Lose Your Life – Matthew 16:21-28

One of the things I used to hate the most was being wrong. To me that was super embarrassing and reflected my inadequacy. So I would often resist expressing an opinion in order not to risk being wrong and therefore shamed. That would be like losing my life. The apostle Peter, on the other hand, had no such hesitancy. If he thought something he said it. He had just answered Jesus’ question, “Who do you disciples say that I am,” and he had answered it well. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” he had said, and so he wasn’t shamed. But, oh, what came next!

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from 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, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:21-28 ESV)

After making a great confession of who Jesus is, Peter thinks it appropriate to refute Jesus about his need to go to Jerusalem and be killed.  Jesus rebukes him because Peter is using the same tactic Satan is, trying to tempt Jesus to bypass the cross and gain the throne to the kingdom another way (like jumping from the pinnacle of the temple or worshiping Satan, see chapter 4).

That the Messiah must suffer was taught in the Old Testament, as for example in Isaiah 53.  But it was a hard concept for the Jews to accept, their expectation being that Messiah would rule powerfully over their enemies.  But just as difficult was the concept that all who belong to Messiah would have to suffer as well.  They would have to deny themselves and face the possibility of death like he did.  Finding life in Him meant giving up their own lives.

There would be a future time of powerful rule, when the Son of Man came into his kingdom with his angels in glory.  Judgment would occur at that time. But in the meantime, the pursuit of the world and its power would mean a forfeiting of one’s soul, a worthless exchange to be sure.  Losing one’s life for Jesus’ sake is the key to finding our lives.