Matthew 16:24-28

Chapter 69

Prayer

Almighty God, when the anthem is sung in Heaven, may we all be there, no wanderer lost in all the great wilderness the old man and the young child, may we all be where age is no more infirmity, where we shall spend an eternal summer in the smile of thy love. We bless thee for all uplifting ministries, for voices that penetrate the soul, for lights that make the darkness flee away as if in pain, for all comforts that give rest and hope to those that are ill at ease. We thank thee that thou art mindful of us every day thou hast a gospel for every morning, and thy stars are eloquent with new voices every night. There is no searching of thy understanding; thou art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Our little thought cannot reach to thy great sky when we have climbed the upmost height thou dost lift the arch above us by the measure of the infinity, not to mock our strength, but to excite and inspire our prayer.

Thou hast set before us continually the cross of salvation because the cross of sacrifice. We see the uplifted Son of God, we behold him slain, we know that he was slain for our offences we see his shame, his humiliation. They spat upon him, they took a reed and smote him in the face, they plaited a crown of thorns and crushed it into his temples. He was delivered for our offences; we see the nails, we see the spear-thrust, we see the falling blood, we hear the panting weakness, we see the languid eye, we hear the "It is finished" of expiring love. He was wounded for our transgressions. We tarry awhile and behold the descending angel and the stone rolled away and the dead One rising in all the triumph of his indestructible power. We see him ascending and a cloud receiving him out of our sight. We listen, and down through the shattered air there rolls the music of the infinite cry, "Worthy the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and honour and strength and blessing." May we take part in that great thunder, for he was wounded for our transgressions. Amen.

Mat 16:24-28

24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will (This "will" is more than a mere auxiliary) come after me, let him deny (empty) himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25. For whosoever will save his life (the same as soul in the next verse) shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death (an idiomatic expression, death being represented as a goblet full of bitterness) till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

The Law of Christ-Following

How differently this passage reads when taken in connection with all that has gone before, from what it is often made to appear when taken out of its setting and made the basis of a discourse upon the value of the soul. Jesus Christ did not deliver these words as a sermon to the people, or as his abstract statement of the soul's worth. He was not speaking about immortality, he did not probably bring within his purview the term soul as it is often theologically and evangelically construed. He himself was the Man spoken of, his own soul was the soul which he set against the whole world's value. Peter had just said to him, when he had spoken of going to Jerusalem to suffer and to be killed, "This be far from thee, Lord." Peter could not bear that his Lord should expose himself voluntarily to all the indignity and suffering which Jesus Christ detailed. The reply of the Saviour was based on the suggestion of Peter: "Peter bids me turn aside and escape the destiny which I came to fulfil. Taking short and narrow views, Peter tells me in effect to save myself but I came into the world expressly to do this very work and no other. This is my soul, my life, this is the very reason of my incarnation. What then should I be profited if I gained the whole world and insulted the very genius of my being and perverted the destiny which I was born to realize?"

Jesus Christ thus enters the sanctuary of great principles, and builds his life-house upon a rock. He looked to duty, and did not exercise his inventiveness in finding escapes from it. He kept his eyes steadily upon the beckoning Destiny, and whither it beckoned he went, and whosoever sought to hinder his advancement was Satan, and was ordered behind. To this end was Jesus born, for this purpose he came into the world, and knowing this he hardened his face that he might go unto Jerusalem. There is a beautiful artistic completeness about the statement well worthy of note. Jesus said unto his disciples how that he must GO so we read in verse twenty-one in the twenty fourth verse we read, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will COME" that is completeness. First, he himself must go, and in the second instance, if any man will come.

This is the setting of the divine grace, in all the solemn order of providence and in all the outgoing of the divine decree. Sovereignty and spontaneity, lordship and liberty, destiny and voluntary acceptance or rejection of the great challenge. There is no asking, "Shall we go will it not be well to go ought we not to consider whether we should go?" The first tone shatters the air, "I MUST;" the next falls upon the air like a pleading gospel, like a gracious appeal, "If any man will come." Would he then have gone, if no man had answered, "Lord, I will come?" Certainly. All this will come up again in the great audit: he is laying the basis and the foundation of judgment as well as the basis and foundation of redemption; the cross would be set up, the sorrow, the suffering would be endured if no answering heart called him Lord and Saviour. Sin must be encountered, a divine answer must be given to a Satanic challenge and a human apostasy, and that divine answer could be given only through the medium of the tragic cross. What an if is this "If any will come"! and yet in another mood he says, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Still, even in that bold declaration of sovereignty, it is drawing, not driving alluring by the sweet compulsion of infinite love, and not scourging with iron rods or stinging scorpions.

Here is a great gospel invitation, the tender thing we call the love of God. Standing before us in figured image, it says, "If any man will come." And yet the artistic completeness does not terminate there. Jesus said how he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer and be killed. "If any man will come after me let him take up his cross." Here is the balance of the picture, this is the symmetry of the grand delineation Jesus at the head yonder with a great cross crushing him, and the next man at an infinite distance with his lesser cross, and then the crowd, and then the great innumerable throng which no man can number, but every man with his own cross, every man going to be killed, but going to be killed with Christ, and therefore not to be killed at all!

The sublime reply of Jesus Christ to his generous but mistaken disciple contains a whole philosophy of life. Jesus Christ tells Peter that self-protection on narrow lines is self-destruction. He startled Peter by his paradox, "Whosoever shall save his life will lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it." A shrewd Peasant, a marvellous thing for a carpenter's Son, and nothing more, to have said! Why, it turns upside down all ordinary human thinking. It reads like a contradiction and a self-collision of statement. Read it again. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Can this be explained in words and defended by narrow logic? It can only be understood by our most sanctified feeling, and realized and endorsed by actual personal experience.

Jesus Christ teaches that inward peace must never be sacrificed to outward ease. A lie might help us oftentimes to momentary rest, a great black falsehood might be the softest pillow sometimes on which for the time being to rest an aching head. Of what account is it if there be great outward peace, whilst the heart is at war with itself, whilst there is a scorpion in the inner nature, stinging the conscience and inflicting mortal pain? Your plaudits cannot reach me with any measure of satisfaction if there be not an inward voice which attests that they are righteously bestowed they fall upon me as foam flecks the rock it cannot penetrate. You might gather around your friend, pour upon him the billows of your approbation and applause, yet if his heart said to him, "You have no right to this," all those billows would chase one another to their destruction, and never enter the soul they were intended to bless. Contrariwise, you have also a profound truth if there is really peace in your heart, any outside storm can have no effect upon you. Jesus Christ adds by suggestion that no motive is to be relied upon that is not drawn from a divine centre. Herein we fail so much our motive has not reach enough. A man may be strong, and the stone which he may be attempting to remove out of his way be a real stumbling-block and ought to be removed, but if he have not leverage enough his strength is wasted in vain endeavour. What we want in life is more leverage, and that needful leverage can be realized only when it has a heavenly purchase. Every motive that is not profoundly religious expires ere it accomplishes any work that is worth doing. No heroism can sustain itself up to the point of conquest that is not inspired by an adequate motive. What is the adequate motive of human life? God's sovereignty, God's love, human stewardship, a profound and gracious sense of responsibility, and an appreciation of those opportunities for fulfilling that responsibility which constitutes the very glory and dignity of our human life. You are, it may be, operating with too small a motive, your weapons are unequal to the war there are no weapons equal to this contest that are not provided by the Almighty Captain of the fight.

Having heard Jesus Christ speak so, I say this is abstractly splendid; if it be fanaticism it is of a royal type. I speak of Jesus Christ, therefore, in view of these answers, in no measured terms of applause; but, say I, it is the coward's trick; say I, this is very fine in the abstract, but you cannot live upon these principles. No doubt the principles are very noble, and there is about them a tender grace and something affectingly pathetic and pensive; no doubt the Man's words are of a very high quality, but, I fear, words only. Now, Jesus Christ preached the sermon himself, and immediately stepped down out of the pulpit to give them practical application in his own life. He lived his sermon. Whilst we called it abstract, bordering on the fanatical, very noble in theory but impracticable in execution, he went out and did it. He is the same in every verse; he never lowers his dignity, he never tampers with his purpose, he never makes the devil a bid that he may escape one pang of agony.

It is worth our while, therefore, as followers of Jesus Christ, to enquire somewhat into this philosophy of his. How did it come that Jesus Christ could treat his own death in this way? Read the passage in its wholeness and you will have the musical and effective answer. Your inquiry is about death, but Jesus Christ's speech was not about death only. You pause at an intermediate word; you do not take in the whole heroism of the case. The very first point of darkness arrests you, and beyond it you see no outlook. How did Jesus Christ treat the fact of his own death? He recognised it, he set it down as fact; it never occurred to him to view it as a mere possibility or a high probability, or something that could be coloured, mitigated, or affected in his interest. Solemnly, clearly, unflinchingly he recognised the fact that he must go and be killed, but beside grim Death he set bright Resurrection, for he added, "and be raised again the third day." "Weeping may endure for a night; joy cometh in the morning." Death is temporary, Resurrection is eternal. Our light affliction is but for a moment, whilst we look at things not seen. Stop at death only, and the strongest man's knees may well knock against each other in mortal terror. It is not easy to die: it cannot be pleasant to have the last interview, to put out a thin, wasted, trembling hand, and to say, in a hoarse whisper, "Good-bye." It cannot be one of life's luxuries. The Christian is called upon not to look at death only, but at resurrection; then in the "Farewell" is a subtle hint of reunion; in the tremulous "Good-bye" is an undertone that signifies "for a moment at the other end of the valley we meet and part no more."

To resurrection he added Glory: "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels." To glory he added kingdom: "Till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Now, how does death look? A frightened coward! Now the foe falls back into proper perspective: a shadow fleeing away in the chasing light of Resurrection, Glory, Kingdom, and all heaven ringing with acclaim of welcome and "Well done!" Death should never be looked at alone. You will frighten yourself if you look at death only; death is what its surroundings are. Surround it with farewell, lamentation, upbreaking of purpose, failure surround it with grim, ghastly, heart-distressing attendants, and death will have its sting and the grave its victory; but surround it with Resurrection, Glory, Kingdom, Reunion, Fellowship, a land in which there is no night, no pain, no sea, no sickness, no sin, no enemy, and the soul says, "I have a desire to encounter the foe, that by overcoming him in God's strength I may enter the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away."

Put death in all its right perspective, do not admit it to the front line at all: put resurrection, glory, kingdom, heaven, triumph, in the front, and then you will see death fleeing away like a shadow chased by shafts of light. Then cometh the time when death shall be swallowed up in victory, and a tone of triumph and of mockery, of gracious delight and keen taunt, shall be heard: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Spoiled are both of ye, and your short reign comes to an inglorious end.

Whilst all this applies to Jesus Christ, and was, in my opinion, in the first instance applied to himself, yet there is no reason why we should not accommodate it to our own life and to our own spiritual condition. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his sight? How would you view that proposition? You shall have estates, lines of houses, mines of gold, and in exchange you must pay your sight. Will you conclude the bargain? What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his hearing? You shall have diamonds in multitudes that cannot be numbered, horses, chariots, men-servants and women-servants, and all the delights of the sons of men, but you shall pay your hearing in exchange for the bounty; you shall never hear the human voice again, its eloquence, its song, its friendly word, its kind salute what say you? Does any man offer the price? Would it be too much to pay? What wonder, then, if Jesus Christ, reasoning à fortiori , should say, "if you will not pay your sight, if you will not pay your hearing, in exchange for what the world has and can give, what shall it profit a man if he gain it all, and pay for it his Soul? A soul paid for a month's comfort, eternity ruined at the price of a day's release from pain, Heaven paid in exchange for hell." These are the ironies of life!

Such things are done every day by men who lay claim to some measure of intelligence. Within us there is a power against which our best impulses and noblest purposes contend in vain they go down before its savage strength in utter helplessness, and are crushed by its iron heel with all the delight of satisfied malevolence. A wondrous battlefield is the human heart! if a battle that may be called where the slaughter is all on one side and the prey falls into one hand. What is the remedy? Crucifixion we must have. Our opportunity lies in the grand choice between being crucified by others and crucifying ourselves. Jesus Christ said, "I lay down my life; no man taketh it from me," except in a very secondary and temporary sense. There was his peace. "I lay down my life for the sheep. I have power to lay it down and to take it again." Crucifixion there must be in human life, as it is now debased and corrupted. The question is whether the crucifixion shall come from the outside and thus be mere murder, or whether it shall come out of the will, being done by the man himself, and thus be a great sacrifice. Such is the election now open to us Murder or Sacrifice to be slain by the enemy, or slay ourselves in Christ's society and on Christ's own cross. Suffering you cannot escape the question is whether you will suffer from the outside or whether you will suffer sympathetically with the Son of God, and, knowing the fellowship of his sufferings, afterwards enter into the power of his resurrection.

Selected Notes

Matthew 16:19 . To have the keys, is the sign of administrative authority: to bind and to loose, are figures for the exercise of such authority. The Apostles expected to be rulers in an earthly kingdom, and to have their acts sanctioned and supported by an earthly king. They were assured of a higher dignity than this. Not that the will of God would change to agree with their will; but that their will would be brought to agree with his, and their agency be employed in teaching and governing.

Matthew 16:20 . The verbal declaration would now only promote popular excitement.

Matthew 16:22 . Peter supposed that his Lord was unduly discouraged, and elated by the commendation just received, he presumed to speak as if he were wiser; thinking the predictions of the Old Testament made the death of Christ impossible. He had been named a stone for building, he now became a stone of hindrance. What was appointed and approved of God, was different from what was expected and desired by men, and it was much better. Christ spoke first of his own sufferings, and then of those of his disciples. He would not call them to death, till he could bid them in this also follow him.