It is not looking good out there. You can see it all over the headlines. The jobless rate has reached a 25 year high and seems to be seeking even greater heights. Just one example of this, Circuit City closed all its doors across the nation sending another 35,000 people home with no job. The stock market appears to have no bottom. Even after government bailouts, banks still do not have enough capital to balance out their balance sheets and get our economy moving again. Locally, more jobs are being cut, and as jobs are being cut, fewer people are buying local products causing more jobs to be cut and the process just continues on and on. Politicians do not seem to know what they are doing…which usually is not that much of a problem in a freedom loving democracy where we are usually better off when government does not accomplish much, but we actually need them to get something right and accomplish it well this time.
You know what people want? People want someone who can see what is going on, who will be bold and decisive, make decisions for the good of the nation, and who will not be derailed by the nay-sayers out there. We want someone powerful. We want someone focused. We want a savior. I do not know if President Obama is that man or not, but many people want him to be. I do not know if Michael Steele is the man who will fix the Republican party and then go on to fix the nation with a fiscally responsible party, but many people want him to be. People want…maybe even need a strong leader who will save us and restore things back to the way they were.
Peter saw this sort of savior in Jesus. He was bold. He spoke his mind. He cut the disciples no slack. He healed the sick. He put the self-righteous Pharisees in their place. Jesus was a natural leader, and Peter saw it clearly.
“Jesus, you are the Messiah, God’s own anointed one,” Peter boldly declares to the excitement of the other disciples and the praise of Jesus himself. Peter has found his savior. Peter has found the one who will lead the Israelites through the wilderness and set them free from Rome. Peter has found a savior who boldly declares that he “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again?”
What? Jesus, what are you saying? That makes no sense. How is walking straight to you grave going to help anything? That is like President Obama standing before the nation and saying, “A strong president must be scorned, spit upon, and impeached from office. Only in this way, will our nation be saved.” It simply does not make any sense. There is no logic to it. It seems foolish. It is foolish. Ask anyone who is not a Christian and they will tell you, it is foolish.
Peter pulls Jesus aside to point out the foolishness of what Jesus is saying; surely he will see how foolish it sounds. “Jesus, you are the Messiah. You are not a weakling. You are strong and decisive. We need a strong leader. We don’t need yet another person whom Rome will send to his grave.”
“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things,” Jesus commands.
“Get behind me.” “Get behind me.”
If you are behind someone, you only have two options, stay there and let them walk off into the distance without you, or follow wherever they lead. It is clear that Jesus does not want Peter to choose the first option of just sitting there and allowing himself to be left behind. “Get behind me,” Jesus says. “Follow me,” Jesus urges.
It is true that we want strong leaders. It is true that we want decisive leaders. But, it is also true that we want leaders who will lead us where we want to go. Who wants to literally take up a cross and follow? Who wants to put their lives on the line in order to follow? Who wants to set out on the road, with their cross, leading to their death, without having any idea where they are going. Does not a strong leader who can simply flex his political muscle and make things in the world all better sound like a much more enticing and effective leader? The truth is most of us want leaders who will take us where we want to go. We are fearful to follow into places we have never been. But, followers of Jesus do not get to go where they want. Followers of Jesus have no idea where God is leading them. Followers of Jesus simply get behind Christ and follow.
Do I have any idea how this economic crisis will end? I have no clue, but, Jesus is leading us, so we follow where Jesus goes.
Do I have any idea where a person’s cancer will lead them? I have no clue, but Jesus is
leading us, so we follow where Jesus goes.
Do I know what your church is going to look like and what it is going to be doing in ten years? I have no clue, but Jesus is leading us, so we follow where Jesus goes.
Do I fear the future? Do I fear that Jesus may lead me somewhere uncomfortable, maybe even painful, maybe to the cross and death? Of course, I fear that. But, who else should I follow? Satan?
I have no clue where Jesus is leading us. It probably will be uncomfortable to say the least. But, if Jesus is Lord, as we say he is, then we have no choice but to follow. I guess we do have another choice, we could just sit and be useless. That is not the life Jesus wants for us. There is nothing enriching in that. So, we stand up, get behind Jesus, and follow. Though I do not know where Jesus will lead, I do promise that the journey will be a life of grace.
All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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