WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:04.000 Do we have any Edgar Allan Poe fans here today? 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:05.759 All right. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.560 Maybe a little more if somebody's not so sure. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:11.759 Theron's like, uh, it depends on what you mean by that. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.199 Um, Edgar Allan Poe was an American author. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:21.280 For those of you who don't know, he was very well known for his poetry, uh, which he better be with the name Poe, right? 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:22.239 I think. 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:23.920 Maybe not. 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:29.440 He was especially known, though, for his short stories, like the horror and the mystery stuff that he would write. 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:34.719 Uh, he's particularly known for the mysterious kind of macabre nature of his writing. 00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:50.960 A perfect example is his short story, The Pit and the Pendulum, where a prisoner awakens to find himself trapped in this dark dungeon, and he's bound to a table with this uh deep, seemingly bottomless pit beneath him. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:01:15.120 And as he struggles to make sense of his surroundings and his circumstances, he discovers something horrifying: a razor-sharp pendulum slowly swinging above him, dropping just a little bit lower with every pass, designed by his captors as an instrument not only of death, but of cruel psychological torture. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.239 He desperately looks for a way to escape. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:19.760 But the blade keeps coming. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.719 It swings back and forth, back and forth, slowly but surely. 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:33.920 Poe writes paragraph after haunting paragraph of the man's internal dialogue and his disorientation and the rank fear that overcomes him. 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:38.319 With the pit below and the pendulum above, his death is inevitable. 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:42.560 And the terrifying thing is that he can see it coming. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:53.200 But suddenly, not to spoil anything for you, it's a 200-year-old story, so it's kind of your fault, but the story ends with a massive twist. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:59.920 The man hears a voice above him, and his captors are defeated, and all of a sudden he is saved. 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:02.159 Everything changes in a moment. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:10.719 Well, today we encountered a similarly jarring shift in the Gospel of Matthew, along with a bunch of other parallels we'll be talking about. 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:23.039 Last week we got to hear Peter's great confession of faith, one of the most beautiful in all of Scripture, and we got to profess along with him that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:25.120 And this was a huge triumph. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:26.479 Peter gets it. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:31.199 Peter has understood who Jesus is and declares it boldly and clearly. 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:41.599 And Jesus even makes a play on words with his name, which means rock, saying that on this faith expressed by Peter, Jesus is going to build his church. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:44.960 But what a jarring shift we've had today. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:52.080 Jesus goes from saying, You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, to get behind me, Satan. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:56.960 It's an almost comical juxtaposition that Matthew gives us, and that's the point. 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:01.360 Peter has swung wildly back and forth. 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:10.319 Poe gave us the pit and the pendulum, but some 1800 years earlier, Matthew gave us Pete and the pendulum. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:15.520 Today I'd like to examine all of this together with you and see what Jesus has to teach us. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:22.560 And it starts with what Jesus began to teach his disciples as he makes a shocking declaration. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:28.080 Jesus makes absolutely explicit, something he's been implying for quite a while. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.400 This is actually a major turning point in Matthew's gospel, and it can be easy to miss. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:33.840 But listen to this. 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:49.120 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. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:55.840 Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has been heading in a very clear and very specific direction from the start, even before his birth. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:02.479 The angel had told Joseph at the very beginning of the gospel that Jesus was coming to save his people from their sins. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:06.159 Jesus had talked about the sign of Jonah's death and resurrection. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:14.400 It's been clear for a while that the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees is amping up and approaching what is going to be a deadly climax. 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:16.879 But here Jesus makes it plain. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:24.319 He must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die and be raised. 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:29.839 Jesus uses a Greek word that speaks of necessity, divine necessity. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.759 It is necessary that Jesus goes to Jerusalem to die. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:36.240 It's been his mission all along. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:42.879 And while his latest trip up north has cooled the tension for a little bit, now it's time. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:47.839 The rest of Matthew's gospel will be laser-focused on Jesus' trek to the cross. 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:49.120 It's what he came for. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.639 For Jesus, it is necessary. 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:58.000 But for Peter, it's unthinkable. 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:06.160 Last week we were rightly impressed by the boldness with which Peter confessed his faith, but now Peter puts that boldness to work in all the wrong ways. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:11.199 Matthew says that he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:19.040 Can you imagine rebuking the one you have just declared to be the Christ, the Son of the living God? 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:32.800 Peter's reaction to the shocking declaration of Jesus is so visceral that he can't help himself from recoiling from it and proclaiming to Jesus, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:37.279 Jesus had said it must happen. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.399 Peter says it shall never happen. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:49.279 Peter is directly confronting the one he knows to be the Son of God, and this directly on the heels of his great profession of faith. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.560 What a disappointing vacillation. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:59.519 Like the pendulum in Poe's dark story, Peter has swung all the way from one side to the other. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:02.079 And this is not a gradual drift. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:04.639 Matthew presents it as near immediate. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:14.319 Peter, the rock of true faith, has immediately become a stumbling block, an obstacle placed squarely in Jesus' path. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.040 Jesus himself has never wavered. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:19.199 His mission has never changed. 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:27.439 But now Peter's rejection of that mission is threatening to divert Jesus from the road to the cross down a different path. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:37.040 A path devoid of suffering, devoid of death, and therefore a path devoid of resurrection. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:43.040 So Jesus responds by making clear exactly where this rejection is coming from. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:45.680 It is truly diabolical. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:52.959 Peter has gone from being the mouthpiece of the believing disciples to speaking for the great adversary. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:57.600 He has set himself against God and his anointed. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:02.800 And the only thing that can be done with such an obstacle is for it to be removed. 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:08.959 The uncomfortable thing about all this, of course, is that we have the same problem that Peter does. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:17.519 Like Peter, how often do we fall into the trap of insisting that God's way of dealing with the world and its evil should conform to our way? 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:25.920 How often do we see true triumph as consisting only of the exertion of power and superiority and the trappings of worldly success? 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:33.199 How often do we recoil when we or those we love experience great suffering? 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:37.040 Like Peter, we vacillate wildly. 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:48.560 We swing like a pendulum back and forth, back and forth, between faithfulness and unfaithfulness, trust and doubt, great strength and withering weakness. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:08:00.879 Sometimes with a terrifying immediacy, we sway between generosity and selfishness, humility and pride, purity and lust. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:07.920 We deal with mood swings, rapidly changing life circumstances that knock the wind out of us. 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:14.879 Our obedience and commitment and confidence all waver and swing wildly back and forth with deadly effect. 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:21.199 We confess our faith with boldness one day, and find ourselves questioning it the next. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:30.959 When the hard things of life press in on us like the walls of an ever shrinking pit, we end up feeling like Poe's protagonist, trapped and hopeless. 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:37.120 Like Jeremiah did in our Old Testament reading today, with pain unceasing and wound incurable. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:42.080 Like Peter, our faith gets mingled with misunderstanding. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:53.200 We look for forgiveness without repentance, discipleship without self-denial, resurrection without crucifixion. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.480 Martin Luther talked about this type of thing in the Heidelberg disputation in 1518. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:04.879 There he famously contrasted what he called theology of the gl of theology of glory with the theology of the cross. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:10.000 A theologian of glory sounds really good, but he's way off base. 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:21.519 Luther says that he prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly. 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:30.000 Now we love all the stuff in the left column as we think about what the theologian of glory prefers. 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:37.519 And yet Jesus came to us with all the stuff on the other side: suffering and cross and weakness and folly. 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:40.480 Peter found it foolish. 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:46.879 But it was necessary for Jesus to suffer, die, and rise. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:52.080 Peter is trying to tell Jesus what he is the Christ ought to do. 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:57.279 But Jesus is teaching us today that you cannot understand him at all apart from the cross. 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:03.440 Peter looks at the cross and sees the death of the Son of God as the ultimate, most unthinkable evil. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:11.600 God looks at the cross as what is going to bring about the greatest possible good for sinners. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:14.720 Peter is swinging toward a theology of glory. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:19.519 Jesus is swinging like a divine wrecking ball straight toward the cross. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:23.519 Peter was setting his mind on the things of man, not the things of God. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:34.960 And by correcting Peter in this way, Jesus is teaching us that the things of God are found in weakness and suffering and death. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:40.879 You cannot understand Jesus at all, apart from the cross. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:46.159 But the cross is the very solution to our wildest vacillations. 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:56.159 The approaching crucifixion of Jesus will be the very thing that will arrest the swing swing from the tangles of our hearts and stop our sin dead in its tracks. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:01.039 Like the protagonist in the pit and the pendulum, Jesus knows death is on the way. 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:03.679 The circumstances are dire and unavoidable. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:09.919 Just like in that story, death is inevitable, and the terrifying thing is that he can see it coming. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:15.519 But unlike in that story, Jesus is no helpless victim. 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:20.399 He goes willingly, with glorious purpose. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:27.759 And the story ends not with Jesus' escape from death, but with ours. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:33.440 Like Peter, our hearts and our words and our faithfulness are unstable. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:35.440 Jesus is not. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.480 Peter vacillates, but Jesus doesn't. 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:39.919 Not for an instant. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:44.960 He is on a collision course with sin, death, and hell, and it will cost him his life. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:47.759 But that's been the plan all along. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:53.759 That's the kind of Messiah Jesus is, the one prophesied throughout the ages. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:01.279 Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and what that means is that he came to give up everything for us. 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:05.600 Peter wants Jesus to save his own life. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:12.159 But Jesus knows that whoever would save his life will lose it. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:18.720 And so Jesus loses his life for our sake, so that our life might be found in him. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:24.399 Jesus took all of our mingled and mangled misunderstanding and put it to death. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:29.200 And that's why Jesus says all that stuff he says today about discipleship. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:36.320 He calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, to follow him, to lose our lives for his sake. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:45.919 When it comes to true discipleship, Jesus shows us that it's only available in one model, the one shaped exactly like his cross. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:49.759 Peter wants to take Jesus away from the cross. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:56.639 Jesus calls Peter and all of us to follow him to the cross. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:03.279 And Peter, redeemed by the love of Jesus, would answer that call. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:10.720 When our family was in Rome a couple months ago, we got to see so much amazing stuff, and included in that is just world-class art. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:12.080 It was truly humbling. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:18.799 And one of the most humbling and striking paintings that we saw was this one by Caravaggio. 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.480 It's a depiction of Peter's martyrdom. 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:26.799 In the end, Peter followed Jesus to the cross. 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:28.000 Literally. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:31.759 He set his mind on the things of God. 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:35.360 And that cross led to a crown. 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:42.159 Following Jesus means finding his presence in suffering and sorrow. 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:55.440 True discipleship is not the one that proves itself strong enough or saintly enough or even sacrificial enough, but the one that finds in the sacrifice of Jesus true and eternal life. 00:13:56.399 --> 00:14:00.399 Because it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and die. 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:05.440 And then it was necessary for Jesus to rise from the dead. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:06.639 And he did. 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:14.720 And those who spoke to Jesus that day when he corrected Peter would see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:16.720 And so will we. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:19.919 Our crucified and risen Lord Jesus is coming again. 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:35.120 And his call and his invitation is for us to set our mind on the things of God, to look to his death and his resurrection, to trust that even when we vacillate and find ourselves all over the place, what he did for us at the place of the skull has ransomed us for all eternity. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:40.879 Today we may we continue to confess with Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:48.960 And may we follow him to the cross through death in the grave and into eternal life. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:50.639 In Jesus' name. 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:51.600 Amen. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:58.399 May the peace of God, which transcends our understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever.