Barriers

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” --Matthew 16:21-23

On Mothers Day, my grandparents and uncles and I went to a family-favorite Italian restaurant to celebrate both the holiday and my birthday, which was two days earlier.  The dinner started like any other--we found each other at a table reserved for six in the middle of the bustling little place filled with thousands of dollars worth of copper tea pots, my grandfather gave some sarcastic humor to the waiter (who sees my grandparents every Sunday at that restaurant) who asking what wine he would be drinking that evening, and we talk about the family, sports, news, and nonsense of the like.  But, every now and again, one of my uncles who enjoys stirring up the political and religious pot every now and again, decided that it was my turn to be prodded.

He decided to make me "aware" of the liberal theologies that exist, and that "there is a large number of Christians that believe these things;" that Jesus was not the divine and that His death on the cross is not needed for atonement.  As I quickly brushed the heretical nonsense off, he continued, saying that these things apparently caused some schism between Muslims and Christians back in Mohammed's day, because they agreed on many theological and spiritual issues.  Both faiths are Abrahamic in nature and my Islamic history is not very refined, so I didn't furiously argue that point, but I did point out that Mohammed did attempt to invalidate the very crux of the Gospel--that the Son of God died on the cross for us sinners--by saying that Jesus was not divine, and that he was taken up to Heaven by Allah before he could be crucified.  My uncle responded, saying that it was better for Jesus not to have died, and that's something the Muslims got right in their faith.

I held my tongue--not only were we in public for Mother's Day, my grandmother a couple years ago had to put her foot down in protest of these heated conversations that seemed to happen nightly at the dinner table.  My uncle's comment left a bad taste in my mouth.  Such a comment could only come from one who is thinking on a solely worldly level about humanity and God.  It brought to mind Christ's reaction to Peter, who was thinking on a similar plane, and provoked the Lord to give such a stern rebuke, shattering image that Peter had, as well as those of lukewarm Christians and nonbelievers.

Peter, the one whom we are told confesses that Jesus is the anointed Son of the Living God just five verses earlier and that he would be the rock upon which Jesus will build His church, is taken aback when Jesus talks about His impending death (apparently ignoring the words about the Resurrection).  The death of his Lord would be a crushing blow to him.  He left his wife, his fishing vocation, his security--everything--to follow this humble Nazarene around Judea for three years.  Yes, he is the Messiah in his eyes, but so many of that day were under the impression that one would rise up from David's line and turn the tables on the oppressive Roman Empire.  At the reference of Jesus dying at the hands of Jews themselves, Peter pulled Him aside, as if Jesus needed to be rebuked and as if Peter had a say in the fate of Jesus.  Jesus' holy yet violent retort is: "Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me."

Jesus was resolute on the way to the cross, save for the agonizing hours in Gethsemane.  His face was set like flint as he walked into Jerusalem, and spoke openly of what was to happen there.  He was dead-set on dying, and dying for the sins of the world.  He was given a beating so severe that he could have died before before having to endure the walk to Golgotha, and was crucified--like a lamb led to the slaughter.  The Lamb of God was pierced for our transgressions in submission to the will of His Father, and, when He breathed his last, he cried "It is finished!"  Despite what anyone believes about the source from which these words come, there is no doubt that these things are clearly laid out in the Bible, and that has been the belief of orthodox Christians throughout the centuries.

But why does this idea affront so many minds?  From the moment Jesus uttered it to His disciples until now, people have tried to undermine the Gospel in some way, shape, or form, and these people range from atheists/anti-theists to well-meaning pastors wrestling with Scripture.  Atheists and naturalists discredit any sort of implication from the spiritual realm; agnostics, humanists and deists look with vain hope that there is some overarching moral code of love without laying claim to the cross of Christ; Jews and Muslims cannot grasp that God took on flesh, dwelt among us, died, and rose from the dead; liberal Christians find adhering firmly to Scripture to be archaic and fundamentalist; American Christians seem to make their faith out to be a platform for a conservative agenda; Christians with quite a bit of theological knowledge make it more of a subject to be studied instead of a radical act of divine love and fail to let the Lord or His people minister the Grace of the Gospel.  Forgive me for speaking in generalities (except for the last one, for that describes me).

Each of us has sin that works as a blockade against the Gospel.  Either from thinking that we are the gods of our own little world (as Peter thought, when he assumed he had a say in the life and death of the Suffering Servant), thinking that we are "good enough" that whatever deity that exists loves us enough to give us a "positive afterlife", or hating ourselves to the point of cursing the day we were born--we are disconnected from God by those mindsets and the patterns of sinful action that they beget.  We are all far too prone to look at the crucified Son and make Him something He is not, and we are far too willing to do it when the implications of his bloody corpse threaten our identities.

These implications are heavy, for the death of the Son of God says that there is a true, relational God that made us in His Image, and against Whom we constantly rebel, inviting Him to pour his wrath upon us in spite of His great love for us.  But, while we were still sinners, the Incarnate God came to the earth to die a very real death for our very real sin, so that we may spend eternity in His beautiful presence instead of a place of absolute torment.

With that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has now confronted you (as well as I, even as I type these words).  Whatever belief that is between your soul and the One who claims to be the Savior of it should now be drawn to the surface.  Now you must act, and only you know what that action will be.  This could be as quick as an atheist shrugging this off and continuing on with his life until he is worm food, or it could be a slow process where one sees an idol or a mild idea of Christ toppled by the King of Kings.  Or, a young man who is realizing how weak and broken he is can come to grips with the fact--not an abstract concept--that he is a beloved son of the everlasting Father who has called him to be an ambassador of the Kingdom, and can do nothing to change that fact.