Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Readings: Acts 4:8-13 | 2 Peter 1:1-15 | Mark 8:27-35
Text: Mark 8:27-35
Human opinions abound. In politics, in reaction to the pandemic, in parenting, in education. In each of these arenas, we each have strong convictions. Sometimes our views are so firmly held that we have difficulty even interacting with someone of an opposing view. We might have heard things like, “I can’t stand to be around him because he’s a Trump supporter” “The pandemic is just a ruse for a Marxist takeover of the country.” “I just can’t see why anyone would or wouldn’t vaccinate their children.” “Children ought to be in public school so they can learn with others.” All of these are opinions, and they carry a lot of freight. In fact, they may have gotten your blood pressure up just at the mention of some of them…
The trouble with human opinions, no matter what they are, is that they are fallible. They’re subject to change and subject to error. We’d rather not admit that, but that is something that’s true. In our quest for ultimate truth and permanence, we look to this ideology, that solution, this individual as the be-all-end-all, but we’re only deluding ourselves and on the road to disappointment.
On the other hand, there is God’s truth. “Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Ps. 119:105; Isa. 40:8; Rev. 1:8) Who God is and His ways do not change with the morals or opinions of the day. He is not a different God for the Midwest versus the Northwest. Look outside and see that the same sun and moon still rise and set on dictatorships and democracies alike. God is the same, despite the tumult in our hearts, or the battles we wage.
And that unchangeable truth of God has been revealed among men. Jesus asked His disciples who men say that He is? “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” All of these were human opinions, based on observation and experience. 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” That’s the divine truth, shining in the midst of man’s darkened understanding!
Today we commemorate the Confession of St. Peter because it stands out against the backdrop of differing opinions and earthly observations. There’s unshakable truth in what God the Father in heaven reveals to Peter.[1] But there’s also contrast within Peter himself, because like us, he is a man. He’s liable to err and can be just as proud about his way as any of the rest of us:
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
He made a true confession one minute, but as soon as Jesus started explaining the implications that He is the Christ, Peter started telling Jesus how it had to be. This does not come from God, and especially when you’re dealing with who Jesus is and what He did to save us and bring us out of Satan’s kingdom and into His own. Yet if Peter, the mighty spokesman for the Apostles, could so quickly be hoodwinked by Satan, then it shows that we are in like company.
This is the experience of every Christian: being both a fallen human being, flesh and blood, easily made a fool by Satan, and also one to whom the mighty, saving truth of God has been revealed. Yet even though we’ve had God’s truth revealed to us, we still so often set our minds on the things of man rather than the things of God.
So the Lord taught Peter and teaches us: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Any one of us who follow Jesus must do exactly that: follow Him. That means denying ourselves, including our most firmly held opinions and deeply engrained experiences and rather to learn from Him. It means when we don’t agree or don’t like where we see Him taking us, denying our limited and fallible understanding, and trusting where He is leading us.
“Let him…take up his cross and follow me.” With so much that is unsure in us and the world, how can we be sure of this word? It’s because through the cross of the Christ—the suffering many things, being rejected and killed, and rising after three days—God has assured us that it doesn’t depend on us. The Son of Man suffered on His cross for the sins of all people, especially you. You, with your doubts, your opinions right and wrong, the words you’ve said which have hurt and driven away others, you with the false beliefs and the ways you’ve profaned God’s name by how you’ve lived. The blood of Jesus’ cross covers it all. So when He calls you to follow Him, it’s in that kind of guarantee.
Nowhere else on earth will you be able to find such certainty than in unchangeable God revealing Himself in our midst. It’s a good thing there actually is a place for absolute truth and certainty, especially for us poor, unclean men and women. So thanks be to God who still reveals His perfect will among us!
This is what He is doing here in the Divine Service. We come in, worn out from the previous week—mistakes, things cancelled, another week family didn’t call, worried about the country, scared that those you love might get deathly ill or lose their job, remembering sharp words you exchanged with family. Into your many and various burdens, the Word of God speaks: “In the stead and by the command of my Lord, Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You won’t find the grace you need in the opinions of others, but if God who knows your every fault still blesses you with peace by His nail-pierced hands, then you know it’s certain even in heaven.
And soon He will bid you come to His table. Here a lot more denying of self takes place. One could ask, as Jesus did, “What do men say that this is?” There are several answers: It is our reenactment, simply a memory tool (Baptist). It’s an unbloody sacrifice offered to God (Roman Catholic). It’s a special time to reflect on what we all have in common (Methodist). We don’t take our cues from human opinions or shared experience, but from the Lord’s own words, which He has revealed to us.
That’s one of the reasons we speak the words of His testament every time there’s the Lord’s Supper. It’s not that we forget the words so much with our minds, as we’re slow to understand what Scripture has said [Luke 24:25]. In His Testament, He tells us to eat bread of which He says, “This is My Body given for you.” He says drink the cup, “This is My Blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:26-28, Luke 22:19-20) This is deep, and it’s a word that is true no matter what we think of it. The Apostle Paul told those who took it without examining themselves, that it’s given for sinners and without rectifying divisions among each other, ate and drank judgment upon themselves (1 Cor. 11:17-34)
A disciple is one who learns from his teacher, not the other way around. God doesn’t need to be taught by us, and there is no need to “improve” on what He says and does. It is what He says it is, regardless of what we think of it, or the means He gives it, or the man he chooses to administer it. It doesn’t need to be ratified by our vote, and it is not made holy by how much pomp we might add to it. The certainty is in the Words of Jesus that He joins to these humble means, because God is able—with the “low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are”[2]—to give heavenly comfort and strength, union with Christ Himself through this meal He holds.
We confess here in this place those things which are true and eternal. We hold to a salvation which God has revealed from heaven and put upon our lips. He enables us to not only speak those words, but for them to transform our minds from the faulty things of man, to the perfect goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior. Amen.
[1] Matt. 16:16-17
[2] 1 Cor. 1:28
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