The Discipleship Checklist

Matthew 16:21-28

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of 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, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Last week, Jesus pulled the bus with all the disciples onboard into a rest stop just outside of Caesarea Philippi.  There was a cliff face at this stop where everyone carved a niche for their particular god.  Once they all piled out of the bus, Jesus waved his hand at all the possible god-options, and asked, “Who do ya’ll say that I am?”  Peter spoke up and said, “You are the Son of the Living God, the Messiah!”  Home run, Peter!

This week, the whole gang is back on the bus and Jesus has pointed the bus downhill in the direction of Jerusalem.  He tells the folks in the back of the bus, “I’m going down there.  The fundamentalists down there don’t like me because I include everyone.  The rich and powerful down there don’t like me because I’m always pointing out that they got rich of the backs of the poor.  And while the Romans don’t care about me one way or another, what the DO care about is having QUIET.  QUIET whatever the cost and when I drive this bus into town and show the grouchy people I’m never going to change, it will NOT be quiet.  All that noise will inevitably lead to suffering and even death, but I’m not going to abandon God’s truth.  No matter what!  To that, Peter yelled, “OH, HELL NO!”  Swing and a miss this time, Peter.

The check list for being a Messiah that Peter learned in Sunday shul, was that the Messiah would raise an army, go to Jerusalem, kick out the fundamentalists, the rich and powerful, AND the Romans and become KING!  NOTHING Jesus was proposing from the front of that bus was on that checklist he had known all his life.

 

While Jesus didn’t outline HIS checklist here in Matthew’s Gospel, Paul did a really nice job of laying out the Jesus checklist for anyone who wanted to follow him throughout their lives.  Just look at the Jesus checklist for life, as compiled by Paul:

• Let love be genuine - that means doing what is in the other’s best interest, no matter the cost to yourself.
• Hate what is evil - that means internal stewing about evil isn’t enough.  We must stand up to evil.  No matter the cost.
• Hold fast to what is good - even if it’s not popular or profitable.  ESPECIALLY when it’s not popular or profitable.
• Love one another with mutual affection - that’s actively caring for the folks around you.  
• Outdo one another in showing honor - that means don’t get the big head.  
• Don’t lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord - that means get out there and do this list, even when you don’t feel like doing it.  
• Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer - That means yes, it won’t be easy.  Keep going anyway.  
• Contribute to the saints and extend hospitality to strangers - that means there are no strangers, everyone is a saint, take care of everyone around you.  
• Bless those who persecute you - Also very hard.  Do it anyway. 
• Rejoice with rejoicers.  Weep with weepers.  Live in harmony with one another, don’t get the big head (it bears repeating) - That means you are all connected to each other.  You are all one.  Be empathetic.  
• Do not repay evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble - God gave you a human brain that you can use to override your lizard brain… use the human part!  
• Getting even will not make you happy or give you life. 
• Living the way the mean people live will not make you happy and will not give you life.  
• Your job is to care for all people with everything you've got.  Yes, the mean ones too.  That, believe it or not, WILL make you happy and give you life.  

    

There’s a flag or banner going around on social media that says, “We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.”  That was Peter.  He may not have had that exact checklist compiled by Paul with him on the bus, but he had been riding with Jesus, living out the checklist for quite a while.  But as the bus began that long decent toward Jerusalem the true enormity of being a disciple finally hit him.  He had begun this trip thinking it would be easy.  It was right here on the bus that he discovered it was not.

In last week’s Gospel Peter got it right.  In this week’s Gospel Peter got it wrong.  At the last supper foot washing he got it wrong and then switched to sort of being right but still a bit wrong, then outside the palace he got it wrong again and the roosters crowed.  Then when Jesus died he thought dead was dead, and that was wrong.  When the women came and told him Jesus was risen, he ran to see for himself, which you might want to say was wrong because he didn’t trust the women, but honestly, if someone said a person had been raised from the dead, wouldn’t you want to go see for yourself?  So maybe on that one he's both.  

The point of all that is this:  What discipleship looks like is very clear.  Paul even gave us this handy dandy checklist… its VERY CLEAR…  BUT it turns out that LIVING as a disciple day in and day out is REALLY HARD!  Peter, that completely hot mess of a disciple, got it wrong A LOT.  Yet, Jesus never kicked him to the curb.  In fact it was on that hot mess of a disciple that Jesus built the church.  For you and me, the latest generation of hot mess disciples, that's good news!  It means we too will never be kicked to the curb by Jesus either, no matter how well or how badly we do the discipleship checklist. 

SO, here's the take home message for today:  Sit down on the Jesus bus.  Work the discipleship checklist.  Yes, it's hard.  Yes, you'll get it wrong a lot, but work it anyway and for heaven’s sake, don't back seat drive when Jesus is at the wheel.  Amen.