Today’s passage is Matthew 16: 13-28.
Jesus asks his disciples who he is. Peter says the Christ. Jesus then gives Peter his name and purpose, the foundation of the church with power to bind and loosen. When Peter rejects the idea of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus calls him Satan.
Jesus tells us to deny ourselves in order to follow him, to carry our cross. He asks us to consider the worth of the world if we lose our soul in gaining it. If we try to keep our life for ourselves, we’ll lose it, but if we give it up for Jesus, we’ll find it.
When he knows who God is, Peter gains his identity, his name, and is given his purpose by God.
When he denies Jesus’ mission, he is renamed Satan and pushed behind.
To know who I am I need to know God. I don’t find myself when I chase the world.
I find myself when I chase after God.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself,” says Jesus.
Finding God is finding myself.
A memory popped into my mind when I meditated on this passage.
The day after I graduated from high school, I went to Europe to hitch-hike for the summer. I was 18.
I didn’t have a clear plan when I arrived in England but immediately realized I needed one. I decided to go to the end of the world, to the islands north of England.
On the way I met a pretty girl who invited me to go south with her to a rock concert with all the big and famous names of the day.
I chose to go north to wilderness rather than go south to summer romance and rock and roll.
On one of the islands I discovered an ancient church built in 1137.
Going alone to the church rather than to the rock concert with a girl suddenly became a symbol of chasing after him instead of the world.
The truth at that moment, however, was that God was pursuing me, not the other way around.
Ten years after that summer, I met Jesus and did begin my long, meandering pursuit of God that has taken me to where I am now.
Because I am daily learning more of God through chasing after him in QT, I am learning more of who I am and what I need to be doing.
Jesus asks, “What good will it be for a man to if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
This tells me the worth of my soul.
I’m richer than Bill Gates because my soul is worth more than the whole world.
My soul is like the pearl of great price. I need to care for it and protect it.
To do that I need to deny myself and follow Jesus in the environment he has placed me.
For me that means my brother in law. In accepting and loving him, I am following Jesus.
And in following Jesus and denying myself I will know who I am.
Lord, give me your strength to chase after you.
