The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
Remember Who You Are
Matthew 16:21-26
Amy Jacks Dean, September 1, 2002
In my study this week, I read this story about a man of faith: “Several years ago I was anticipating what was likely to be an unpleasant meeting between myself and some of my daughter’s teachers. I was ready for war. I rehearsed for my wife’s benefit the things I’d say threaten to do, carry out if certain matters weren’t settled at once. `But as I raged and grew more fierce and wild,’ (to use poet George Herbert’s words) my wife looked into my face and said, `Remember who you are.’ It was an especially sobering remark coming from the person who better than anyone knows whom I am, for better and for worse. I suppose I could have faulted her for failing to be supportive. In fact, she was reminding me of the person that she continued to love and believe in, even as he was carrying on like a lunatic. I have spoken her words to myself many times since, always imagining them in her voice.” (Garret Keizer, The Christian Century, August 11-18,1999)
Remember who you are. When you walk into this room, this should be your silent reminder: I must remember who I am. But even more importantly, we you walk out of this room, the reminder to yourself should be: I must remember who I am. That simple phrase should cause you to live your life differently.
And who are you? You are a Child of God – no matter what. And if you call yourself Christian, then you are a follower of Jesus. So if your mantra becomes, upon entering and exiting this place: I am a Child of God and a follower of Jesus – then you know exactly who you are – it’s just remembering it past the Narthex that is the trick! Because once we leave the safety and security of this sanctuary and this gathered group of God’s people, nothing is simple or easy.
Let’s take a look at Peter’s story as found in Matthew’s telling. Just last week we heard Peter’s confession when Jesus asked him, “But who do you say that I am?” “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus bestowed blessing upon him and renamed this Simon son of Jonah – Peter – and on this “Rock” I will build my church, says Jesus. Powerful dialogue. Intense emotion. Unbelievable drama. And this week is no disappointment.
This week the Jerusalem Daily News would read, “Jesus Predicts His Own Death” – yet this should not be a news flash. Anyone with any sense would know that if Jesus continued to do the things he did, to say the things he said, to act the way he acted – he would surely get himself killed. But the disciples, perhaps especially Peter, sometimes didn’t have any sense at all. Upon hearing Jesus horrible words of personal death and destruction, Peter pulled him aside and began to rebuke Jesus. Wouldn’t you just love to see that – Peter rebuking Jesus?! (I don’t know if any of you have ever been rebuked or not, but I have – only once – and I don’t recommend it! It had something to do with one man’s view that women shouldn’t preach. He rebuked. I cried. It wasn’t pretty!) I can imagine the anger in Peter’s voice: tight jaw, squinted eyes, whispered intensity “God forbid it! This must never happen to you!”
And then the drama intensifies . . . when Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!” I’ve always pictured Jesus angry in return - calling him, of all things, Satan! William Barclay says that “Satan is any force which seeks to deflect us from the way of God.” (Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 2) And that was precisely Peter’s intent - innocently, unknowingly, yes - but his intent nonetheless. Not that I think Jesus understood the way of God as the church has presented it all these 2000 years. I’m not so sure that Jesus understood the specifics of his death or thought that God had in any way willed it to be so. God’s way for Jesus was life - abundance of life - as I believe that is God’s way for all of our lives. But Jesus understood clearly that if he kept teaching his “Great Reversals” (a phrase borrowed from a study source with author unknown) he would most surely die. To say, “the last shall be first and the first shall be last”; “the greatest will be the servant of all”; “whoever wants to save his life will lose it and whoever wants to lose her life will save it”; “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”; “the meek shall inherit the earth” - all of these Great Reversals are fightin’ words. They are words that will get you killed, and certainly Jesus understood this. But these Great Reversals were (and are) the way of God, therefore it was the way of Jesus and, if you know who you are, they should be your way and my way as well. And Jesus equated anyone or anything that stood in the way of God as evil - even Peter the Rock would not become a “stumbling stone” (phrase borrowed from Eugene Boring in The New Interpreters Bible, Vol. 8, page 349-350) for Jesus. In my opinion, Jesus was not seeking death or seeing the cross as some kind of necessary end, and certainly Jesus did not see the end as some kind of glorious victory that the church has made it all out to be all these years. Jesus was interested in raising up the poor and liberating the outcast. He was interested in bringing fullness of life to those who felt hopeless and afraid. He was interested bringing correction to the religious regime and filling the hungry with Good News. And if you preach that kind of stuff while keeping the company he kept, you can bet it would surely cost you your life. And for Jesus it was worth the risk. He knew who he was - a child of God and follower of the way of God - and not even Peter would stand in his way! Perhaps Peter spoke to him out of his great love for Jesus. Perhaps Peter spoke to him out of great fear of being left behind – who knows. But what if, perhaps, instead of Jesus being angry or just plain disgusted with Peter when he said get behind me, Satan (which is the way I have always heard the tone of the conversation in my own imagination), what if perhaps Jesus was really saying to Peter, “Follow me. I asked you to leave everything before and follow me, and you did it. Now I’m asking you to do it again. Peter, get behind me - you who would try to deflect me from the way of God - get behind me and learn something. Assume the position of a disciple and follow me. We are not on a road to glory, we are on a path to justice and mercy. We are on a path to make right the wrongs that we encounter. We are on a path to help those in need. Peter, we are on a road that leads to suffering, and it is going to be quite an adventure. It will be dangerous, and it will be controversial. Peter, you’ll have become less self-centered – everything is not about you, it’s about God. Peter, remember who you are: you are a child of God and you are a follower of me so get behind me and don’t you dare stand in my way.” (I have taken tremendous liberties with the interpretation of the phrase “Get behind me, Satan,” and am indebted to several scholars including Eugene Boring and Douglas Hare for putting me on this path of thinking in their commentaries from New Interpreter’s Bible and Interpretation.)
And so now I ask you: Do you remember who you are? Or are you like Peter – deflecting the way of God? Knowing who you are means, according to Matthew’s perspective, “denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus.”
To Deny Yourself is to subordinate one’s own appetites and desires to God’s way as exemplified in Jesus. (Paraphrase from Interpretation, “Matthew,” page 195) Denying oneself is not self-hatred, self-abuse, low self-esteem. It is not considering self as a wretch in need of saving. Interestingly, this kind of self-denial runs the risk of being centered on the self – precisely what Jesus was warning against. Self-denial for the sake of self-denial is an expression of the self’s need for control. (Interpretation)
Rather, denying yourself means committing your life to a truth that is bigger than you – namely God. Eugene Boring says that “just giving up things will not make one Christian; it will only make one empty.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, page 352) There is no emptiness in the abiding and forever presence of God. Fred Craddock says that “perhaps it is best to remind ourselves that Christian behavior does not flow from the belief that the end is near, but from the belief that God is near. All else is secondary.” (Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year A, page 426)
Taking up your cross is not a trivial matter referring to everyday annoyances or family problems or work issues. (Interpretation) It means bearing a load. It means going against the grain of our society that says whoever accumulates the most, wins. It means speaking out – even if not popular – to speak a word of justice and truth. It means being peacemakers in a climate of war-mongers. It means we live a burdened life because if one of God’s children is burdened, then so is God, and therefore so are we, because remember who you are? You are a Child of God and a follower of Jesus.
I offer to you this day, not quick fixes or magic potions for your issues that ail you. But I do offer a few words of advice that I commit to trying to follow myself. Each week I sit with people in my office, and I counsel many of them to become healthy – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I refer many on to professional counselors to find the kind of health they need in order to live an abundant life – which I believe is God’s way. I listen to them and talk with them about life’s troubles: poor marriages, dead-end jobs, depression, anger, grief. And this is good. But I suggest to you that one leg of the journey to health has to do with a recognition of a truth bigger than self. What would it do for a troubled marriage for that husband and wife to work side by side on a Habitat House? What would it do for one’s soul to serve meals once a week at the Uptown Men’s Homeless Shelter? What would it do for you to purge your life of some of the excess and replace with the needs of the least of these? Please hear me – these suggestions are no substitute for needed therapy and sometimes medication. But these suggestions would be great supplements in your journey toward abundance.
“As God’s people we are invited to renew our discipleship, to dream of a new community, to repent of our complicity in injustice, and to rededicate ourselves to the cause of the saving justice of God. We are also called to count the cost – `deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow me.’ We need to listen, to discern, and witness to the hope that is in us and once again be faced with the question from Jesus: `Who do you say I am?’” (Peter Price quoted in Sojourner’s magazine)
Following in the way of Jesus can only be learned on the journey. There is no way to prepare for it – you simply learn as you go – sometimes getting it right and sometimes not. Thank God for giving us the community of The Church so that we don’t have to go it alone.
Do you remember who you are? I hope so. The real question is: Will it make a difference? May it be so.