Scripture

Matthew 16:21-28

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.”

Reflection

Frankly, this passage is one I wish was softer and gentler. Picking up a cross, losing our lives, practicing death—not exactly the most winsome of invitations. But it’s Christ’s searing clarity about what it means to follow him that gives us assurance that we’ll find him with us when we do.

When Jesus said, “Follow me,” he wasn’t inviting us into an abstract way of being or a generalized soul trajectory. He meant something specific and embodied, actions and choices that are lived out now, among the people and places of our everyday lives. His own words and lived example show us what it means to follow in his footsteps:

These are actions that have real faces and real contexts attached to them, and Jesus is clear that practicing them will certainly cost us something. Even if it doesn’t require laying down our physical lives—though it did for Peter, as for many others across history and still today—walking the Way of Jesus means a series of small, daily deaths, each one costly and potentially lonely, perhaps with no immediate sign of fruit. It’s this promise of seeming defeat and delayed glory that is so offensive to Peter. How often are our instincts the same? “Far be it! This shall never happen!”

Always the good shepherd, Jesus doesn’t turn away from this resistance but beckons us deeper, reminding us that suffering and sacrifice are to be expected—and that it’s not the end of the story.

Where will you, today, have an opportunity to follow Jesus in these ways? What faces and places come to mind? What will it cost you? Will you say yes?

The good news is: Jesus is found where Jesus goes, and we’ll find him with us as we walk in his footsteps. The glory is to come, but the presence is now.

Prayer

Jesus, give me eyes to see how you would respond to the people and situations of my life. Give me courage to count the cost and still say yes, knowing that you have gone ahead and will be with me.

Holy Spirit, show me the way. Strengthen me when the call seems too hard, too much, too unfair. Help me step forward with peace and assurance.

Father, take all our losses and sacrifices and turn them into resurrection.