From Rock to Stumbling Block (Matthew 16)

Do you ever feel that your spiritual life is like a roller coaster? One minute things seem so clear, and the next you feel totally out of touch with God?

Peter and the other disciples experienced the same thing on their faith journey. We see it clearly in Matthew 16, and Jesus tells us why.

The Pharisees are asking for a sign again. This time, they’ve come with the Sadducees. I wonder if this indicates just how serious the Pharisees are in their plot to kill him – while the Scribes and the Pharisees saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things, the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not; their theology was quite different and they struggled with each other for power. Now they’ve teamed up to come and test Jesus – this is the first time Matthew has recorded the Sadducees challenging Jesus too.

They ask Jesus for a sign from heaven; again asking him to prove who he is. Jesus wastes little time on them, and his reply is much like the one he gave the Pharisees in Matthew 12. You can interpret the signs of the skies – what the weather is going to be like from how the sky looks. You can’t interpret the signs of the times, though. There are plenty of signs all around you, and you miss them. I’m not going to give you any sign except “the sign of Jonah” – his resurrection.

He leaves out all the “signs” he’s already provided, that are far more convincing than the “signs of the times”. The things that he told John’s disciples, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ” They knew scripture, and should have recognized the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. They should have recognized the power displayed and taken that as their sign. But as Jesus has already told the disciples, some are not able or willing to understand; they’re blind guides. Jesus reserves his “signs” for those in need; he heals, he raises the dead, but he’s not giving “signs” to prove himself to those that wouldn’t believe anyway.

Jesus and his disciples leave, but this encounter remains on his mind. As the disciples fret about having not brought bread along on the journey to eat, Jesus tells them to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” – to be careful of their teaching and their attitudes. They think he’s talking about them having no bread to eat. He’s trying to warn them of just what a polluting influence these leaders are, but they are completely focused on the lack of bread, and miss the point completely. This, after having seen how Jesus can provide, as he did when he fed the 5000 and later, the 4000. “How is it you fail to understand?”, Jesus asks.

Matthew next recounts Peter’s great confession. Jesus asks the disciples to tell him who the people think he is. It appears the general consensus is that he’s a prophet – either John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet. Then Jesus moves from the safe question to a harder one: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, ever the first to answer, ever the spokesman for the group, gives the answer. He’s more than a prophet. He’s the Christ. He’s the Son of God.

Jesus’ response is reminiscent of the discussion he had with the disciples in Matthew 13: while there are many that are unwilling and unable to understand Jesus and his teaching, “the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you…blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Matthew 13: 11,16). Jesus tells Peter that he is blessed because God has shown this to him; this isn’t something he just figured out using his own intellect. This faith, this confession springing from the kingdom heart, this God-given spiritual insight expressed by Peter (the name, given to him by Jesus, means “stone”) is the Rock, the foundation on which the Church will be built. I can just see big, rough Peter beaming from ear-to-ear at Christ’s words.

Then Matthew tells us that Jesus has decided it is time to let the disciples know what’s going to happen to him – that he will go to Jerusalem and will be killed by the religious leaders, and then be raised from the dead. Once again, Peter is the one who reacts. This time, he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him – “This shall never happen to you”! This certainly isn’t what Peter wants. It isn’t something he can imagine happening to the Christ. It’s something that doesn’t fit in with his understanding. The problem is, none of this is up to what Peter wants, Peter imagines, or Peter understands.

Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan!”. Wow, that’s strong. “You are a stumbling block to me”.

In three stories, we’ve gone from the disciples not understanding what Jesus was telling them about the Pharisees and Sadducees and not trusting in Jesus to provide for them, to Peter’s great confession based on God-given insight – the foundation of Christ’s church to come, to Peter being a stumbling block being used by the enemy, a hindrance to Christ. How can somebody go through all those extremes? How can somebody blessed with the ability to see and understand spiritual things so clearly in one moment completely miss the boat in the next?

Jesus gives the answer to that. “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

How much is my spiritual life like that? When my focus is on me, my plans, and leaning on my own understanding, I miss the boat. When I fix my eyes on Jesus, empty myself, and follow him, everything is clear.

The prescription is a hard one:

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”. Putting self to death, putting our desires to death, putting our plans to death, and yes, sometimes literally losing one’s life.

The roller-coaster faith ride I’m on indicates I still have some dying to do.