"Burdens, Thorns & Crosses" - Matthew 16:13-20 (8-31-08)

Former U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. William Bennett, was asked this question by a seventh grader: “How can you tell a good country from a bad one?” Secretary Bennett replied, “I apply the ‘gate’ test. When the gates of a country are open, watch which way the people run. Do they run into the country or out of the country?” Gates open and close; they protect or imprison.
The disciples had seen Jesus setting people free from the prison of sin, illness and disease. Now JESUS was asking the disciple who people thought Jesus was? Many were uncertain about it and so they gave all kinds of answers. The people could tell that Jesus had a heart that was open and people were being set free from their internal prisons of sins to a life of freedom.
Then Jesus asked the disciple who they thought Jesus was? Peter was inspired by God to answer, “You are the Messiah”. Correct answer! Peter, CEPHAS, Petros. Then Jesus said, “I will build my church” upon this confession of faith. Jesus will build his community of believers! Wherever the church has gathered, this confession of faith has prevailed. The Greek word was ekklesia, which meant the calling out group or a people gathered with a purpose.
Jesus said to Peter, “Not even the gates of hell shall prevail. Nothing is going to stop this message of freedom! This image of gates demonstrates that the gates of hell are closed because don’t want to let people go free. Gates are entry and exits of areas. Gates of a city was the place of funneling people for business and leadership. The gate was the place the elders met to discuss important issues. In business, gate keepers are people who guard and also prevent movement and activities. The gate was also the weakest place of attack for a city. In this passage, gates of hell refer to the "power" of the evil one; it designates the dark side of the force, the world of the dead and demonic powers. Even if deathly strength tried to crush the Church, even if the church is persecuted for our beliefs, the seed of corruption would not prevent the CHURCH from accomplishing form accomplishing this mission of salvation.
What is interesting about gates is that they are not offensive. A gate is not an offensive weapon. It guards and keeps people either protected or imprisoned. Notice that there is no two week cooling off period before one can purchase a gate. Police don’t pack loaded gates. Hostages are not held at gate point. There are no weapons inspectors to discover ‘gates of mass destruction”. Gates are not a threat for they are defensive and they hold back something inside. The church and our confession is sometimes held hostage at gate point because we are afraid & intimidated by those gates. The disciples saw how Jesus had set people from the prison of sin, illness, disease and death.
The Message and confession of the church is an assertive statement of belief. It would offend the powers of darkness. The message of grace which the church proclaims is an offensive and sometimes offensive because we have the message of faith that nothing in all creation shall separate us from God’s love. Nothing shall get in the way, not even the gates of hell! We sometimes say at the end of our time together, the worship has ended and the service begins. We leave to charge the gates doing 98 saying let my go.
In a book by C. M. Clowe, the author makes the distinction between burdens, thorns and crosses . All human beings have burdens. You cannot be born and not go through all the burdens in life. Every person here went through the pain of childbirth. To begin this life was not easy either for the mother or the child. You go through all the painful experiences of childhood and you become a teenager – want to repeat that experience? Time goes by and you have to pay all your taxes and you find yourself caring for aging parents; your own body starts to fall apart; accidents happen; illnesses arrive uninvited. When you are a human being, you carry the plain old burdens of life.
Then there is a second experience in life that we call thorns. The Apostle Paul said that he had a thorn in his flesh that he had to learn to live with. Many students of the Bible believe that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was epilepsy, and Paul had to learn to live with epilepsy, epileptic seizures, or epileptic spasms. Many people have thorns. Some people get diabetes and become blind and they have to live with blindness. Yes, many people in this life have thorns. Thorns are those basic handicaps and limitations of life. For some, it is a heart disease. For others, it is a back ache or spinal deformity.
Nobody chooses their burdens and nobody chooses their thorns. You don’t choose thorns. You do not choose burdens. That is just the way it is. These things just happen to you. A person learns to live in dignity with those burdens and those thorns.
And then there are crosses.
Today we are called to choose to pick up the cross. Picking up the cross is quite different than picking up burdens or living with thorns. Picking up the cross is something that you choose to do. We have crosses made by Cliff Launius that we give to people to remind them that Christ is with them in their burdens and thorns. To pick up a cross is to choose to pick up the thorns and burdens of other people’s lives. When other people are in need, due to their burdens and disasters, you chose to go and love them and help them with their lives. To pick up the cross is to choose to serve the needs of others and thereby to serve God. It is to join in the struggle against evil. To pick up the cross of Christ is to pick up the burdens, thorns and pain of other people.
John Napolii was returning with his catch of fish one foggy morning in 1955. He piloted his boat beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, into San Francisco harbor. What he saw next horrified him. There were people everywhere in the water. A hospital ship, The Netherlands, had collided with an oil tanker. People were shouting, “Help me! Save me! I’m drowning!” John Napolii carefully guided his fishing vessel to a cluster of drowning men. Quickly he began to pull them aboard one by one. Soon the small fishing boat was overcrowded. And John Napolii made one of the hardest decisions of his life. He knew that the lives of those men were far more important than his small fortune of fish. Within minutes he dumped his entire cargo of 2,000 pounds of fish, worth thousands of dollars, into the waters of San Francisco Bay and pulled more than 70 people aboard his boat.
We are saved by Grace alone in believing like Peter that Jesus is the MESSIAH, the one who saves us from sin and death! We are saved with a purpose! Purpose – to help other people navigate away from those gates and to Crash the gate doing 98 saying let those truckers role! We’ve got a great big convoy trucking through the night; we’ve got a great big convoy, ain’t she a beautiful site; come on join our convoy ain’t nothing but heading our way; we have joined the Christian convoy, across the earth! God is leading this convoy of people in this journey to set people free to live and love in the power of the cross.
Let us pray, Gracious God, we praise you for the rock of our life that is our strong foundation. You have formed us in community to be your people who are unafraid to proclaim to the world your goodness. You call us to minister to all those we encounter and to not be afraid. Guide us in sharing this good news, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.