Take up your cross

Peter’s best and worst moments

I like Peter. He says what he thinks. In fact, I think he’s probably the kind of person who doesn’t know he thinks something until he hears himself say it. And most of the time, he’s in the right general area, but just not quite right.

That day was different. A few minutes earlier, he’d got it spot on. Jesus had asked his disciples who other people said he was, and then who they said he was. And, just for once, the first thought that came into Peter’s head and straight out of his mouth was exactly the right one. “You’re the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”. Matthew and Luke spell it out even more strongly than Mark just how right he is; Jesus said , “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

And now within a few minutes, Jesus rebukes him, saying “Get behind me, Satan!” In the space of three verses, Peter has gone from being told he’s the foundation of the entire church, with the keys to the kingdom of heaven, to being told he’s on the same side as the Devil, the tempter. That’s quite some shift in one conversation.

And it doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Temptation comes in different ways

Well it’s worth taking a step back from this story for a moment. First, the name ‘Satan’, which is one of the names given to the Devil, actually means ‘tempter’. The Devil, who’s essentially an evil archangel, is the tempter-in-chief, but ‘Satan’ is a job description as well as a name, and that’s how Jesus is using it here. Peter, with the best of intentions and motives, is accidentally doing the Devil’s work for him.

Because temptation comes in different ways. Last week we read about Jesus going into the wilderness, and being tempted by Satan, as in the Devil. Sometimes temptation hits us head on; it’s obvious that we’re at a point of decision, one way is right and one way is wrong. And it’s amazing how often ‘right’ is difficult and ‘wrong’ is easy. That was at the heart of the the temptations in the wilderness. They’re all about how Jesus will be the Messiah. Will he use his incredible power for comfort, fame, world domination? Or will he choose the hard way of obedience to the Father and love for people until they nail him to a cross so he can set them free?

That’s not an easy choice to get right. When we have big decisions to make it usually isn’t. But in a way, that kind of temptation is sometimes easier to resist because while the decision can be hard, at least we know we’re making a decision. We can pray, seek strength and guidance to choose what is right. We’re not caught unawares. Jesus drew on the Bible, the Father’s love and the Spirit’s strength to choose the right path back then. He was ready.

But now, the same temptation is back out of the blue. Now it’s not his archenemy who’s trying to get him to take the easy, safe path of glory. It’s not the Prince of Darkness who’s trying to turn him away from the road that leads to the cross. It’s his best friend who’s trying to get him to lighten up a bit. It’s Peter, the leader of the apostles, the foundation stone of the church, who’s trying to turn him away from the road to Jerusalem, back up to Galilee where it’s safe.

As Albus Dumbledore said to Neville Longbottom at the end of the first Harry Potter book, “It takes courage to stand up to your enemies. It takes even more courage to stand up to your friends.”

If you’re trying to live the life God wants for you, to be fully the person God made you to be, doing the things God wants you to do, then treasure the people who want what’s best for you, but don’t accept their advice for how you live without checking it against what you know in your heart God is calling you to. The person who most dearly wants you to be happy and successful may be wrong about what that will look like. And they may be the person most likely to convince you that they’re right. Especially if what they’re pointing you to is easier, more comfortable, more popular than where God is calling you to be.

Losing your life to save it

After all, Jesus made it pretty clear that following him wouldn’t be easy.

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”

To Jesus’ disciples, talking about ‘taking up the cross’ wasn’t an image of putting up with things being tough. It was an image of being on the way to death at the hands of the Romans. And that was the fate that was ahead of some of them, including Peter himself. It was the fate of many who followed Jesus over the next couple of hundred years. In some parts of the world, following Jesus still brings a real risk to life, to property, to freedom, to family relationships.

None of us are likely to face death for our faith. But we do face life for our faith. And sometimes that can be even harder. Taking up the cross means at the very least choosing what’s right over what’s easy. It means living like Jesus, even when living like everyone else is more attractive. We trust that God will lead us, and that we’ll find the way that is real, overflowing life - which may or may not look anything like what we thought it would, but will, we know, be worth more than the whole world. Amen.