just mean monetary riches, but riches in every sense – good fortune, health, popularity, and all the things one wants to have. All these things, he says, make you feel independent of God. You try to rest content in a shadowy happiness as if it could last for ever. But God wants to give a real and eternal happiness. Consequently he may have to take these ‘riches’ from you. If he doesn’t you will go on relying on them. Lewis adds that cruel doctrines are really the kindest in the long run.
We should also remember that one obstacle to doing good is the tendency to do nothing. One writer has said, “We do not need to be doing something in order to be doing something wrong. Without moving a muscle or saying a word, we can be committing a sin. If some of our thinking today has reminded us of selfishness, hate or revenge in the world, it is good to consider the better way, and that thought that ‘every loving action and attitude releases positive energy into the world.’ And someone else has written, “Another’s good is my good; well might I rejoice. Another’s wound is my wound, well might I weep.” Even the weeping can be positive sometimes.
Today the Church remembers John Bunyan, the 17th-century author of Pilgrim’s Progress of course. He describes how Faithful tries to climb the Hill called ‘Difficult’, but is three times knocked down by the Deceit of the one he calls ‘Adam the First’. And Christian himself saw that the highway he had to climb was walled on either side, with a Wall called Salvation. Christian ran up it with great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus with his load to a place with a Cross, and there his burden was loosed from off his shoulders, and fell off from his back. He was glad and lightsome and said “He hath given me rest, by his sorrow, and life, by his death.’ He looked at the Cross even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Shining ones came to him and said, “Peace be to thee; thy sins are forgiven.”