Stumble - A Sermon For Sunday September 3 2023
GOSPEL: Matthew 16:21-28
The holy gospel according to Matthew.
Glory to you, O Lord.
After Peter confesses that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16), Jesus reveals the ultimate purpose of his ministry. These words prove hard to accept, even for a disciple whom Jesus has called a “rock.”
21From that time on, [after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah,] 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. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” 23But he turned and said to 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.”
24Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26For 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?
27“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. 28Truly 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 gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
SERMON (ELW p. 206)
The assembly is seated.
It was just last week,
many of us heard Peter’s confession,
the confession upon which the church is built:
Jesus, you are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.
Blessed are you, Simon, Jesus responds.
And, just seven verses later,
Get behind me, Satan.
Peter - or at least Peter’s words,
have become a stumbling block.
It’s curious to me that Jesus uses this word - stumble,
and stumbling block here,
especially considering Jesus doesn’t use this word
in Matthew’s Gospel,
except in this story.
We might presume stumble to mean sin,
or to cause another to sin.
That’s close…
Jesus has plenty to say about sin -
and some translations use “sin”
instead of stumble in this story,
but I am convinced Jesus is talking about something
particular here.
Stumble is used often in the Old Testament,
as an image for when things go wrong,
or an image of demise.
For example, in Isaiah 3:
For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds
are against the Lord,
defying his glorious presence.
Many occurrences are like this:
not a literal stumble,
but an image of downfall.
If we take a step back -
literally stumbling in ancient times
is not like literally stumbling today.
Some stumbles are normal:
you hit your toe and fall,
and get back up again.
Some stumbles lead to injuries:
often it is a fall that changes our lives
as we age and our mobility is challenged.
But, generally speaking,
if you or I stumble and fall today,
we might get bruised,
but we’ll be okay,
no real imminent threat.
In ancient times,
if one stumbled while travelling,
they might injure themselves,
and like a horse that stumbles
in a chuck wagon race,
stumbling often lead to injury and death.
Stumbling leads strong legs to wobbly knees,
to a loss of balance,
and that flailing
or reaching out for something to hold onto,
something to stabilize,
that can be dangerous to others,
who might get caught
in the chaos of the stumble.
Someone who stumbles and is injured
becomes vulnerable to attack.
Interesting tidbit, the Greek word stumble here
is scandaliseh - like scandal.
That makes it sound a little public.
Perhaps the best use of that word
in ancient times,
would be a trap for a live animal;
like a snare.
The animal stumbles into the trap,
no fault of their own,
and it leads to their demise.
That’s stumble in the Old Testament.
What then might Jesus mean by stumbling?
Jesus foretold his suffering,
death and resurrection.
Jesus’ way is the way of the cross.
Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
saying, “God forbid it, Lord!
This must never happen to you.
This is when
“Jesus turned and said to 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.”
Peter - or at least his words -
were a stumbling block for Jesus
because Peter looked to human things:
like survival, power, reign
rather than focusing on divine things,
like an outpouring of love,
resurrection, new life.
I get what Peter is saying here,
it is actually kind and protective.
Jesus is the Rabbi, Messiah,
and of course Peter doesn’t want Jesus
to suffer and die.
I don’t want to suffer,
I don’t want you to suffer,
we go to great lengths to avoid suffering.
When I hear Jesus’ predictions,
suffering, death, and resurrection,
I have a hypothesis that the disciples
didn’t really hear the resurrection part.
No one rises from the dead,
I think they only heard the first two:
suffering, killed.
You can’t become a political, military power
if you’re dead.
Peter was most likely trying to preserve or attain
an earthly kingdom with Jesus,
while Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus’ preaching,
at least in Matthew’s Gospel,
can be summed by what Jesus
- and John the Baptist for that matter -
proclaimed from the beginning:
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”
Everything Jesus says and does
points us to the reality of
the Kingdom of Heaven,
the Kingdom of God in our midst.
Blessed are the poor in Spirit,
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed,
or like yeast in flour.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like
people in Jesus’ hometown being healed
even though they reject Jesus.
The Kingdom of Heaven is
an abundance of food for 5000
with only 5 loaves and two fish.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the Lordship of Jesus
covering the lands
and the seas
and the skies.
The Kingdom of Heaven
is taking up your cross and following Jesus.
I believe that stumbling, for Jesus, then,
is focusing on the kingdom of this world
at the expense of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Stumbling is to set your mind on human things
rather than divine things.
Stumbling is to place comfort and security
ahead of the Gospel.
Stumbling might be to try to gain the whole world
and, in turn, you forfeit your life.
For the ancient world,
a Roman cross means absolute demise:
a shameful, criminal’s deserved death.
For Jesus,
the cross is not demise,
suffering is not demise,
Jesus’ demise would come by forsaking God,
to forsake Jesus’ self as Godself,
Demise for Jesus is to take the easy way out;
to not take the way of the cross.
This attractive option;
to skip the cross,
to avoid inevitable suffering,
this is the trap that would cause Jesus’ demise,
to cause Jesus to stumble.
Jesus is all about reversal,
Jesus is all about illuminating that God’s ways
are greater than our ways,
And Jesus is all about justice and equity,
unity and belonging as children of God.
For what will it profit them
if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?
You can’t gain the whole world
without using others as stepping stones,
without taking advantage of others,
Jesus is not interested in this world’s power,
But in an outpouring of love
for the good of all.
Jesus’ way isn’t comfort,
but abundant life.
This stumbling block is real.
Jesus wont place a stumbling block:
like trapping people
into a certain way of thinking,
Or only helping those
who speak well of you,
Or sending people away hungry
because you only have 5 loaves and 2 fish.
We stumble when we follow our own way
rather than following the Way.
We stumble when we believe the liar who says
I am better
or more important
or more worthy.
With Jesus, we need not stumble.
Jesus is the Light of the world:
with Jesus, we can run in the night.
Jesus is the Truth,
we can trust that Jesus’ ways,
God’s ways,
are greater than ours,
and just do what Jesus says.
Jesus is the way,
we can follow Jesus’ path
and not get lost,
and even if we do get lost,
even if we do stumble,
Jesus is the Good Shepherd,
who will come and find us
and release us from the traps we fall into.
Jesus talks Stumbling Blocks
not just about the threat of his own demise,
but for the threat to the abundant life for all
that Jesus initiates.
Jesus hates predatory, tyrannical behaviour
that inhibits one’s freedom to relate with God.
Jesus hates behaviour with potential to hurt others.
Just ask the money changers from the temple,
Just ask the tempter.
Just ask the woman caught in adultery.
Jesus lifts up those children of God
who have stumbled because of another.
Jesus saves us from the snare,
the trap.
We want things done our way,
we want God to operate within our own
denominational loyalty,
or our own image of God and God’s will,
and we want God to do what
we want God to do,
but that’s not how it works.
We do not get to put God in a box.
We are invited to be like Jesus,
we are invited to take up our cross and follow,
to walk beside our Saviour,
to do what Jesus tells us,
And we can do this,
because Christ is in us,
God’s Spirit is in you,
on our own we will stumble,
on our own we will trap others,
even trap ourselves,
and Jesus saves us from the snare,
from the trap.
Know that Jesus holds you
Christ’s promises are sure.
Your death is not your end,
your stumbling is not your end,
your sin is not your end,
for with Jesus,
for the baptized,
in the Kingdom of Heaven
there is no end.
Jesus will lift you up.
May we set our minds, not on human things,
but on divine things.
May we follow Jesus
into abundant life.
May God’s kingdom come in and among us,
Thanks be to God. Amen.
