A way to live a mission in the wider world.
Being unwilling to face pain and suffering is to risk losing the resurrection life.
Based on Matthew 16:21-28
A way to live a mission in the wider world based on Matthew 16:21-28, a reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 8/3/17.
For the first time, Jesus tells the twelve what he sees ahead—his suffering and death, his burial and his resurrection. Peter objects that this must never happen to Jesus. Jesus rebukes Peter as on the side of man, not God. [Peter does not understand the depth of the opposition to Jesus and his teaching. He does not see that Jesus will confront and force into the open and the depth of the opposition to his words and deeds.] The confrontation will reveal how “human”—that is self-serving—the leaders are. Jesus goes on to say his followers need to risk death to follow him. By avoiding death and seeking their own safety, they will lose the gift of the resurrection life beyond death. This is too heavy a price to pay. In the age to come, everyone will be repaid for how they have lived. Even some of Jesus’ here followers now will see this coming age.
A theme: To follow Jesus by risking even death at the hands of those who oppose him is the way to the resurrection life.
