Not the Answer he wanted…
We’ve been following Peter’s growth and teaching as a disciple of Christ.
Jesus called him when he was a poor fisherman and told him that he would now be a fisher of men.
Peter, James, and John get caught in a storm, and Jesus walks out on the water, calming the storm; he invites Peter to come out to him, and Peter does! He walks on water! Until he doesn’t… “Take heart, it is I, be not afraid.”
Peter starts to piece together all these miraculous things that Jesus has done but in the process of this, he opens his heart to the possibility of the Spirit – the Spirit reveals to him that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. Peter declares this to the disciples.
Jesus responds to Peter’s revelation; you will be the rock on which the church is built – this knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, is what is foundational to our discipleship as well.
So far in this story, Peter is having a pretty stellar experience. He’s gotten this massive acclamation that we all still use as an example and defining feature in our lives.
Do you ever get the feeling that everything is going to be right, where you like to brace for something to complicate things?
Peter assumes that Jesus will be this reigning king Messiah – crumble the powers of this world with the words of his mouth – in a literal way. Gone is Harrod, gone is the Roman Empire. Peter can’t wait; he asks if he can rule with his throne at Jesus’ side!
Peter has a misconception about who Jesus is and what Jesus came to do. Jesus corrects this, mincing no words. He tells Peter “Get behind me Satan.” He tells Peter he is an obstructor to Jesus’ mission – that Peter is a false friend, a betrayer from the inside. Talk about a rebuke.
Peter is reoriented. Between the text last week where Jesus scolds Peter, quite a bit happens. Peter, James, and John witness the Transfiguration. Peter immediately offers to build a tent or dwelling for Elijah and Moses who’s presence ordains Jesus as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. A voice comes from a bright cloud, from the presence of God, that says “this is my son, listen to him!”
They encounter a man who’s son needs healing from epileptic episodes – the disciples weren’t able to help – Jesus heals the son – driving out a demon who had been plaguing him. The disciples come to Jesus looking for an answer as to why they couldn’t do as Jesus had commanded them and heal the boy themselves. Jesus scolds them and tells them they lack in faith, they are getting in their own way by their disbelief.
Jesus tells them the greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is a child. He tells the disciples to not be a stumbling block ( the same words Jesus used to rebuke Peter last week). To emphasize his point, Jesus says that if your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. “it is better to be maimed or lame” than miss out on the salvation that Jesus has to offer.
Jesus presses that children will always be in the presence of God. Illustrating that God leaves the 99 sheep to go get the 1 who strayed. “So it is the will of God that not one of these little ones should be lost.”
Is anyone else a little confused about what Jesus is trying to teach here? All of this leads up to our scripture today so I kind of feel like its important to have a basic understanding about what Jesus is saying up to this point.
What did Peter do wrong in assuming that Jesus would be a ruling Messiah? How was he a stumbling block?
If that’s true, how is Jesus the fulfillment of the law and the prophets? Didn’t they say that Jesus would be this great ruler?
The disciples are told they have little faith, they are getting in their own way of doing the work that Jesus has ordained them to do. How?
Well, we get a hint in this example of the children.
Peter asks “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
How is this parable of the children an answer? Let’s ask the kids.
Ask the children, How do you get your food? What about your house? Where do your Christmas presents come from? Who gives you love, hugs, and cuddles?
Children believe when you tell them things. They are eager to learn and ask questions out of learning, but it's not until they are older that they get skeptical. Children are dependent, they don’t rely on themselves for things. Children are not rulers. Jesus’s injunction to welcome children must challenge those who hear it. The ethic of the church, then, is marked by hospitality to children and care for the least and the lost, not by the pursuit of rank. Jesus thus urges his followers to treat each other as God’s family regardless of their social status.
God would leave all the rulers and powerful, influential people, the whole flock of them, for just one child.
What is Peter missing?
Peter cannot get past his ambitions.
Finally, in our scripture for today, Jesus gives the disciples some instructions on how to not be stumbling blocks to one another. While Matthew shifts his language from “the least” to “brother or sister,” he intends “a similar referent,” namely, “a vulnerable community member” who is going astray.
He says to keep one another accountable, not in shame but in love. Like brothers and sisters.
There are rabbinic sources from this time that said if a community member shames another, they are excluded from the world to come. This is key to accountability and not shame. Accountability in love is how we “disciple” or foster “discipline” in one another. Not through Judgement, but in love. That is how we are God-like, leaving the flock for the one.
Jesus tells us that if that doesn’t work, then to bring other members of the community to bear witness to these conversations of accountability. Not shame. Accountability. There’s a bit of a catch here with bringing in others as witnesses. The witnesses are the ones who get their hands dirty in this process. This essential place of witnesses comes from Deuteronomy 17:6-7
6 On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness.
7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised against the person to execute the death penalty, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
If these witnesses accuse their friends of an egregious offense, they are the ones who carry out the punishment. Whoa.
What does that tell us when we go to correct one another? Do we have a responsibility in the process of helping bear the consequences for one another? Do we have a responsibility to be siblings to one another while working for holier lives? In this model of accountability, there is no space, zero, for accusations and shaming one another. All of this is only done in companionship, with any challenging accountability assuming responsibility for ensuring its competition, either in redemption or expelling them from the community.
What does this tell us about gossipers? Those who like to go around behind each other’s back and stir the pot? Do you know any of those people? Nobody here, of course. Maybe at work? Maybe in school?
Are there any of you who will happily work with someone for way too long, never removing them? This is literally every pastor I know. They’re way too nice! A friend told me a story of a church staff person who accepted an illegal substance from a congregation member – while at church – on a Sunday morning. And they didn’t fire the staff person! They did something illegal at work and they weren’t fired. How would that have flow in your job at a school? What about a hospital? This 3rd level of accountability is important, not from a place of shame, or a place of isolation, but as a healthy boundary.
All of this is about forgiveness. If someone refuses to live as a forgiven or forgiving person, then the unrepentant excludes himself or herself from the church.
The procedure of the church’s discernment and judgment is defined as “binding and loosing” “In relation to forgiveness, to ‘bind’ is to withhold fellowship, to ‘loose’ is to forgive.” Thus, the procedure of binding and loosing is a communal practice of discernment and forgiveness. The process of binding and loosing is to be done prayerfully by “two” of the church members. It is in that way that the Father in heaven works in the church. Moreover, where “two or three” are gathered in prayer- fully in Jesus’s name, Jesus is “in their midst.” The church can thus exercise the authority of binding and loosing through the practice of prayer.
We thus unfold God’s forgiving power from heaven through the practices of prayer and forgiveness. This fits the picture of the Lord’s prayer, where God’s forgiveness of our sins and our for- giving others are tied together. By embodying forgiveness prayerfully, we participate in the will of the Father manifested in the Lord’s prayer.
Here comes Peter, still somehow only getting most of the point. He gets that Jesus is talking about forgiveness but not the extent to how much forgiveness. He asks “How often should I forgive them?” Jesus answers, “70 times 7 times.” 7 is a reference to completeness, 70 time 7 is ten times complete times completeness. Jesus is saying, you forgive them forever. If a brother or sister, no matter, who or what they’ve done, comes to you as a forgiven person – you are to forgive them. If they are humble and accepted by God, we are to forgive them.
I think the common denominator here that Peter is missing, and I know I miss it too, is deep humility. Not humiliation, not shame, but a profound sense of awe at who God is and a deep realization that I am not God. It doesn’t matter what Rachel wants or thinks, it matters what God wants and thinks for Rachel. Not in a way that is removing the core of who I am, in a way that is liberating. Because God is God and I am not, I can make mistakes, I can be forgiven and forgive.
