Jesus calls us, one and all, calls us to follow him as his disciples. Most of us imagine: Jesus calls others to follow him. Jesus calls priests, deacons and some devout people in the church; but me? Would Jesus call me? Jesus cannot call me because the call to be a disciple involves a deeper level of commitment, a more profound degree of faith, a stronger sense of vocation than I sense.
For all of you who excuse yourselves from the call to be a disciple of Jesus because you fail Jesus, take heart from today’s Gospel. If ever there was a disciple who regularly failed Jesus, who time and again did not get it right, it was Peter. Like every disciple Peter faltered in his faith. Like every disciple, Peter got up and did what disciples are called to do: he followed in the steps of Jesus.
Whenever you think of disciples, you know that they are people of faith. Last week we heard Peter’s singular confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus quickly commends his faith and calls his confession the foundation of the church. You all understand that when Jesus calls you to be his disciple you not only follow Jesus’ steps. You love Jesus. Perhaps, if this is possible, Peter’s love of Jesus leads him astray.
We heard in today’s Gospel: From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. All of us want to keep our loved ones from harm and suffering so we can easily sympathize with Peter when he tells Jesus: "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." Jesus comes back with the strongest response: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
Twice Jesus calls someone Satan in Matthew’s Gospel and twice Jesus uses the same word in Greek: Go Away. When the devil tempted him in the desert you would remember Jesus saying: Away with you, Satan. Jesus is clearly saying that at the start of his mission the evil one wants to turn Jesus away from his call.
At this critical point in the Gospel, when Jesus realizes that his call will involve his death, the well intentioned, but all too human, Peter fails to understanding God’s mission for Jesus. Over the weeks following the death of John the Baptist, Jesus begins to understand that the conflict between his message and the Roman and Jewish leaders will inevitably lead to the cross. The cross becomes the great battlefield between death and life, the forces of death which represent the way of the world and the forces of life which are the kingdom of God. On the other side of the cross stands resurrection.
Resurrection becomes the turning point when the overt power of the world is overturned by the hidden power of God.
Jesus not only predicts that he will enter into the battlefield of the cross and resurrection. His disciples would engage in that same battle: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. The original Greek does not use the word follower but those who go behind me.
But when Jesus reprimands Peter, he uses a similar phrase. He says: Go behind me, Satan. Jesus invites Peter, as he invites all of us, to be those who go behind Jesus, who follow Jesus, even if it means following him to the cross. In our walk as disciples, Jesus invites us to the cross that something old in us might die in order that something new might be born. Let me say that again: In your walk as his disciples, Jesus invites you to the cross that something old in you might die in order that something new might be born.
Each of us has a particular pattern of behavior, a well established pattern of relating to ourself and to others, it is so engrained in us, so embedded in our souls, that when we have to let it go, it seems as if we are dying. If you want to know where Jesus invites you to die, then just think of the areas of frustration in your life. Think of the persons with whom you are in conflict. Think of the persons with whom you cannot agree. If you look deep enough you might begin to find the place where Jesus invites you to die. Jesus invites you to die because that place in you is not working any longer. Jesus wants you to find a new pattern, a new way, a way that leads to new life, a way that leads to new hope.
Jesus is calling you, calling you today, to follow him as a disciple. Don’t be afraid of Jesus’ cross. Ask Jesus to help you to see the cross to see your particular cross and to let something in you die. Have the courage to let something die so something can be born.
Jesus goes ahead of you, leading to resurrection, to new life. For as we discover the small ways of dying to self, we will discover that even death itself will lose its power to frighten us. For we will discover the pattern God has embedded in all creation: that death leads to new life, the cross to resurrection, diminishment opens a path to new opportunities. Ask Jesus to walk with you on that path. Jesus will neve let you down.