Proper 17 Year A 2026: Matthew 16:21-28

 When I worked at St. Mary’s in Arlington, Virginia, we did a “three hours” service on Good Friday. It is what it sounds like - a Good Friday liturgy that lasts three hours, to commemorate the last three hours of Jesus’ life on the cross. People come and go throughout that time, and there is a lot of meditative silence. Every church I’ve been at does veneration of the cross as part of their Good Friday liturgy - where some kind of cross is brought forward and placed before the congregation for prayer and contemplation. But at St. Mary’s we had a life-size cross that was brought out and carried all the way around the block that St. Mary’s occupied - after all, we had three hours. I believe we took turns, but since I was 30 weeks pregnant all I know for sure is that I was not offered a turn. And while we carried a full cross, and that is usually what Jesus is carrying in artwork of his passion, that probably wasn’t how it went, historically. Most likely, Jesus was carrying the crossbeam, and the vertical pole was fixed upright at the site of the crucifixion. But as a prayer practice, having the full cross there gives us a vision of a man sized cross, and not just a crossbeam, being carried to the site of the death of our savior.

We’ve been reading through the Gospel of Matthew, and over the past few weeks not only has it been in order but we haven’t been skipping anything or leaving parts out. So this week’s lesson picks up with the next verse after last week’s proclamation that Jesus was  Israel’s Messiah. Jesus then “ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.” The very next sentence is, “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.” Which makes Peter’s response understandable. He just proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah! And Jesus’ response, while complimentary, was also a little anticlimactic to the Messiah claim: don’t tell anyone, but then I’m going to be killed and on the third day be raised. But Jesus is doing more than just bringing everyone down and confusing them. Peter himself doesn’t fully understand what he’s pushing back against. Jesus is pointing to “this is the way we need to go”, and Peter responds “no no that sounds terrible” and then Jesus is like “get in line son because we can't make it to where God says we're going unless we do it the way I intend to do it.” (thank you Sam Sheridan)

Back in Chapter 10, Jesus warned his disciples about persecutions to come, but this is the most vivid imagery yet: that of taking up one’s cross. He will predict his passion three additional times, the final time at the beginning of Holy Week.

Jesus brings double shock-value in these verses. He first predicts his own death - not the method, but only death - and resurrection. But Peter seems to miss the resurrection part and gets real caught up in the death part. And even though Jesus doesn’t explicitly say he would die by crucifixion, the use of the phrase “take up their cross and follow me” would certainly have gotten their attention, because crucifixion was extremely common and widespread at this time. Today, we think about the crucifixion, but Jesus’ contemporaries would have been well aware of crucifixion in general. At the very least they would have witnessed the aftermath of a crucifixion, even if they had not actually witnessed someone being crucified. Crucified bodies lined the road. Crucifixion was most commonly used on slaves, political rebels and insurgents, non-citizens and foreigners, and violent criminals. It was so common that mass crucifixions were not unheard of. Roman Jewish historian Josephus wrote that during the Jewish revolt in 70CE, Roman soldiers crucified as many as 500 people a day, until timber for crosses became scarce. The practice was banned in the 4th century following Constantine’s conversion, out of respect for Jesus.

The call to pick up your cross would have been a shocking call. It would have gotten people’s attention. Notice that Jesus didn’t tell Peter to take up his cross, Jesus’ cross. At this point in the text, Jesus doesn’t have a cross for us to carry for him. He won’t receive his literal cross for another 11 chapters. Jesus told Peter, and tells us, to take up our own cross. 

Because some tasks are ours, and some are God’s. As Paul reminds us in today’s text from Romans, "'Vengeance is mine, I will repay’, says the Lord.” I don’t know about you, but I would say 99% of the time when I hear the phrase “vengeance is mine” used, it is someone claiming vengeance for themselves, not laying down their weapons. This quote can be found in the Song of Moses from the end of Deuteronomy. The Song is an eloquent poetic homily on the transformation of the filial relationship between the Lord and Israel. Where Moses claims the Lord’s vengeance, it is in the middle of a promise of the Lord’s intervention as judge and warrior to exact retributive justice. The Lord’s vindication is a prophetic promise of divine intent to prosecute wrongdoers on Israel’s behalf. And Paul is reminding us that vengeance is not ours to claim. No matter how much we might want the work of vengeance to be ours, it isn’t. Paul drives his point home with his next quote, which comes from Proverbs, and tells his readers what is their work: to feed their enemies.

So what is ours to do? To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “How is the disciple to know what kind of cross is meant for him? He will find out as soon as he begins to follow his Lord and to share his life.” (91) We receive plenty of instruction, it’s just that more often than not it’s less exciting than vengeance. It’s also less costly than death by crucifixion. But in following those calls, we remain in the shadow of Jesus’ cross. Not to do Jesus’ work, but to be in constant awareness of what has been done on our behalf and how we are called to respond to Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.

In the words of Bonhoeffer again, “The cross is laid on every Christian…As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death - we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time - death in Jesus Christ.” (89-90)

We are not called to save the world or to redeem the world. Thank God. We are not even called to save or redeem just ourselves. We are called to live as though we have been saved. As though we have been redeemed. Because we have, through the redeeming acts of our savior Jesus Christ. As we came out of the baptismal waters into our new lives in Christ Jesus, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. In those waters of baptism we were buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. And through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit into the shadow of the cross of Christ. So then “how is the disciple to know what kind of cross is meant for him?” We find it through our answer to all of the questions in our baptismal promises:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

We answer them all the same: I will, with God’s help. Amen.