When They Miss The Point From Outside
Throughout Matthew chapter 16 there is an undercurrent of missing the point.
First its evident that Pharisees are missing the point in trying to trip up the Messiah. Considering their request for a sign is similar to the devil trying to get Jesus to prove He’s the Son of Man with various party pieces from changing stone to bread to having angels be His bungee harness after a drop from the temple. What they miss is the fact that signs have been prevalent since the beginning of God’s dialogue with humanity and particularly through the narrative that the religious rulers claim to uphold.
Then the disciples miss the point of what Jesus is talking about when He advises them to avoid the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees. Taking it as a literal telling off for forgetting the food again, they miss the point that just as the Pharisees teaching will get people wrapped up in everything other than Jesus, so a literal concern for the material will also miss the point of the Messiah.
There is then the question Jesus asks about what’s the scoop going around as to who people think He is. Evidently the people’s speculation covers the spectrum of their hopes and perceptions of the new guy on the block, but in all their guessing to and fro, they likewise miss the point of the Messiah. That has not changed to this day. People are still believing that the Man is a good teacher or a wonderful example of humanity. They perceive Him as a prophet who was sharing more of what God wanted from us. Some buy Him as a revolutionary, some buy Him as a symbol for combating the forces of the political structures they don’t favour.
In all these guesses and speculation we miss the point. If all we see of Jesus is someone to do nice things to me – heal me, give me money, give me a pep talk on how good I am and confirm my life choices, then we are missing the point of the Messiah.
Missing The Point: The Insider’s Guide
For many, the highlight of chapter 16 is the revelation of the identity of Jesus as the Messiah as the Son of God only for that revelation to be the source by which yet again those closest to Him, who should have known better, again completely miss the point. I’m sure Peter heard exactly what Jesus said after being congratulated on identifying Him for who He was. I’m sure Peter heard Jesus explicitly state at the end of the trials and tribulations He would endure to the point of the cross that He would do the impossible and rise from the dead after three days. Yet Peter missed the point and in missing the point, as with all the incidents of missing the point in this chapter, Peter provides a wonderful service for followers of Christ today.
As intimated earlier, we’re likely to miss the point of the Messiah. We miss Him when we’re only going for the material benefits, or when He will meet our own specific needs. We can know His Word inside out as an intellectual exercise and recite the bits and pieces that fit our own desires. We can claim to follow Him for years and still completely miss the point.
For Peter the thought of the Messiah being dragged through so much humiliation, rejection and brutal treatment was not becoming to the Messiah that He was expecting as for what it did for his concept of the Son of God, it really jarred with him to see it work out that way. For some of us the thought of engaging in the cost of discipleship that Jesus goes onto outline in the last verses of chapter 16 do not fit our version of what following Jesus should be about. We enjoy quoting those life affirming declarations that we are the head and not the tail, let the weak say I’m strong, I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread – all these that appear to indicate the victorious life of a Christian is free from hardship and suffering. Yet this is not the picture Jesus paints of discipleship.
Getting To The Point
Even here, however, if we just focus on the bad stuff that’s scheduled to happen, we miss the point of the Messiah. For just as He is to rise from the dead after three days, so those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are blessed because they are assured the Kingdom of heaven. As writers would say afterwards pressing for the mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ is about getting to know Him in suffering and in resurrection. The suffering doesn’t last, the resurrection sets up life that will last free of suffering. Enduring must take place with the promise that it is the prelude to this glorious eternal Kingdom to come.
That is not a balm of wait for the sweet by-and-by and just suffer til you die. That is not something to stop us engaging in the world in which we live believing for God’s shalom to be experienced in snapshots in our own lifetimes. It is however the reminder of the bigger context. It is a focus on the Messiah who embodied these issues and stands before us as One who has endured and now sits at the right hand of God with all power under His feet.
This focus again on who Jesus says He is helps us not to miss Him, not to miss the Messiah in our crazy teachings binding people to hopeless pursuit of external righteousness. This focus on who Jesus shows Himself to be helps us not to miss Him, not to miss the Messiah in our personal preferences for what we need in a Saviour.
This focus is needed all the time for believers in Christ to become aware of who He is so we don’t miss the point, but rather embrace Jesus Christ as the true author and finisher of our faith for who He is.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
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