Last week’s sermon passage was the first major climax in the gospel of Matthew. Since his opening verses, Matthew has been asking his readers ‘who is Jesus?’ In Matt 16:16 we hear it from Peter’s mouth; ‘The Messiah, the Son of the living God’. The fascinating thing though is, Jesus immediately orders his disciples not to tell anyone (v. 20). Why?
The reason is the disciples don’t yet know what KIND of Messiah Jesus is. The 1st century Jewish expectation was of a Messiah would take Israel back to it’s heyday of the time of King David, by (i) conquering all enemies (e.g. the Romans), and (ii) bringing in a renewed time of material prosperity and peace.
The problem is, Jesus did not come to defeat mortal enemies, nor bestow material blessings. Rather he came to defeat the spiritual enemy of ‘Sin’, and bestow the spiritual blessing of ‘peace with God’. Yet in order to accomplish these 2 things, Jesus had to ‘suffer many things […] and that he must be killed’ (Matt 16:21). Jesus’ kingdom is not one of earthly triumph; but earthly suffering.
If the disciples had begun to spread the word about Jesus before they understood this, they would have done untold damage to His kingdom. There are many preachers today who proclaim that Jesus wants to give his people ‘health, wealth and prosperity’ in this world. This is a flat out lie, and a direct contradiction to Matt 16: 24:
‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’
Those who preach such heresies ship wreck people’s faith. The Bible teaches that when suffering comes our way, it is not Jesus failing us; it is Jesus’ words coming true. While suffering is never pleasant, avoiding it MUST NOT be the Christian’s first priority. Our first priority is to take up our cross and follow Jesus, no matter the cost.
