Scripture Lesson:  Matthew 16: 21-28

From that time on Jesus began to say plainly to his disciples:  “I must go to Jerusalem and suffer much from the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law.  I will be put to death, and on the third day I will be raised to life.”  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  “God forbid it, Lord!” he said.  “This must never happen to you!”  Jesus turned around and said to Peter:  “Get away from me, Satan!  You are an obstacle in my way, for these thoughts of yours are men’s thoughts, not God’s!” 

Then Jesus said to his disciples:  “If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget himself, carry his cross, and follow me.  For the man who wants to save his own life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for my sake will find it.  Will a man gain anything if he wins the whole world but loses his life?  Of course not?  There is nothing a man can give to regain his life.  For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay everyone according to his deeds.  Remember this!  There are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King.”

When I was in my early teens Dad and I would usually go up to the Sanderson homestead to visit with Dad’s uncle, maybe do some fishing, but mostly four-wheel through the trees, fields, and prairies.  One day Dad and Carl (Dad’s uncle) decided we could make a trip to Mount Baldy (the highest point in the Little Snowy Mountains in central Montana) in one day.  It would be a rush, since a couple of hours of the day were already spent, but they thought we could make it.  They rummaged through some papers in a drawer and found written directions to get there from the ranch.

We packed up some lunch, extra gas, a lot of Coke, threw everything into the back of Carl’s truck and took off.  We found all of the landmarks listed in the directions, but they ended without a sight of where we were supposed to be going.  Dad remembered that Halfmoon Pass should be close by, and when we saw a commercial airplane flying at eye level we knew we were getting close.

We ran into a big boulder in the middle of the road, so Dad drilled a few holes in the rock, stuffed it full of dynamite, and we ran while the fuse made its way to the rock.  After the earthshattering KABOOM, the rock was still in its place in the middle of the road.  The truck would have to stay behind.

We eventually made it to the top of the mountain where we could see many towns in the distance.  We had to turn around and walk the rest of the way back to the truck, but for me it was an adventure and a lesson in preparedness.

Jesus was talking plainly to the disciples at this portion of Scripture.  This is also the climax of the gospel of Matthew.  Jesus’ teaching has come to an end, and Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem knowing his destiny was to be the curse of the cross.  Jesus starts by giving the disciples directions on what was going to happen, what was going to change, and how the disciples should handle it given the various gifts, talents, and abilities that God had given them and that they had learned in the three years of Jesus’ teachings.

As most people when faced with a unwelcome challenge, we act like Peter and make up all kinds of reasons that what is going to happen should not.  We do not take the time to continue to follow Jesus, but stay in one place.  The disciples had stopped while Jesus continued to go because Jesus had to turn around to tell the disciples that Satan (or any obstacle in our journey with God) needed to back off.

Now it was time for the disciples to take up their own individual crosses and continue to follow Christ.  As it is for us, too, we must take up our cross and follow Christ.  That means that the journey may be hard, it may wear on us, we may become tired and exhausted, we may become injured, thirsty, dirty, sore, discouraged, and so on.  The end result of this amazing journey, though, is that three days later, Jesus was again alive, resurrected from the grave.

It is this resurrection life that we continue in our own individual journeys.  Our directions for accomplishing this journey were written down thousands of years ago so that we do not get lost.  Stories of people we have grown up with in the Bible were written so that when we reach a particular spot where we think we have to stop, Jesus is there to remind us that we are not yet done.  We are at the climax of the story of our journey.  The hard parts are ahead, but we have the assurance and re-assurance the Jesus will be there with us in our successes, in our failures, and in our falls.  Jesus is there to pick us up, point us in the right direction, and then lovingly teach us how to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Jesus is the map of our journey, giving us the landmarks of his teachings to let us know that we can and will make it.  Even when the boulders of life refuse to move for us, we have Christ to walk and talk with us.  As we think this week of the journey we are on, let us be reminded daily of God’s love and grace to us in giving Jesus as our guide, our healer, and our helper.  Amen.