The Fine Line between Rock & Stumbling Block

The Reverend Tommy Thompson
Matthew 16:21-28 & Romans 12:9-21
11th Sunday after Pentecost
28 August 2011


Last week’s Gospel lesson revealed to us the rock upon which Jesus’ church is being built--the apostolic confession of Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God. We learned that this confession took upon itself very particular flesh in the life of the apostles as we read in the acts of the apostles, etc. It is upon that very particular foundation that Christ is building all of us baptized into the spiritual house St. Peter talks about whose capstone is the builder, Christ Jesus our Lord.

This morning we continue with the “rest of the story.” And what is revealed to us is that the rock upon which Jesus will build his church becomes another kind of rock that none of us want to become: a rock that causes stumbling...an obstacle to the divine mission...that which seeks to keep the fulfillment of God’s mission from being realized.

The apostles, being represented well by Simon Peter, confessed Jesus rightly as Messiah and Son. Now God the Son reveals the true nature of his Messiahship... “From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” But this is not the “right” understanding of who the Messiah is based on the thought of the first-century world. They expected the Messiah would stampede into their world in triumph, overthrowing the Roman empire and making Jerusalem rich with prosperity and material wealth. Their understanding of the coming Messiah was based on the victories of old of Judas Macabees rather than on the revelation of God. For Messiah to be handed over to death and then to be raised on the third day had never entered the thoughts of human beings...

So Peter, representing the human worldview of the first-century world and the human worldview of all times, steps in front of Jesus in similar fashion as did Satan in Matthew 4, and rebukes him with a prayer...that’s really what it is in the Greek text, a prayer, “May God be gracious to you...” the NRSV translates it, “God forbid it Lord!” Isn’t that what Satan usually does...comes as a wolf disguised in sheep’s clothing? Maybe if he says it through the “rock,” Peter, and in the form of a prayer coming from the rock, he will cause Jesus to bow down to him this time...causing Jesus’ mission to be aborted.

Wrong! not Jesus...He is without sin...he is off the age to come, which is the age that truly has always been and never will pass away...he knows the schemes of the evil one better than the evil one knows himself...so he turns to Peter and says to Peter and the one who works through even Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Ah, there it is...that fine line between rock and a stumbling block: understanding/perspective/revelation--human or divine.

The Gospel cannot be any stronger in it’s proclamation. There is a reason these two texts are so closely connected. Today we receive a wake-up call...to be made vehemently aware of the line that exits between being built upon the rock of the church and becoming a stumbling block to the way of the kingdom of God is an extremely fine line for us sinful human beings.

What is more is that the Gospel makes the emphasis even stronger by what comes immediately after today’s Gospel reading--the story of the transfiguration which we sat with only a few weeks ago in the celebration of that feast. There the Father has something to say...the disciples’ are asked to kindly shut their mouths and hear what the Father has to say about His Son, as the Father interrupts Peter’s insight into the transfiguration and says, “This is my Son, the beloved, with Him I am well pleased. LISTEN TO HIM!”

So the flow of the Gospel narrative in Matthew 16 and 17 goes like this: The disciples are asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds representing all of the apostles and makes the proper confession: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” And to this confession, Jesus raises his glass in affirmation: “You are Rock and upon this rock, i will build my church.” But Peter, like the rest of us, is so quick to preserve His own life/his own humanly transmitted worldview...to attempt to walk in front of God as if our human understanding were sufficient for our salvation. Immediately after Peter makes this true confession he speaks and becomes scandalous--a rock that causes stumbling....not the right kind of rock. He is called to go back where he belongs--behind Jesus, rather than in front of him. Then, in the next passage of Scripture, the Father’s voice thunders on the mountain calling the disciples to stop talking and simply listen to Jesus.

What is consistent and key in this flow of the narrative is how Simon became known as the rock. It wasn’t because of his special status...any cleverness of his own design...no, Jesus makes that clear, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven.” It is only the apostles’ openness to the divine perspective that enables them to be the rock/the foundation of the church as revealed in the acts of the apostles and elsewhere. And as soon as they cease to be open to the divine revelation, rather than becoming the rock upon which it is built, they become scandalous--a stumbling block to it’s very mission.

The two times Peter spoke after he was named the rock, he was off-base. Maybe his head began to swell, who knows. The point is re-enforced though...this church business is grounded upon the revelation of God to us human beings and not upon mere human understanding. The point is also reinforced that Satan easily works through us human beings--even the best of us...using us to be a stumbling block to the realization of God’s mission in Jesus Christ rather than as an conduit through which it becomes actualized.

Which makes sense since immediately following Jesus’ rebuke of Peter/Satan, he invites them and all people of all times “if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly i tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

The proper response once our sinfulness and proneness to being used by evil is revealed is death. We are called daily to remember our baptism by continually dying to that self that is a stumbling block. In that death, we truly live, finding our real life that is hidden in God in Christ Jesus.

The point that is being made by this Gospel flow is that our being built upon the apostolic petros (rock) means not only confessing what the Father reveals to be true of His Son but also taking to heart what God reveals about our real, sinful human tendencies, and to intentionally "let that self die" by staying behind and not illusionally in front of God. From this proper received stance, we receive true life."

Today, I wonder how many of us are being stumbling blocks rather than conduits through which Jesus’ mission for the world comes to fruition? I wonder how many of us are seeking to walk in front of God with our own human plans...not willing to let go but to preserve the sinful self? Today God invites us to let go...to no longer hold on to what the world has made us and promised us. Die, Jesus says...die to the sinful, ego-centric self...repent of the worship of the sinful trinity of me, myself, and I and live again in newness of life that is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And if you think this doesn’t apply to you...that you are too holy...too good to become scandalous to the mission of the Kingdom of God...remember, Peter was just called “rock” by Jesus!

We know when we are denying the self, taking up the cross and following Jesus. Paul shows us what newness of life looks like. It looks like genuine love...hating what is evil...holding fast to what is good. It looks like loving one another with mutual affection as ikons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who live this way for ever and ever without end.

Dying and really living takes on flesh as we, zealous and ardent in the Spirit, serve the Lord by rejoicing in our hope of resurrection, and because of it, being patient even in persecution by persevering in prayer. Those who have been transformed from stumbling block to a living stone that is part of the new world God is building contribute not to their own bank accounts but to the needs of the saints whose work is for that new world...We are those who reach out with the warm embrace of Christ Jesus, welcoming strangers rather than ostracizing them.

We know we are following BEHIND Jesus when instead of seeking revenge against those who persecute us, we find ourselves blessing them.

The new life in Christ rejoices with those who rejoice and takes the time to weep with those who weep. The life of the future new creation begins now in the Spirit as we live in harmony with one another...the voices of our lives being sung in consonance with the melody that is Jesus Christ.

If we are carrying the cross, dying to the old self, and living the new life, then we’ve cease to be haughty Americans and demonstrate God’s life by associating freely with the “lowly”...the “first” of the kingdom of God. We do not claim to be wiser than we are ... we do not get in front of the Son but stay behind him, realizing all wisdom comes from Him...we heed his Father’s command : We listen very closely to Him!

Ultimately we begin to look a lot like Jesus, the body of Christ, when we no longer repay evil for evil, but offer love in response to the evil of the world. After all, it is love in the death of Jesus that overcame evil through His resurrection. Because we are living no longer for ourselves but for Him who died and rose for us, we no longer repay evil for evil...When our enemy is hungry, we give them food...when our enemy is thirsty, we give them the drink that satisfies...after all, isn’t that what God does for us each and every time we are gathered around this holy table?

Those who allow God to change them from stumbling block to living stones of the new temple that is Christ become Christ for the world...and this life Jesus says, fulfills...by losing our life, we find our life...

So let us not hold on to what is passing away but embrace today as much as ever the new life that has been given us in Jesus Christ. Christ is returning very soon...let our voices be in consonance with Jesus so that the life of God might resonate within and among us for the sake of the world becoming the world to come. Amen.