To Jerusalem, Unafraid
September 3, 2017
Pentecost 13A
Matthew 16:21–28
Brookside Community Church
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
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.And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘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.’
The Cross and Self-Denial
Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
‘For the Human One is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’
—Matthew 16:21–28
Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem, knowing he would be crucified there?
Was Jesus destined to die because God had preordained it? Or maybe Jesus was masochistic and had a death wish? (He did say that in order to find your life you must be willing to lose it.) Neither of these answers seem to be drawn from the direction of what the Gospel of Matthew is aiming to teach us about Jesus and his ministry. If we take a larger look at the narrative of Jesus’ ministry thus far, we will see that Jesus went to Jerusalem because in Jerusalem Jesus would directly confront the powers that were standing in the way of bringing healing and wholeness to those he loved.
Let me begin this morning with a word of caution. When I say what I’m about to say today, I am not aiming to be critical of Judaism, Christianity, or any religion in particular. I am criticizing the use of religion to prop up and support systems of domination, oppression, and exclusion rather than providing pathways for healing and wholeness for all people.
What was Peter Thinking?
When Jesus told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer at the hands of the religious elites, Peter rebuked him.
Don’t you wonder what Peter was thinking? It was almost like Peter was saying to Jesus — this teacher he has left his job and family for and has now been following around for quite some time — “Rabbi! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” The text actually says that Peter took Jesus aside and “rebuked” him.
But Peter had missed something important about Jesus’ teaching from the beginning. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had pronounced God’s blessings on the poor, hurting, and outcasts. Ok — no problem. But Peter failed to see the boldness in what Jesus was doing. Because in the last of the Beatitudes, Jesus went further: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely” because you have started talking like I talk and doing the things that I do (Matthew 5:11). From the beginning, Jesus told his followers that the world would hate them for the things he stood for — but Peter must have missed that part.
Peter must have missed it when the religious leaders started calling Jesus a demon worshiper. Peter must have missed it later, as Jesus took him out with all of the rest of the disciples to do ministry. He told them, “A disciple is not above the teacher…If they have called me a demon, they will do the same to you…If you want to follow me, you will have to learn to carry a cross.” (cf. Matthew 10:24–39). Even more, Peter had already confronted Jesus because the Pharisees and scribes were offended by some of the things that Jesus had said. When Jesus explained that the Pharisees were more concerned with their traditions than they were with God, Peter had said, “Explain that to me. I don’t get it” (Matthew 15:15).
See, Peter had seen Jesus do wonderful things. Peter had seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law. Peter had seen people from all over come to Jesus and watch as he treated them with tenderness and compassion. Peter had seen how Jesus had restored people from brokenness and shame to wholeness and empowerment. Peter, a professional fisherman, had even seen Jesus rescue them twice from heavy storms while they were out to sea. Once, Peter even walked with Jesus on the water — well, almost. When Jesus asked the disciples what names people were calling him, Peter piped up and said, “You are the Messiah! You’re the one who’s going to save us all!” To which Jesus replied: “Peter — you are a Rock! And on that faith you’ve got, I’m going to build a new citizenship!”
But now, just a few lines later, Peter seems to have missed something extremely important. Peter still hasn’t realized that Jesus is not preaching the same thing as the Pharisees. Peter has not figured out that Jesus isn’t just out to start a new synagogue and become a famous Rabbi — Jesus is after something entirely different. At this point, what Peter has yet to get about Jesus is that he is after a total transformation of the entire religious and imperial world Peter lives in. While the Roman Empire runs on oppression and exploitation, Jesus teaches peace, forgiveness, solidarity and healing. Jesus is building a brand-new society. While the religious elite have set up their programs to rebuke and exclude, to lift some at the expense of others, Jesus offers an image of God that is inclusive and empowering, reaching out to the broken and the outcast and declaring them God’s beloved.
What Peter has not realized is that this kind of world-altering work will make you a lot of enemies. Up until now, Peter has not understood that Jesus aims not just to heal people who are broken — but to confront the entire system. Jesus is not just preaching and building a crowd so he can play nice with the world, he has set out to take his message right to the heart of the Domination System — right to Jerusalem! And to the extent that this is not something Peter is willing to accept, Peter has earned Jesus’ strongest rebuke. Where just a few verses ago Jesus calls Peter a Rock, now Jesus calls him Satan!
Time to Go to Bat
On an important level, I have to agree with one part of the so-called Nashville Statement. If you haven’t heard about it already, the Nashville Statement was issued last week by the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and was signed by more than 150 conservative evangelicals from across the country. It aims to reinforce the conservative condemnation on same-sex marriage, transgender persons, and everything conservative Christianity damns as transgressing the boundaries of their false morals. The statement does, however, get one important thing right. It rejects the idea that Christians can “agree to disagree” on issues around sexuality.
A few years back, after I had already worked for several years as a Methodist pastor, my life-long best friend, college roommate, and partner in international ministry came out to me as transgender. It just so happens that she is also my sister. With all of the courage she could muster, and in the best way she knew how, she shared with me her story of the years she had suffered from suppressing her “dysphoric” feelings. Now that she was coming to terms with it herself, she was planning to disclose them gradually to her family and closest friends and then, eventually, to the world. She helped me see how difficult it was for her to feel safe being herself. She had spent her entire life bottling up fears that she would be found out for who she was. Now, she was sharing with me how she had lived, constantly exhausting almost all of her energy learning to negotiate public spaces. She shared how difficult it was to find others to talk to who identify with her situation, since places that tended to welcome trans women also attracted unwanted attention and people who were interested in trans women sexually. It seemed virtually impossible, being in Kentucky, for her to find areas that were safe and welcoming. Now that she was planning to share her true self with a few select people, she was afraid she would be outed and that this would cause her to be alienated from her family and closest friends. She was looking for a place to feel safe being herself, without the threat of shame or condemnation. But what she really needed more than that was someone to go to bat for her!
I felt extremely privileged for being asked to walk with her through this journey of self-actualization as she began her male to female transition. I was also angry that she carried this around alone for so long. As I looked at my sister’s face and began to understand the terrible fear and angst she was carrying around, I saw the face of the mocked Jesus of the Gospels. My faith in Jesus had already taught me to see that when violence is committed against another, Christ is crucified. Now, because of my sister, I could see the crucified Christ in the lives of LGBTQIA+ persons who are excluded, exploited, attacked, and sometimes even killed. I could hear the voice of God in the cry of these marginalized and excluded persons.
As a pastor, when my sister came out to me, I was ashamed at how unprepared I was to minister to her situation. That feeling of shame reminded me of my calling and the reason I entered ministry to begin with. She was turning to me for spiritual guidance, but I had no real direction to give her. As far as I knew, there were no Methodist resources on ministering to transgender persons. My mother and my other sister were Methodist pastors. And I had spent years in ministry in Methodist churches in Kentucky. Yet, there was not a single Methodist minister in Kentucky I knew I could trust enough to care for my sister. In our immediate family, four of us lead congregations as Christian ministers. But rather than finding among us a source of grace, comfort, and direction, my sister was living with grief and shame. She did not know if she could trust us. This was not because of what my individual family members actually believed, but because of the common perception portrayed by the wider church. As far as I knew, there were no life-giving Christian resources available anywhere for my sister. In essence, the church was saying that for people like my sister, God was either disgusted or ignorant. For myself, staying in the United Methodist Church, a denomination that has institutionally refused to change its stance on LGBTQAI+ persons, meant putting my spiritual health at risk. When I finally got up the nerve to find a trans-affirming minister in Kentucky to meet with my sister, the United Church of Christ was the only logical place to look for resources. It was at that very moment I began searching for a way to leave the United Methodist Church and join the United Church of Christ.
The Call
It is time to get off of the sidelines. People we love are being hurt by bad theology and oppressive Christian institutions. We cannot claim to love them and remain indifferent to their suffering. We cannot claim to love them and watch as bullies use their religion to push their weight around. What they need to see in us, more than anything, is that we are willing to go to bat for those we love.
When we look broadly at the narrative of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Matthew, we will see that Jesus went to Jerusalem because it was the only logical climax to the ministry he began. In Jerusalem, Jesus would directly confront the powers that were standing in the way of bringing healing and wholeness to those he loved. Jesus went to Jerusalem because there Jesus believed he could offer himself, his teachings, and this new world he was giving birth to as a source of healing for the people, to bring restoration to the dream of God, and revive the ancient promises at the heart of the Hebrew story. Jesus went to Jerusalem to go to bat for those he loved.
And just as Jesus told his followers that the world would hate them for the things he stood for, we should expect it to be no different for us today. But that cannot get in our way if we are to follow Jesus to Jerusalem.
May we become a people who are willing to go to bat for our LGBTQAI+ sisters and brothers. May we become a people who stand against the use of religion to prop up and support systems of domination, oppression, and exclusion. May we offer pathways of healing and wholeness for everyone. May we become a people who are willing to go with Jesus to Jerusalem, unafraid.
—Amen
