The other day, Father Ed and I were watching Jeopardy!, which we do quite often. It’s rare that I get many questions right, but at one point I answered three in a row—even before Father Ed. I was elated.
Then I got about seventeen questions wrong.
A little later, Father Grant walked in and answered seven in a row, so I kicked him out. (If anyone has a place for him to stay, he would probably appreciate it.)
It was one of those moments when you go from a great high to a very quick low. And I think that is something like what Peter experiences in the Gospel of Matthew 16:21–27.
Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered perfectly: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus called him blessed, told him, “Upon this rock I will build my Church,” and gave him the keys to the Kingdom.
Then Jesus begins explaining what it actually means for Him to be the Messiah: He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Peter objects immediately. In his mind, the Messiah should conquer. He should possess power and glory. He certainly should not suffer and die.
Then comes one of the most dramatic reversals in the Gospel. The man Jesus had just called blessed now hears, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.”
Why such a strong response?
Because, without realizing it, Peter is offering Jesus the same temptation Satan offered Him in the desert: glory without sacrifice, power without suffering, victory without the cross.
But Jesus knows there is no redemption without the cross. As Fulton Sheen once said, Jesus was the only person ever born for the purpose of dying. His mission was redemption, and redemption required a perfect sacrifice.
So we might ask: Why do we have the cross?
Humanity could never make adequate satisfaction for sin on its own. A perfect sacrifice was needed. So God became man and dwelt among us.
In Jesus Christ, true God and true man, we have that perfect sacrifice. In His humanity, Jesus could truly suffer and die. Because He is God, His sacrifice has infinite value.
At the cross, justice and mercy meet.
Then Jesus turns to them and says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
The cross is not only the way of Christ, the Messiah. It is the way of every Christian.
Peter wanted a Messiah without sacrifice. And if we are honest, sometimes we want Christianity without sacrifice too. We want the resurrection without the dying. We want the glory without the cross.
Yet St. Paul tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We discover the meaning of our lives when we learn to give them away.
When we give up our own will, our own comfort, and our own selfishness, that is when we become more like Christ. That is when we begin to understand who we truly are.
Yes, there is sacrifice. There is suffering. There are crosses we would never have chosen.
But sacrifice is not the end of the story.
Jesus says He will suffer and be killed—but on the third day, He will be raised.
Death does not have the final word, and neither does any sacrifice offered in love.
Jesus asks us simply to trust Him: Get behind me. Follow me. Follow me to the cross, and I will lead you to redemption.
Father James Schibi, Pastor