Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Matthew 16:21-28; Matthew 26:31-35

Preached by Rev. Dr. Robert Matlack
=================================================

There are some things that we don't want to know. There are some things that we aren't ready to know, sort of like the avid golfer who consulted an astrologer asking him whether or not there were golf courses in heaven. The astrologer carefully consulted his charts and then said to the man, "I have good news and bad news." The man said, "Well please give me the good news first." The astrologer responded by saying, "There are indeed golf courses in heaven. They are magnificent - perfect greens, beautiful settings." And the golfer said, "Well, I might as well have the bad news." The astrologer said, "You have a tee-off time for 8:30 on Thursday."

"No, not me, it can't be true." We've all said or felt something like that. It's a normal human reaction. We use it as a buffer to news that is unexpected and shocking. It gives us time to absorb and prepare for the truth. It is in a very real sense a temporary escape from reality, giving us an opportunity to prepare ourselves to face the truth.

In our texts for this morning we find Peter using denial to prepare himself to face some very difficult truths. Peter, the rock upon which the church was founded. Peter the faithful. Peter still needed time to prepare himself for the difficult and unexpected death that Jesus, the Messiah would face.

Peter's response to Jesus that he must not be put to death, that that must never happen to him, was not a lack of faith, rather it was caused by the strength of his faith. You see, for generation after generation, the Hebrew people had been taught that one day a Messiah would come. He would bring the answer to all of their problems, driving out the hated Roman armies, and bringing Israel to a new age of glory and achievement, much like those years when David had been king, except even better.

Peter had grown up believing that this is what must happen. In Jesus, he knew that he had found the Messiah. He was the one! This was the time!

Yet now Jesus is trying to teach His disciples that while He is the Messiah, God's plans are very different than their expectations. Salvation will come in a way that they do not expect. Instead of building an earthly kingdom, the Messiah will be put to death on earth, and then one day will come again in glory.

It's unexpected. It's a shock. It's a radical change in all that Peter had been taught to expect. To follow Jesus He is being asked to give up the preconceptions that he had grown up with, that he had latched on to, that had motivated him to follow Jesus in the first place.

It's only natural for Peter to experience some grief over the loss of those expectations, to need some time to allow this new reality to sink in, to absorb it, to change his way of thinking and believing and hoping, for Jesus has just tipped Peter's world upside down.

In our second text for this morning we encounter Peter at a later time, after he has had a chance to adjust to what must happen, to the way things must be. Jesus and His disciples have just shared together the Last Supper. Peter is no longer fighting what must happen. Somehow as time has passed he has come to terms with the reality of the Messiah and the way that Jesus must suffer and die.

The issue in this text is Peter's role in those final hours. Peter is convinced that his faith will not waver, that whatever the dangers he must face, he will walk with Jesus down this difficult road.

Jesus knows that part of the difficult nature of what He must face is that He will face it alone. All of those who are closest to Him will abandon Him during these final hours. It is a tough and challenging road that He must walk alone.

Peter seems to see himself in a more heroic light than what Jesus describes. His intentions were certainly good. He wanted to be there for Jesus, sharing the difficulties of those final hours with Him. His faith was strong, and I think that Peter believed that of all the disciples He would be the one to stay with Jesus, perhaps even to die with Him, but certainly to be there for Him through all that was to happen.

Yet as we all know, sometimes the reality of what God has planned is far different than what we expect. Sometimes however good our intentions are, however strong our faith is, we forget to listen to what God wants, to what God has planned, and instead we get carried away with our visions of the way things should be.

I believe that that was what was happening here in this conversation between Peter and Jesus: "Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, 'I will never leave you , even though all the rest do!' Jesus said to Peter, ' I tell you that, before the rooster crows tonight, you will say three times that you do not know me." Peter answered, 'I will never say that, even if I have to die with you!' And all the other disciples said the same thing."

Peter was convinced that he would never deny knowing Jesus - not even once would this, could this take place. For Jesus to suggest that it would happen three times in the next few hours was so shocking, so unexpected, so different than what he was prepared for, that Peter couldn't accept that this would happen.

We know the rest of the story. It happened as Jesus said it would. The disciples have all fled in fear. Jesus has been taken before the Council, and Peter is trying to be there with Jesus. He is sitting outside in the courtyard. Peter is the one disciple who has not fled. He is there but not identified with Jesus, when one after another people begin to recognize him as one who was with Jesus. Three times Peter denies this, finally in fear and desperation saying, "I swear that I am telling the truth! May God punish me if I am not! I do not know that man!"

In the midst of grief, in the midst of overwhelming shock, in the midst of our needs and our fears, we don't know how we will respond. Somewhere inside is this built in reaction that we don't control. In times of extreme shock, it just seems to take over, denying for a while the truth of what has just happened, helping us to cope by giving us some time and space to absorb this difficult news, to prepare ourselves to deal with the truth and the new reality that has just come into our life.

The danger, of course, is that we will get stuck in our denial. Denial is just meant to give us that time and space to prepare ourselves for the truth. It is not meant to be a permanent or long term escape from reality.

Imagine the difference if Peter had never been willing to accept that Jesus must die. As a follower of Jesus he would have been more like Judas and could never have become a leader, a foundation of the church. Or imagine if he had never accepted the reality of his denial of Jesus. That became an important lesson for him of our humanness, our limitations, our need to listen for what God wants and expects. We're told that after Peter denied knowing Jesus "He went out and wept bitterly." If that reality have never hit, Peter would not have been able to grow in his faith and to learn from that difficult, painful experience.

Over the next several weeks we will be focusing together on some of the stages of grief. These are things which we all experience in our own lives and in the lives of those we love. Grief is not an easy part of life, but it is a very real part.

Together we will explore some of the emotions, some of the expectations, some of the experiences that are a part of this process. At the same time, we must recognize that each of us grieves a little differently. Not everyone will experience all stages of the process, and certainly not everyone will experience them in the same way or to the same extent.

Yet for most of us, our first reaction to an intense experience of grief is a reaction of denial. This can't be happening to me! It isn't true! This is a normal and healthy response, as long as it is a temporary response, giving us some time to absorb and prepare for the truth. It is not meant to be a permanent reaction or a long-term denial of reality, for as Jesus reminds us, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:32).

Amen