The Text
Last Time on ‘The Story’
Last week, we heard some of Jesus’ parables in the third set of Torah preaching of the book of Matthew. This next section begins with the news of John the Baptizer’s death. Jesus attempts to pull away, presumably to grieve the loss of (possibly his former teacher and/or cousin), but is greeted by another huge crowd of five thousand men, who he feeds (after the disciples fail to). He sends the disciples back in a boat, and after dismissing the crowds, has some time to himself. He then walks across the lake after the disciples, who are caught in a boat. In this account, Peter tries to walk to him, and does a little. When Jesus gets in the boat, the disciples worship him, proclaiming him as the Son of God (again, there is little question about Jesus’ divine nature). Jesus heals a bunch of people at Gennesaret, on the other side of the lake.
The Pharisees come at Jesus again, this time over the disciple’s lack of hand washing, and he uses it as an opportunity to teach on the importance of what comes out of the mouth, rather than what goes into it. This is a call-back to Jesus’ earlier teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and chapter 12 about the bad fruit of the Pharisees as evidence of a deeper rot. A Canaanite woman seeks healing, and arguably Jesus’ ethic bias comes out, but Matthew uses it as an opportunity to teach a lesson from her mouth. Jesus cures many, and then calls on his disciples to feed four thousand, which they also fail to do, and he does.
Some Pharisees, along with some Sadducees this time, ask for another sign (again, chapter 12), and Jesus sends them away with a cryptic answer about weather. Jesus and the disciples get in the boat again, and head across the lake. Jesus has clearly been thinking over his interaction with the Pharisees, and warns his disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. They misunderstand, and think he is mad that they didn’t bring bread. He reminds them about the two miraculous feedings that he performed.
There at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks who people are saying that the Human One, Son of Man, is. Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah or another prophet. Jesus asks who they say he is, and Peter declares that Jesus is the “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus says that this must have been revealed by God the Father, and on this ‘rock’ (Peter, Petros, rock, get it?) he will build his community. The very gates of Hades (a nearby cave used for cultic sacrifices) will not be able to prevail against it.
This is where Jesus begins really acknowledging where this all is going to end up. That he will need to go to Jerusalem, and that he will undergo great suffering at the hands of the religious elite. He also says that on the third day he will be raised. Now if he actually said that at the time, the disciples would not have been able to understand what it meant. It may be that Matthew is inserting that to prepare his readers for what is to come. Peter, who has just boldly proclaimed Jesus as messiah and Son of God, pulls him aside to draw him away from this path of self-destruction. Jesus however calls Peter a stumbling block (Peter, Petros, rock, get it?) and that his mind is on human things rather than divine things.
Overview of Matthew
Let us look at today’s text in the overall structure of Matthew’s Account of the Gospel.
Ch. 1-3 Overture
1:1-2:23 Nativity
3:1-17 John the Baptizer
Ch. 4-7 Jesus’ early ministry, culminating in giving Torah (Sermon on the Mount)
4:1-11 Jesus’ Temptation
4:12-25 Jesus begins ministry in Galilee, gathers disciples, and ministers with the message “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.”
5:1-7:29 First set of Torah (aka Sermon on the Mount)
Ch. 8-10 Enacting the Kingdom, culminating in Jesus’ instruction to his apostles (sent ones) as they go out.
Ch. 11-13 Responses to Jesus, culminating in Parables about the Kingdom
11:2-30 Jesus questioned by John’s disciples, and Jesus teaches on John the Baptizer and the Kingdom of Heaven
12:1-46 Jesus questioned by Pharisees, and Jesus teaches about Leaders and Unclean Spirits
12:46-50 Jesus’ family tries to (presumably) question him, Jesus teaches on his true family
13:1-58 Torah on the Lake
Ch. 14-20 Various Expectations of Messiah, culminating in Jesus preparing his disciples/apostles for his death
14:1-12 Death of John the Baptist
Jesus goes to a deserted place
14:13-21 Jesus feeds 5,000 men plus women and children
Boat
14:22-33 Jesus walks on water
Gennesaret
14:34-36 The healing of people in Gennesaret
15:1-9 Pharisees confront Jesus over handwashing
15:10-20 Jesus gives Torah about what truly defiles
Tyre and Sidon
15:21-28 A Canaanite woman refuses to be dehumanized
By the Sea of Galilee
15:29-31 Jesus heals many by the Sea of Galilee
15:32-39 Jesus feeds 4,000 men plus women and children
Magadan
16:1-4 The Pharisees and Sadducees demand a sign
on the Boat, en route to Caesarea Philippi
16:5-12 Jesus warns about the ‘yeast’ of the religious elite
Caesarea Philippi
16:13-20 Peter’s declaration at Caesarea Philippi
16:21-23 Jesus foretells his death, and Peter blows it.
16:24-28 True disciples are those who take up their cross and follow
Mountain
17:1-8 The Transfiguration
17:9-13 Jesus teaches about John and Elijah
17:14-20 Jesus exorcizes a demon which the disciples were unable to
Galilee
17:22-23 Jesus again foretells his coming death
Capernaum
17:24-27 Temple Tax
18:1-5 the greatest in the kingdom is like a child
18:6-9 remove every stumbling block
18:10-14 The Parable of the Lost Sheep
18:15-22 Dealing with sin in the community
18:23-35 Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Shift from Galilee to Judea (Jericho)
19:1-12 Pharisees ask question about divorce
19:13-15 Jesus blesses the children
19:16-30 The rich young ruler
20:1-16 Equal pay for all
20:17-19 Jesus tells his disciples that he will be betrayed and killed a third time
20:20-28 James and John’s Mother asks for special favor
20:29-34 Two men who are blind call Jesus “Son of David” and are healed
Ch. 21-25 Direct Confrontation with the Religious elites, culminating with a blistering critique of the Pharisees
Ch. 26-28 Crucifixion and Resurrection
Today’s Story
Setting: So today’s story starts in Caesarea Philippi, a primarily Gentile and very Roman area. Jesus asked who the people said that the Son of Man is, and they gave several responses, but Peter makes the bold claim that Jesus is the Messiah (anointed one) and the Son of God.
In Matthew’s gospel this is not as much of a reveal as on other gospels. Luke’s gospel, for instance uses this declaration to answer the building tension over ‘who is this man?’ In Matthew’s gospel, however, we have been told from the very first sentence that Jesus is the Messiah. The disciples bowed down and worshiped Jesus when he walked across the water.
For Matthew, I think that the location of the declaration is more important to the story than the declaration itself. If you can’t tell from the name, Caesarea Philippi was a pretty pro-Caesar, pro-Rome kind of town, It sought to be a little Rome in the area. Everywhere, on statues, on coins, at the temples, one would be reminded of Caesar, the rightful ruler and Son of God. Peter’s declaration that Jesus is Messiah (annointed one, rightful ruler) and Son of God flies directly in the face of the power structure of the day. The already revolutionary things that Jesus has been saying about the kingdom/empire of heaven is now downright seditious.
Peter, however does not really grasp what this declaration truly means. He has been so formed by the assumptions of earthly kingdoms and empire, that he cannot understand when Jesus begins to prepare the disciples for what is to come, “he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great sufferings at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed.” It does not fit into Peter’s frame of reference, and so he corrects Jesus, ‘You’re doing it wrong.’ Jesus now has to spell out to them the kingdom he is building.
Take Up Your Cross: It is easy to romanticize the bearing of the cross. It remains fashionable to wear a gold or silver around our necks as a sign of our allegiance. However, before Jesus’ crucifixion (and arguably, after) the cross is a symbol of Rome’s absolute and brutal power. No one in their day would have been able to avoid the scene of criminals hung on a cross for crimes against the state (or simply to show how much of a BA the Roman Governor was). Crucifixion was specifically designed to be painful to experience, and horrifying to witness. This was for one reason, to reinforce the idea that Rome was in charge, and you do not want to mess with her. Our modern assumption is that the ultimate cause of death would be loss of blood, but it was actually asphyxiation. The victims’ body was arranged in such a way that if hanging, their lungs would fill with blood. The only way to take a breath was to pull oneself up, pivoting on the nails (or ropes) in their wrists, to take a gasp of breath. We might wonder why someone would prolong their own suffering, but by all accounts, biology simply takes over, driving the excruciating journey to take a breath over and over, often for days. The express purpose was not only to punish the crucified, but to make it abundantly clear to whoever sees them suffering that they should not do anything that might put them on their own cross. It is an act of public torture meant to scare a subjugated people into submission. James Cone called the cross the ‘underside’ of the Roman Empire (as opposed to the upside of the pax romana) much like blackness is the underside of the American Empire.
Jesus took this brutal and barbaric symbol of Rome’s dominance, and turned it into his crowning achievement. He was so deeply committed to non-violence that he took Rome’s symbol of unquestioned dominance, and turned it into his final victory.
So when Jesus says to his disciples that if they really want to be disciples, if they really want to follow him, then they have to take up their cross daily; he is saying that they need to take up the means of their own destruction. He is saying that they need to bear the worst that Rome could possibly do to them as a badge of honor, and a weapon that cannot ultimately harm them.
A Rabbi friend of mine was once asked why people hated the Jews so much. He said that he thought it was because they were a people who historically did not follow the rules. Across the ancient world, the broad belief was that the army with the more powerful god would win the battle. This meant that peoples would be defeated by another army, and in general switch allegiance to the new gods, who were clearly more powerful. The Jewish people, however, not only did not switch allegiance, but would claim that their God allowed them to be defeated in order to teach them a lesson. Kingdom after kingdom, empire after empire would defeat them, and they would stubbornly remain committed to the God who was forming them into the people of God. Likewise, the Jesus’ disciples would be those who were not to be defeated, they would fall and not grow weary, they would run and not grow faint.
Life and Death: In the Empire of Rome, America, and the other Empires of Man, life is gained by those who claim it. Capitalism is built upon the ‘Bootstraps’ fallacy (which started as a joke that no one got). The successful entrepreneur is the one who ‘makes’ money from their own efforts, and how ever many weak people (or non-people) that they have to use, however many resources they need to consume, however many Ohio towns they need to chemically nuke to get what they want, doesn't matter. The ‘self made man’ is the only thing that matters, and the one who dies with the most ultra-yachts at the end wins.
But in the Empire of Heaven, things are very different. In this world, greatness is achieved by being a servant. The one who seeks their own life, their own aggrandizement, their own will, will be torn from their throne and lose even what they do have. The one who bears their own death, who seeks the life and betterment of others, who lose their life, will gain true life again.
Jesus asks what profit there is in gaining the whole world, at the cost of their life. I believe that Caesar is ultimately implicated in this question, but brings along with him all of the Roman elite who are cast in his image. What would Caesar (or Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos) give to get true abundant life? How much of their humanity have they lost in order to gain such money and power? There is a reword for those who self-sacrificially give of their lives. Jesus talks about a final reversal, the coming of the Human One once again. However apocalyptic this vision, and however soon it was expected; I believe and have seen that the reward for the righteous does not just come in the end, but with the gift of a more full and abundant life even in the midst of the empires of death.
Death of the Church: There are a lot of conversations about the life of the church in the post-Christian century. We have seen the decline of the Christian church in the west, especially in America for the last several decades. It is most prevalent in the Mainline/Protestant church, but is also seen in the Evangelical, Catholic, and other branches of the institutional church. There is great fear that if the decline of the church continues, then eventually there will be no one left. Church (at least church in the forms that we have known her in) is dying.
How does Jesus’ instruction for disciples to take up their cross and follow mean to our present moment? What might it mean to bear with us our deaths as we take on the assumptions of empire, as we seek justice, as we speak truth to power? What does is mean that “The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life?” (Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. F-1.0301). I wonder if we shifted from the fear of our own death to a bearing our death with us into the face of human evil might truly be the way that we can lose our life in order to save it. The church as it has been is dying, an institution steeped in patriarchy and misogyny, systemically racist and colonial, and trained in hegemonic powers. This is a very good thing. Perhaps in the death of present forms of ‘church’ we might become the blessed community that Jesus envisioned.
Mountain Top: Six days later (which seems to have significance, but I am not sure what), Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him up to a mountain. These are Jesus’ first disciples. Jesus called Peter and Andrew, then James and John. I don’t know what has happened to Andrew, and why he was not invited on the hiking trip, but I bet there are multiple PhD dissertations exploring it.
Mountains are rich images throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Throughout the ancient world, high places are seen as inherently more holy, closer to the heavens. The language of Genesis 1 and 2 suggest that the garden is high ground at least, and this imagery is heightened by the next several references. Noah and his family find safety on a mountain, and the Babel builders attempt a human recreation of the Eden mountain, Abraham camps in the steps near oaks (another allusion to Eden) and binds Isaac on mount Moriah. This imagery is solidified in Exodus when Moses encounters YHWH at a burning bush on Mt. Sinai, and the returns the people to that same mountain where they receive the Law. On the mountain, Moses receives instructions on how to build a portable Eden, the Tabernacle, which continues this mountain and garden imagery. This is the place where YHWH’s very presence is among the people (despite their flaws), and where God can tabernacle with God’s people. This Tabernacle is moved along with the people through their wilderness journey, and then into the land of promise, where it spends the next few hundred years being moved from mountain top to mountain top, until it is semi-permanently placed on Zion in Jerusalem. The Tabernacle, and then the Temple(s) after it were a permanent mountaintop Eden where God’s people could come into the presence of YHWH.
The first temple was destroyed in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, and the Ark of the Covenant, the throne of YHWH, was lost to time until discovered by a rouge archaeologist in the 1940s. According to Ezekiel, the Glory of YHWH had already departed from the Temple before its destruction. The temple was rebuilt after the exile, but nothing like its former glory. By Jesus’s day, Herod had rebuilt it into a glorious and beautiful building, but arguably absent the presence of the Living God.
Jesus now goes to a mountaintop with this core group of disciples, and is transformed before them.
Transfiguration: Jesus is transfigured, or metamorphosed before them. His form is no longer recognizable, but appears as blinding light, like the sun. This is a revelation beyond the previous one. Jesus is like Caesar, the Son of God and true ruler, which then calls people to a decision between the two, between the two rules that they represent. The transfiguration; however, opens a new level to the conversation. Jesus is indeed Messiah, ruler, and Son of David (we have already seen his bona fides), just as Caesar is rightful ruler of Rome. The difference, however, is that Caesar is Son of God by the declaration of the Roman Senate. He is treated as a divine being due to his immense power and authority. He is worshiped as a god, and as allegiance to the great Roman Empire, the evidence of which could be seen everywhere.
The Transfiguration of Jesus, however, reveals a different kind of “Son of God.” He is not Son of God because of a Senatorial edict, immense power (gained through violence), or because the symbols of his authority were seen all around. He is not even a Son of God in the way that David was, a man after God’s own heart (sometimes at least), and therefore the adoptive child. The Transfiguration reveals Jesus as Son of God in a way unlike any other claimant to the same or similar title. Jesus is the Son of God because Jesus is God's very being in human form. That human form, which these men have known and interacted with for years, is pulled aside to reveal the true Son of God, God made flesh, the Divine Word (as John would call him).
Here on the mountaintop, there is also the Tabernacle/Temple overlay, which is directly referenced in another account. Jesus is the glory of God who chooses to tabernacle with, and be in the center of this deeply flawed people, humanity.
Moses and Elijah: With Jesus, we also have Moses and Elijah. These two, who also had (are having?) mountaintop experiences themselves. These two represent the continuity that Jesus represents. As has already been abundantly clear, Jesus is the ‘greater than Moses’ that Moses had referred to. Matthew has taken great pains to connect Moses and Jesus in their life, and teaching. Elijah represents the role of prophets, the ones called to speak on behalf of God. There have already been several references to prophets in Matthew’s account, from John’s choice of clothing, to multiple Isiah references. Interestingly enough, these are also two biblical characters whose deaths are mysterious. Moses died on a mountain outside of the promised land but his body was never found. Elijah was taken into heaven by a fiery chariot, leaving his apprentice Elisha.
These two represent the Law and Prophets, two thirds of the Hebrew Scriptures (The Torah and Nevi’im of the TaNaK). It is interesting that the Writings (Ketuvim) is not represented by another, though Jesus as Son of David, and one filled with Sophia/Wisdom, may represent this aspect.
Voice from Heaven: Once again, a voice from heaven declares that Jesus is the Beloved, the Son of God, and the one with whom God is well pleased. We as readers have heard this same declaration at Jesus’ baptism, but it is reassuring to hear it again into Jesus’ ministry. He has not failed from the high calling, unlike his predecessors who started great, and then fell later. This is also a turning up Jesus’ identity to 11 for Peter, James, and John, along with the readers of Matthew’s account.
Get Up and Do Not Be Afraid: This whole thing is all too overwhelming for the disciples, who hide their faces in fear. But Jesus touches them on the shoulder, no longer appearing in an overwhelming manner. His message not to be afraid hearkens back to stories of divine messengers. Jesus invites them to go down the mountain, ready to continue the work that they have been called to, facing towards Jerusalem and bearing their cross with them. They now know experientially what they may have suspected, that God’s divine being is tabernacling with them as they go, YHWH’s divine presence is in the midst of them, and leads them on by stages to their destination.
Pop Culture References
In a negative example, the Wizard of Oz first appears as a overwhelming and challenging way, until Toto reveals who he is (bless the rain).
In the climax of the Matrix, Neo’s apparent death reveals that he is truly the One (a Little more like death and resurrection), but then can see the Matrix for what it really is.
And here’s a fun one: The Masked Singer is a singing celebrity competition where famous people sing while wearing costumes. When the competitor is eliminated (or wins), there is a moment when they are ‘unmasked’ in front of the audience and judges. They finally show who they truly are behind a silly disguise.