The Defeat of Death
Last week we looked at Peter’s confession, and three parts of that scene are immediately relevant to our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
First, Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church. The gates of Hades were the entrance to the realm of the dead, and they were what kept people from escaping death and coming back to life. Jesus here envisions the church engaged in a full-frontal war on death, and while this ultimately points to resurrection (the final defeat of death), there’s more that we should say about this.
Death doesn’t exert its power only when someone passes through its gates. Death’s power reaches beyond those gates and affects our lives here and now. Some say that we live in a culture of death, but this problem affects all of humanity, not just our current culture. So the author of Hebrews writes:
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb 2:14–15, ESV).
The fact that we know how our story ends (at least on this side of resurrection) and the fear that comes with that knowledge make us subject to lifelong slavery. In this way, death exerts an influence in our lives and in our culture long before we ever pass through its gates, and the church’s vocation is to push back against death wherever it rears its ugly head.
Jesus is Lord
Second, Peter stands in Caesarea Philippi, a place swarming with symbols of imperial power and pagan deities. In this place, he confesses that Jesus is the Messiah (the coming King) and the only Son of the living God, in stark contrast to the emperor in Rome, whose great claim to fame was that he was the son of a dead Caesar. Peter’s confession in this particular location should remind us that Jesus Christ is Lord and that everything and everyone else is not. This claim is the basic confession of the disciple of Jesus Christ.
Getting the Meaning Right
And third, Peter’s confession should remind us that saying the right words and getting their meaning right are not the same thing. This becomes obvious as we keep reading Matthew’s Gospel. Peter’s confession is a turning point in the Gospel. It is a hinge for the entire Gospel of Matthew. Notice that immediately after this scene, Matthew writes:
From that time Jesus began to explain to 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 (Matt 16:21).
(”Explain” is a better translation than “show.”)
Peter’s confession is the moment the narrative turns, and Jesus finally begins to explain to his disciples the true shape of his ministry and, in particular, what will happen when he arrives in Jerusalem. He says, “I’m going to go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and on the third day, rise again.”
This sequence of events directly relates to what Jesus says to Peter after Peter’s confession. Even when Jewish authority and imperial power had done their worst to him, Jesus’ resurrection proves that death cannot hold him. From a narrative perspective, Jesus’ resurrection proves that the gates of Hades cannot prevail against him and the community he’s forming.
And what does Peter do? What does the man who just made this incredible confession a few verses earlier do in response to what Jesus has just said?
And Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (16:22).
To which Jesus replies:
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (16:23).
This is a jarring contrast to Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession, and it appears only a few verses later.
So what’s going on here?
Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah. That’s the right word. Peter has said the right thing, as we do when we recite the Creed together. But then Jesus begins to explain what it means that he’s the Messiah, the actual shape of his messianic ministry, and Peter outright rejects it. This shows that saying that Jesus is the Messiah and understanding what that actually means are not the same thing.
Peter, like many in his day and like many in ours, had filled that word with his own ideas. It’s almost certain that Peter expected Jesus to go to Jerusalem, start an insurrection against the Romans, defeat them, and then purify the temple. That’s what Peter thought it meant when he said that Jesus was the Messiah. It’s what most people in his day thought it meant for anyone to be the Messiah.
But Jesus has a different understanding of Messiah in mind. When Peter is confronted with this different understanding, he doesn’t say, “Well, Jesus, you’re the Messiah, so I’d better listen to what you have to say.” He’s already decided he’s right. He’s already decided he knows better. Instead, he pulls Jesus aside and says, “No, that’s not what’s going to happen. That’s not what the Messiah is supposed to do.”
Listen to Him
In just a few verses, Jesus will be on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the voice from heaven will say to Peter and the other disciples gathered there:
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matt 17:5).
That’s what Peter should be doing. He should be listening to Jesus. That’s also what all of us should be doing. We come to Jesus with preconceptions about who he is and what it means to be his disciple. Our culture, other Christians, books, blogs, radio ministries, and many other influences want to tell us who Jesus is and what it means to be his disciple, but our primary task is to listen to him.
This doesn’t mean those other things are inherently wrong. I want you to listen to me talk about Jesus, but your first task, whether it’s me preaching, a Bible study, or a book you’re reading, is to go back and listen to Jesus. He has the final word on who he is and what it means to be his disciple—not me, not anyone else, not contemporary Christian culture: no one but him. Listen to him.
Follow Me
And what Jesus says, first and foremost, is:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 16:24–25).
I don’t know what it means to “save” your own life, so I suspect a better translation here is “preserve.” By our very nature as creatures, we are inclined to preserve our lives, to keep them safe from harm. But Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him, which is how to lose your life, not how to preserve it.
So Jesus provides the logic:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matt 16:26).
When you read these verses in the ESV, at first Jesus is talking about our lives, but then he shifts to our souls, because, of course, our souls are the real part of us that fly off to heaven when we die.1 Except that the word translated “life” in verse 25 and the word translated “soul” in verse 26 are the same. Throughout both verses, Jesus is talking about the animating breath of God that keeps us alive and makes us living creatures, so don’t read this language through the lens of Platonic dualism.
If you want to preserve your life, if you want to keep it safe from the risks of following Jesus, you’ll lose it. But if you lose it for Jesus’ sake, on the last great day, the final Easter, the day when the gates of Hades are broken forever, you will find your life again.
Think about all that Jesus says about money, wealth, power, and prestige, and ask yourself: What is the ultimate worth of all the things we try to accumulate in this life? Specifically, how does all of that compare to eternal life? What wouldn’t you give, right here, right now, in exchange for eternal, resurrected life?
If the answer isn’t “everything,” then you need to ask yourself whether you really believe there is something more to come after death rears its ugly head. Nothing in this world is worth the day when God breathes the breath of life back into your body.
Nothing.
Conclusion
The Messiah has come, not with swords and spears, which Isaiah said would one day be turned into plowshares and pruning hooks, but with a cross. He has waged his war not at the gates of Jerusalem or the gates of Rome, but at the gates of Hades. He has come to defeat death once and for all, and he calls his disciples to join him in that war.
He knows that all people are enslaved not only by the fear of death but by death itself, the fate that awaits us all. But he knows how to beat it. He knows how to defeat death. He knows that the way up is the way down, that the way across is the way through, and that the way of the Lord has become the way of the cross. And so he sets his face toward Jerusalem and calls all those who would be his disciples, all those who understand that eternal life is worth far more than anything we may possess in this life, even the very air that fills our lungs, to take up their cross and follow him.
And that’s where I want to leave us today, with a bridge back to last Sunday. The confession is great. If you remember, I was ordained as a priest on the feast day of St. Peter’s confession. Our confession is important. It matters. But if we say words without listening to Jesus about what they mean, those words are empty and meaningless.
In short, confession without the cross is meaningless.
Jesus doesn’t want his people to sit there and say the right words. He wants you and me to take up our cross and follow him wherever he leads, no matter the cost.
Amen.
Life Group Study Guide
Intro Prayer
Heavenly Father, we come before you as your people, gathered in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. As we open your Word together today, we ask that you quiet the noise of our assumptions and preconceptions. Give us ears to truly hear what Jesus says to us, not just the words we already know, but the deeper meaning you desire to plant in our hearts. Holy Spirit, lead us into truth, challenge us where we need it, and draw us closer to the One who calls us to take up our cross and follow him. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ice Breaker
What is one thing you were absolutely certain about when you were younger that you later realized you had completely misunderstood?
Questions
Peter made a bold and correct confession that Jesus is the Messiah, yet Jesus rebuked him sharply moments later. What does this reveal about the difference between knowing the right words and truly understanding their meaning?
Peter had filled the word “Messiah” with his own cultural and political expectations. In what ways do we today bring our preconceptions to our understanding of who Jesus is and what it means to follow him?
Jesus told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matt 16:23, ESV). What does it practically look like to set your mind on the things of God rather than the things of man in your daily life?
The author of Hebrews describes people as being in “lifelong slavery” because of the fear of death (Heb 2:15). Where do you see the power or fear of death shaping the values and priorities of our culture today?
Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24). In concrete, practical terms, what does denying yourself look like in your life right now?
The word translated as “life” in verse 25 and as “soul” in verse 26 is the same Greek word. How does understanding that Jesus is speaking about the whole person, not just a spiritual soul, change how you think about what it means to lose or find your life?
Jesus asks, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt 16:26). What in your life are you most tempted to hold onto rather than surrender to Jesus?
“Confession without the cross is meaningless.” How does your community of faith, both as a congregation and as individuals, live out the cross-shaped life Jesus calls us to, beyond merely reciting the Creed?
Life Application
This week, choose one area of your life where you have been trying to preserve or protect something rather than surrender it to Jesus. It might be a relationship, a financial decision, a reputation, a comfort, or a fear. Spend time each day in prayer, asking Jesus to speak into that area and to give you the courage to take up your cross there. At the end of the week, reflect on what you heard from him and what, if anything, you feel called to release or change.
Key Takeaways
Saying the right words about Jesus and truly understanding what they mean are not the same. Peter’s confession and his immediate rejection of the cross reveal how easily we can speak correct theology while missing its deepest implications.
Jesus defines what it means to be the Messiah and to follow him. Our primary task as disciples is to listen to him above all other voices, including those of culture, tradition, and even well-meaning teachers.
The call to discipleship is a call to take up our cross. Following Jesus means embracing the paradox that losing your life for his sake is the only way to truly find it on the day of resurrection.
The church’s vocation is to resist the power of death in all its forms, trusting that Christ has already waged and won the decisive battle against death through his death and resurrection.
No accumulation of wealth, power, prestige, or security in this life can compare with the eternal resurrected life Jesus promises. A genuine belief in what is to come reshapes how we hold everything in the present.
Ending Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you that your Son did not come with swords and earthly power, but with a cross, waging war against death itself so that we might have life. Forgive us for saying the right words yet refusing to follow where they lead. Forgive us for filling his name with our own expectations rather than listening to him. As we leave this time together, give us the courage to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him into whatever you have prepared for us. May our confession of faith never be empty words but a living commitment to walk the way of the cross with him. We trust that the gates of Hades will not prevail and that on the last great day we will find our lives again in him. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please note the sarcasm.