Matt. 16:13-28
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[c] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[d] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Jesus Predicts His Death
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[e] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Okay... so, I know I missed writing last night. I spent a few hours at the coffee shop writing (on my novel... yep, pretty much all I do is write), and came home expecting to blog before bed. Instead I came home to a screaming baby, and we spent the rest of the night trying to lull/rock/sing/walk him back to sleep. My apologies. Life got in the way.
That said, here we are at my most favoritest character in all the Bible... Peter! I absolutely cannot wait to talk to this guy. He's got a passion, a fire, a personality that I don't believe is rivaled anywhere else in Scripture. He's always going overboard, literally and physically. In the first section, his answer to Jesus' question is picture perfect: what I think may be the first disciple's confession of faith. "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." He captures Jesus in a nutshell, and so beautifully. The Messiah. The Son. Alive. God.
But not even ten verses later, he pulls an open-mouth-insert-foot moment that would make the Son of God Himself describe him as satan, and as a stumbling block. Yeesh. His fierce devotion to Jesus makes it difficult for him to accept the plan that God has laid out.
His comment, though, sets up one of the most thought provoking verses in all of Scripture: What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? When the rubber meets the road, our salvation is all that can possibly matter. As Jess said in his sermon last night, it's the most important thing. It's the only thing. Why? Because we don't have a soul, as most people say. We are a soul. We have a body.
This is one reason why having children was such a daunting thought to me. When I chose to have a child, I chose to bring an eternal soul into this world. From now till all eternity, my son will never die. He will never die. The responsibility of that is enormous and I feel it, every day. Just the same, I will never die. I will never die. And that means that I must protect his soul, and mine, at all costs. Because all the baseball trophies, diplomas, accolades in the world won't matter if he doesn't win salvation. And all the clean houses, finished books, successful events in the world won't matter if I don't win it.
It's a sobering thought. But thanks to God for his great love for us, and for our salvation!
No comments:
Post a Comment