Loving God, you used Peter to build up your church in spite of his frailties and failings.  May you also work through us by the power of your Spirit, transforming our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Peter gives us hope.  He is so undeniably fallible and human that it’s easy for us to see ourselves in him.  Peter, more than any other disciple, shows us what it means to be human and to believe in Jesus Christ.  Only last week, we heard him boldly confessing that Jesus is “the Messiah, the son of the living God” (Mt. 16:16).  Jesus pronounced him blessed because of this confession and rejoiced because this had been revealed to Peter by his heavenly Father.  Yet, only a few verses later in today’s gospel, Peter seems to be speaking for Satan and has become a stumbling block for Jesus (Mt. 16:23).  Peter has these moments of clarity where he knows exactly who Jesus is and believes in Jesus.  And then Peter has these other moments where he responds as any human being would: with doubt and fear and dismay over what Jesus is saying.

    We saw this just a few weeks ago when the disciples were fighting the wind in the boat out on the sea.  Peter was the one who wanted Jesus to prove that it really was him who was walking on the water.  “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Mt. 14:28).  At Jesus’ invitation, Peter steps out of the boat and starts walking on the water – and what faith he must have had to do that!  However, fear takes over almost immediately, and Peter starts to sink.  He still has enough faith, though, to look to Jesus to save him.

    Really, isn’t this exactly what it is like to have faith in Jesus Christ?  We start moving in a certain direction, believing that God has called us to do so.  I am thinking particularly of life decisions that we might make, or even decisions that we might make as a congregation.  We make our decisions and step out of the boat onto the water, and we say, “Hey - this is pretty cool!  I’m walking on the water and moving toward Jesus!”  But then doubt and fear so often enter the picture.  Is this really what God wants?  Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing?  What if this doesn’t work?  What if people don’t like it?  And we start to sink until we call out to Jesus, “Lord, save us!”  “Lord, save me!”  And we find ourselves safe in the boat with Jesus, and strong in faith at that particular moment, and able to worship God and give thanks.

    It always seems to be faith and doubt all mixed in together.  This is what it is like to worship God and to follow Jesus.  We worship and we doubt and we continue to learn.  We probably also have our moments where we, like Peter, presume to know what God’s will is.  However, Peter, in this case, is mistaken.  When Peter objects to what Jesus has been saying about his own suffering and death, he is essentially saying, “That can’t be what God wants.”  “God forbid it, Lord!” (Mt. 16:22, NRSV) “God would never let this happen to you, Lord!” (CEV).  Peter responds just as many of us would.  We wouldn’t want Jesus to suffer, either.  Yet, Jesus is the one who has to lead.

    One commentator suggests that when Jesus says, “Get behind me,” it is quite literally a statement of where Peter, or any other disciple needs to be: behind Jesus, following where Jesus is leading [Stoffregen -  http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt16x21.htm ]. In fact, the same person suggests that Christians should have their own cheer that goes, “We’re number two!  We’re number two!”  It’s not that Peter has become Satan, or anything quite so sinister.  Rather, he is echoing the same temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness – trying to lead Jesus away from the path of suffering that God knows to be necessary.  Peter presumes to know what God wants, rather than allowing Jesus to lead the way.  Really, do we do the same?

    We see in Peter faith and doubt all at the same time, presuming at times to know what God wants, as well as an expression of the proverb, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41).  He wants to stay awake and keep watch with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, but keeps falling asleep instead.  He wants to stand firm in his confession of Jesus, even as he proclaims his willingness to go to prison or even to death for Jesus (Lk. 22:33).  Yet, fear takes over and he just can’t do it.  When the time comes, and Jesus has been arrested, Peter can’t even bring himself to say that he knows Jesus (Mt. 26:69-75).  The spirit indeed is willing, and the flesh is weak!

    How many times do we have in mind what we want to do - what we want to see happen - and we just can’t bring ourselves to do it?  How many times do we want to stand up for what we believe and fear stops us from saying anything at all?  How often do we start out with wonderful intentions and end up devastated when we look and see what we’ve done?  I suspect that most of us have been there at one time or another.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak – for Peter, and for us!

    However, this is where the hope comes in.  Those of us who struggle with faith and doubt, and with wanting to tell God what God’s will is, and with good intentions going awry – those of us who struggle with these things can look at somebody like Peter and see the very same struggles.  Yet, God worked through Peter.  God took this frail and fallible human being and put his Holy Spirit upon him, and made him into a powerful preacher and healer and leader in the early church.

    In fact, one of the most powerful arguments for the resurrection of Jesus is the change that was evident in the disciples and in Peter afterwards.  The one who previously was cowering in fear is now so certain of the resurrection of Jesus that he truly is willing to go to prison or even to be put to death for the sake of sharing this good news.  The one who previously was an uneducated fisherman becomes a powerful preacher.  The one who previously went back and forth between faith and fear now becomes such a powerful presence that even his shadow is believed to have the power to heal people (Acts 5:15).  How is this to be explained other than the power of the risen Christ and of the Holy Spirit?  

    Peter becomes a transformed person after his encounters with the risen Jesus. Similarly, the Spirit can transform us, in spite of the fact that we did not share in the physical encounters of the disciples with the risen Jesus.  Instead, we are one step removed, having the testimonies of those who did have those encounters, which are recorded for us in the Scriptures.  The Spirit speaks to us through those Scriptures, and leads us to faith, and transforms our hearts and our minds in order that we might live for Christ.

    You know, one has to wonder why Jesus didn’t choose a different sort of person as a disciple.  Wouldn’t he want somebody who would stand firm, and who would do what he says he’s going to do, and who would do exactly what Jesus says in every situation?  Perhaps, but such a person would feel no need for God.  Paul understood how things work when he proclaimed that God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).  We simply don’t discover what God can do through us until we realize that we can’t do it on our own.  Then, when we are willing to hand over our lives to God, God is able to do all kinds of things through us, granting us the gifts of the Spirit that are needed in order to build up the body of Christ.

    Our God uses frail and fallible human beings just like you and me in order to build up God’s kingdom here on this earth.  May we, too, exhibit the power of the risen Christ among us, transformed by God’s Spirit in order to live out of love for God and for the people around us.  Amen.

Lectionary 22 (A)                                Matthew 16:21-28
August 28, 2011
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2011 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved