Sunday, August 30, 2026
Scripture Passages: Exodus 3:1-15, Jeremiah 15:15-21, Psalm 26:1-8, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28
Deny oneself
Just a week and two days ago, Canada walked out from the trade negotiations with the USA. Many people have spoken out since. The most important concern of Canada was that at the last minute, negotiators from the USA insisted on provisions that would have taken freedom for Canadians to make their own decisions. We in Canada express this as a threat to our sovereignty. Apparently this threat was shown through how the USA would force Canada to trade only with the USA approved countries.
In today’s world, the freedom to make decisions based on our own interests is supreme. As a nation, we insist on the right to make decisions for and by ourselves. Individually, we also give each other freedom to make one’s own decisions without damaging others. In this context of having agency to be who I am, to do as I desire as long as I respect others and to live peaceably with one another, let us take a look at Peter’s rebuke.
Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem. There, he would suffer at the hands of the authority and be killed and be raised on the third day. Peter did not agree with Jesus. He had other things in mind. He insisted that such things ought not to happen to Jesus. In other words, Peter did not want to hear what Jesus was saying and was doing because he had his own idea about who Jesus was and what he ought to do. For a jew like Peter to say, “God forbid…,” was really pressing to Jesus that Jesus should do as he wished.
In response, Jesus used the strongest language he could muster, “Get behind me, Satan!” Everyone knew that Peter was no Satan. Jesus knew that Peter was nowhere near Satan in being. Afterall, would Satan follow Jesus for so long? We do not know what came over Peter to confront Jesus exactly. What we glean from Jesus’s response to Peter is that Jesus was facing something far greater in power than Peter in Peter’s statement. In Peter’s rebuke, it appears that Jesus was confronting the human side of himself as much as Peter’s wish.
“For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things” is a cry against humanity’s desire to survive, to save itself and to prolong life as is. It is the very basis of human struggle in the world. This is so because to see the divine will is to realize that the will of humanity is nothing. To do the divine will is to accept the emptiness of human will. These two cannot co-exist on the same plane. In the divine will human will disappears.
For human beings, however, the agency of a person, the very being of life and the will to live as fully human is at the very center of their existence. Propagation and perpetuation of human life is the utmost thing for each and every person.
Peter’s rebuke appeals directly to the humanity in Jesus. The most basic human instinct to survive insists that choosing a way to death is not what human life is for.
No wonder Jesus told the disciples, “If any wish to come after me, 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?.”
Whose will do you choose, yours or God’s? If you choose to save yourself or do as you wish, then, you are not part of what God is doing in the world. This is it. You cannot do God’s and yours together for your own good. The choice is stark. There is no half way measure. This is why those who want to follow Jesus need to deny themselves and be part of Jesus. Being one with Jesus is not to keep who I am, but become whole as part of Jesus.
How do we want to be as a country? The USA offered their way. Canada walked away because the American way is not Canada’s way. If we understand this in human relationships, we can fully understand when Jesus responded to Peter's rebuke.
This trade dispute between Canada and the USA is also very instructive in ways of being a Christian in the world and not of the world. Here I invite you to the lectionary passage we did not read. It is from Romans 12:9-21.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in afflictions, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord." Instead, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Lately the media and the internet conversations have been based on who wins, Canada or the USA. For us Christians, it is not about winning. It is not about who will pay more for goods. It is not about who will gain more stature in the world. Rather, as Paul says here, can we hold fast to what is good, loving one another, outdoing one another in showing honour, being ardent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, being patient, persevering in prayer, contributing to the needs of saints, pursuing hospitality, blessing those who persecute us without curing them, weeping with those who weep … you get the message.
This is how we are to deal with the American threat to our sovereignty. This is the way we confront those who come to destroy us. This is the only way we become part of Jesus more and more and less of Peter day to day.
Our Presbyterian motto, “Nec Tamen Consumbatur” refers to what we find in the Exodus, today’s lectionary passage. Burning, not yet consumed! Moses was called out of the burning bush. We, too, are called in this world full of human wills that rebuke the divine will. Our response? Not yet consumed! We continue to love according to God’s will, laying down our lives so that others may live. If our enemies are hungry, we feed them; if they are thirsty, we give them something to drink. We deny ourselves of our own desires to survive and immerse ourselves in the mission of Christ so that the world may be saved.