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Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 30, 2026
Matthew 16:21-23
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our gospel reading for last week we heard Peter receive a flattering nickname from Jesus. In the midst of all kinds of wrong answers floating around about who Jesus was, Peter got it right. “Who do YOU say that I am?” Jesus asked him, and Peter responded: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus was so thrilled with Peter’s answer, which God the Father himself had revealed to him, that he called Peter “the rock.” Jesus said, “You are Petros (which in Greek means “rock”), and on this rock, I will build my church.”
Now here we are a week later, picking up right where we left off last week in the gospel, and here things have taken a drastic turn. Peter goes from being a rock to being a stumbling block! Peter goes from being a mouthpiece for God the Father to being a mouthpiece for Satan himself! “Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus said to him, “You are a stumbling block to me!” Peter got called a rock, and then just seven verses later he gets called the devil. What happened?
Well, after Peter made his good confession, after he correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of the living God, Jesus went on to teach Peter and all the disciples what that meant. Jesus taught them HOW he was going to save them. As St. Matthew tells us, “Jesus began to show them that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Peter answered the “who” question exactly right, but he did not like what Jesus was saying about the “how.” He didn’t like what he was hearing about this suffering and dying business. We can hardly blame him. I mean, Peter cared about Jesus. He loved him. No one wants the people you love and care about to suffer. But Peter went so far as to rebuke Jesus! Can you imagine? Peter knew Jesus was the Son of the living God and he had the gall to rebuke him, to correct him, to scold him, to think he knew better!
Jesus tells us more specifically what happened to turn Peter from a spokesman for God into a spokesman for Satan, from a rock to a stumbling block. Jesus says that Peter was setting his mind on human things rather than on divine things. In his human way of thinking, Peter wanted salvation without suffering. He wanted forgiveness and atonement without sacrifice. He wanted a Christ without the cross. In putting his mind on human things rather than divine things, Peter was missing the very means by which Christ would save us from our sin. And not only that, but by setting his mind on human things rather than on divine things, Peter had entirely missed what would come AFTER the suffering! He missed the promise of the resurrection. He missed the part where Jesus said that on the third day he would be raised.
Peter knew the “who” part of the gospel. God the Father had revealed it to him! But now Peter was relying on his own wisdom. He was setting his mind on human things, and in so doing he missed the “how” part of the gospel – and you really need both!
Setting one’s mind on human things rather than on divine things was not just a problem for Peter. It is a problem for all of us. It is a common human reflex, especially in the breathtaking hubris of modern times. It is very common today to do exactly what Peter did, pulling Jesus aside, thinking we know better than him, correcting him with our modern sensibilities, thinking we’re smarter or more compassionate than God. To set our mind on divine things is to listen to Jesus and to trust that he knows what he’s talking about! It is to surrender to the holy wisdom of God’s Word.
After addressing Peter, Jesus turned to the rest of the disciples and said: “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.” Not only will Jesus have a cross to bear; we will too!
Those who follow Jesus are called to deny themselves. This is not a human way of thinking! This is especially countercultural in a world where we are constantly encouraged to seek self-fulfillment. “Follow your bliss,” we are told. This is countercultural in an age where the self is seen as the primary arbiter of truth. “Seek your truth,” we are told. This is countercultural in a time when the goal of human life is widely seen as self-actualization. It is countercultural in a society which exalts the completely self-made person and complete self-reliance. Both ends of the political spectrum and both sides in the culture wars have their version of exalting the almighty self. It is the default human way of thinking. But followers of Jesus are called to think differently. We are called to set our minds on divine things. We are called to trust the holy wisdom of Christ’s word. And Christ Jesus, the Son of the living God calls us to deny ourselves.
This is not so much about external things. It isn’t so much about depriving yourself of all earthly pleasures. As Christians we are called to a measure of self-restraint in many situations, to be sure, but this goes much deeper. In calling us to deny ourselves Jesus is taking away one of our favorite idols: the self. He is telling us to not turn our “self” into our god, that to which we look for all purpose and meaning in life. This is about not turning your “self” into the final authority on truth. Above all, it is about not looking to your “self” for your salvation.
Life isn’t about finding yourself; it is about being found in Christ. Life isn’t about self-actualization, but Christ being actualized in us. It is not about following your bliss, which never leads where you think it will. It is about following Jesus. It is not about being definers of our own truths but humbling ourselves before God’s truth. It is not about being self-made but acknowledging that we are creatures who have been lovingly made and provided for by God. It is not about being self-reliant, it is about being fully reliant on God the Father and Christ the savior.
Jesus goes on to say that those who want to save their life will lose it, and that those who lose their life for his sake will find it. This sounds like a call to martyrdom, a call to die a glorious death for Jesus, so as to gain heaven. And it is true: eleven of the twelve disciples died exactly that kind of death. Only the apostle John lived to a ripe old age and died of natural causes. Every other disciple was martyred, executed for their faith – some of them on literal crosses. There are places in this world today where Christians literally lose their lives because of their faith in Jesus.
Thankfully that isn’t a likely scenario for us, but there’s another way of understanding what Jesus is saying here about losing our lives for his sake. Losing your life can also be understood as losing your “self.” I won’t bore you with a word study of Biblical Greek, but you’ll have to trust me that Jesus’ words here can be also understood as dying to your self – your self-centered ways, your self-defined truths, your selfish pursuits. It can be understood as losing your life as it currently is in order to live for something other than yourself. This, too, is countercultural. This goes against the default human way of thinking. But this is where life is really found. This is where we find life, Jesus says.
My wife and I were watching a Netflix documentary on the country singer Lainey Wilson. (I wish this was a Dolly Parton story, but it is very much in the spirit of Dolly, blessed be her memory.) Lainey Wilson, who is herself a rising star in country music, talked in the documentary about the demands of the road and the pressure to constantly produce and perform. She talked about the pressure she puts on her “self,” and how it was leading to anxiety and depression. She talked about how she ran out of “self”-motivation to keep doing what she was doing, and how it was leading to panic attacks and burnout. So, she called Reba McIntire. She told Reba about her struggles. Reba listened carefully, and then Reba gave her what Lainey called life-changing advice. Reba told her she needed to stop doing it for her “self” and needed to start doing it for someone else. The next scenes in the documentary were of a mom battling cancer who had come to one of Lainey’s shows. Lainey did that show for her, and it was electric. It showed Lainey inviting her backstage after the concert, hugging her and her family and praying over them. Lainey Wilson discovered what it means to lose her life, her “self,” and to find it again by living for someone else.
We might not be country music stars, of course. We might not have the same large-scale impact as someone like Dolly Parton or Lainey Wilson, but we are all called to do what we do for someone else. We are called as Christians to lose our lives, our selves, for the sake of someone else – for the sake of Christ. And the way we lose our lives for his sake is by living our lives for the sake of others – for your neighbor, for those in need, for your husband or wife, for your kids or grandkids, for your brothers and sisters here at church, for your community and your country. That is where we find life. We find it outside of our “selves,” in living for the sake of others.
We need both the “who” and the “how” of the gospel. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and the way he has saved us is through his suffering, his death on the cross, and his resurrection on the third day. This gospel is what saves us. Christ’s work for our sake is complete. He needs nothing from us other than faith – and faith includes setting our mind on divine things.
And as we set our mind on divine things, denying our “selves” starts to come more naturally to us. As the gospel takes hold of our hearts, we begin to trust the holy wisdom of Christ’s word rather than our human hubris of thinking we know better than God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we at least begin to live our lives not for our “selves,” but for Jesus, and for the people he puts in our path to serve in his name. This is where life is really found, and it is a gift from the One who first gave his life for us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church