In our gospel reading for today, Jesus asks all of humanity the most important question of all time, “Who do YOU say that I am?” Peter gives the first recorded reply in history, and he replies, “the Messiah,” which implies that Peter is giving his total allegiance to Jesus as his Lord. However, once Jesus shares with Peter his plans for HOW he will be the Messiah, HOW he will suffer and die and rise again, Peter gets hung up on himself, and he rebukes his Lord as only an insurgent could. So Jesus warns his would-be disciples that there are only two possible fates for those who declare themselves insurgents – death...or surrender....
Thirteen days and 79 years ago, on September 2nd, 1945, on board the battleship USS Missouri floating in Tokyo Bay, Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed on behalf of the Japanese government, the instrument of surrender from World War Two. Two of the provisions of the instrument read as follows: “We hereby command all Japanese forces wherever situated and the Japanese people to cease hostilities forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft, and military and civil property and to comply with all requirements which may be imposed by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers or by agencies of the Japanese Government at his direction. We hereby command the Japanese Imperial Headquarters to issue at once orders to the Commanders of all Japanese forces and all forces under Japanese control wherever situated to surrender unconditionally themselves and all forces under their control.” Cease hostilities, and surrender unconditionally – and the Japanese government agreed, because the smouldering ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed them what the alternative was – complete and utter destruction.
“If any want to become my followers,” says Jesus in our gospel reading, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Now when we come across the words, “deny ourselves”, the first thing that comes to mind is to deny ourselves STUFF. For the sake of how these pants are fitting, I am going to deny myself stuff from Tim Hortons. For the sake of my marriage, I am going to deny myself the opportunity to stare at some woman walking down the street. For the sake of preparation in the season of Lent, I am going to deny myself the chance to play computer games. We like to put an OBJECT after the verb “deny ourselves.” But Jesus intends something much deeper in our gospel reading. For Jesus, “ourselves” IS the object. Jesus calls us to deny our self-centered autonomy, to deny that we have the perfect knowledge about what is best for us, to deny that what matters most in this world is the identity we manufacture and the ethics we invent. Jesus calls his followers to a total and unconditional surrender...of ourselves.
And Peter messed it up completely. In our gospel reading, Peter has a problem with Jesus' plan. Not 10 minutes after declaring Jesus as his Lord and Messiah, Peter tells him, “Jesus, I don't think your plan is going to work FOR ME. It would be a horrible thing FOR ME to have to watch you die, I'm not sure I can handle that kind of emotional stress. And, all the important people in Israel will think you and your followers are losers, and I'm not sure that's ok FOR ME. And besides, I was expecting that once you became king, there would be an important position of authority FOR ME, and I'm not sure I'm willing to give that up.” Jesus responds to Peter with a harshness that is APPROPRIATE for an insurgent who is trying to sabotage God's plan for the saving of all of humanity. “You are declaring yourself my enemy, Peter-surrender, or be destroyed.”
In a culture based on power and force, “surrender” is an ugly word. Surrender is something WEAK people do, something for people who CAN'T HACK it. Surrender is for cowards and sissies. People who surrender should be ASHAMED of themselves, so says our culture. And yet Jesus is crystal clear about this. Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who surrender their life to him will save it.
Would we be able to make this verbal proclamation in a public setting, “I am surrendering my life to Jesus?” Do we look at the plan Jesus has for our lives, and see only the flaws? “Jesus, I don't think your plan is going to work FOR ME. I'm very uncomfortable telling people about how you died and rose again and what it means for them. And, a growing number of my friends and relatives are thinking I'm a fanatical nutjob for following you. And besides, I was hoping that in following you, you would guarantee that I would be rich and healthy and constantly happy, and that's not happening for me.” So we sabotage HIS plan, and we take control ourselves. We HOLD OUT on certain aspects of our lives and do not allow Jesus to make the plans there, like for our finances, or our sex life, or our recreation, or our occupation. We hold idols that are more important to our identity than Jesus, like seeing ourselves more strongly as an activist, or as a grandmother, or as a Conservative than we see ourselves as Christians. “You can talk me out of my faith, but you can't talk me out of my football team.” If we are not surrendering ourselves totally and unconditionally to Jesus, then we are still, like Peter, trying to sabotage Jesus's plans for our life and save our life for ourselves. And the outcome of trying to save our life ourselves, will be to lose our life.