Matthew 16: 21-28
Want to get rich fast? Want to play a wicked guitar without practicing? Want to marry the most beautiful woman, or most handsome man, in the world? Want to write a series of best-selling novels? Want some super powers? Want excellent health?
You might be able to do all of those things and more on your own, but you also might need to ... make a deal with the devil. If you don't know how to do that, check out the internet eHow article on the subject. Here are the quick steps for dealing with the devil: Make an appointment. Hire a lawyer. Aim high. Be specific. Read the fine print. Enjoy the ride while it lasts but be sure to keep oneself in good health. Finally, pray fervently that we can beat the devil at his own game.
Sounds attractive, right? The reason this scenario seems appealing is that in our search for quick fixes, we look for the easy way to an easy life in our unfair world, especially if the personal cost seems so relatively low. One way of getting whatever we desire comes with an attractive payment plan --- nothing up front but everything paid in full at death. The price? Only our immortal and eternal soul, which, if you are really looking for the quick fix solution to fame and fortune, we probably are not using anyway!
This scenario of bargaining with evil can be found throughout history. There are legends in many cultures of people who made a deal with evil. Faust, the protagonist of the classic German legend made famous by the playwright Goethe, exchanged his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. There is even a term for that based on that play --- "Faustian bargain" --- a sophisticated way to question the rise of a person to fame and fortune who did not seem to pay his or her dues in diligence and hard work.
Musicians are especially associated with the Faustian bargain. Niccolo Paganini, the late 18th century violinist who many still believe was the greatest who ever lived, played the violin with such force and velocity that one Vienna concertgoer swore that he saw the devil helping Paganini play. That by the way may be the basis for the famous country western song, "The Devil Went down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band. Then of course we have legendary, early-20th century, Mississippi-delta guitarist, Robert Johnson who likewise is associated with making a deal with the devil down at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for a wicked good ability to play the blues.
It's not just musicians who have traditionally either made deals or were tempted too, however. Most famous of all is the older story of the one to whom evil offered multiple deals … which were all turned down. If anyone had reason to take a deal, it was Jesus, who knew he was facing a horrifyingly painful death if he kept doing and saying the things he had been doing and saying around Judea. If a deal with evil is about skipping the hard parts, Jesus understood that his life was nothing but hard parts, none of which he was willing to skip.
If you remember from last week, Matthew opens this section in chapter 16 with Jesus and the disciples coming into "the district of Caesarea Philippi." You may also remember from my sermon last week that this is significant because Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon was also known as the location of a large cave were several pagan shrines particularly the one to the Greek god Pan, the half-man, half-goat god of fright --- think of the word "panic." As I mentioned, the cave was also known for its massive springs of water which fed the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, but which also led some pagan worshippers to believe that it was the entrance to Hades - the underworld, or the realm of the dead.
Interestingly enough, Jesus uses this place to first question his disciples about the perceptions of him that were out there. "Who do people say that I am?" and "who do you say that I am?" Simon, of course, gets it right. "You are the Messiah," he answers, "the Son of the living God." In the shadow of these pagan shrines, Simon declares that Jesus is the direct agent of the one true and living God, the only one worthy of worship. Jesus, of course, blesses Simon's declaration and renames him "Peter," the rock.
Today our lesson continues from last week. We are not yet to move on, like we want to when we think we got it because Jesus also lays out where he and the disciples will be moving from here: toward Jerusalem --- toward death --- the death of Jesus. As we know later, Jesus will not only be bumping up against the gates of death and the realm of evil, he'll be walking through them.
Peter of course had rightly named him as the Messiah, but Jesus' understanding of messiah was not one of triumphant accolades, throngs of followers and political power. Instead, Jesus defined "Messiah" as one who would save his people through his own suffering and death.
The easy way would have been to play on his popularity and avoid the pain, and the temptation to do so had been with Jesus all along. If you remember as well, evil had met Jesus before, particularly out there in the wilderness before all this began, and offered Jesus the chance to have it all, without any cost to himself. All Jesus would have to do is give up his mission and buy into evil's agenda. As Bono sang it in U2's song "Vertigo," "All of this, all of this can be yours. Just give me what I want, and no one gets hurt."
But remember this continued conversation is occurring when we are still in Caesarea Philippi with pagan shrines all aaround. So what happens next? Peter, fresh off embracing his new fighting name --- Rock --- cannot believe what he is hearing. Suffering? Killed? These are not words associated with a Messiah. Peter points out that Jesus has an opportunity here. Messiah as a king to make everything better does not begin with the one to be king dying. None of that works if you are dead. Peter suggests instead, "Jesus, there must be an easier way and we will help you find it."
Like a man standing at the crossroads, Peter's ready to make a deal. Like Faust standing at the fireplace, pondering his unfulfilled dreams, "There must be a better way?"
Jesus, however, recognizes Old Scratch in Peter's rebuke. "Get behind me, Satan!" he snaps at Peter. "You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Jesus has a definite road to take and Jesus will not make a deal with evil to take the easier way out. Rather it is the way of the cross. "If any want to become my followers," he says to the assembled disciples, "let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
So by having this conversation in this location Jesus is pointing out the crossroads. One is the road to Jerusalem and the other in a sense is the road back to the darkness and superstition of the cave. Focus on saving your own life and making it easier and we go down the path no light. Focus on giving away our life by going down this path with Jesus, and we will find real life and not the kind that's artificially and temporarily inflated by the attractiveness of a devilish deal.
Jesus is reminding us of the price of our choices. "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?" The "them" is us.
I don't have to tell you that every day we are presented with a choice about whose kingdom we are going to follow. "Stand at the crossroads, and look," wrote the prophet Jeremiah, "and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16). In our Old Testament, Moses was at crossroads, stay and talk to a burning bush or just walk away.
The choices though are sometimes more subtle. Not everything is as obvious as spam from Nigeria. It is far easier to cut once then measure twice. It's far easier to leave a church then stay. It's far easier to blame a Pastor then challenge our own set beliefs. It's far easier to blame Washington DC, Democrats or Republicans, the rich, the poor, the migrant, the LGBT community, the list goes on. Following Jesus is not easy, but it is the only path that leads to light. Where are people making deals with evil in our families or in our community?
Furthermore, how are we challenging the "gates of hell" so to speak? What are some of the ways in which we can provide an alternative to the devilish deals being offered out there every day? Jesus did not panic when offered a deal. Neither should we.
To "take up the cross" then is not an invitation, for disciples then or now, to start going around looking for crosses to bear. The logic of the kingdom does not have to do with plotting the way to success; we are not to go looking for crosses. Instead, we are to obediently, humbly, give of self for the neighbor and not look for the easy way out, like Martin Luther saw so clearly when he writes in his Freedom of the Christian that anyone who has a partner or a family already has built-in crosses enough.
The choice is always before us, for one way is the cave and the other is to Jerusalem. But there is only one where we shall find our light. Amen.
Comments