Deny Yourselves and Follow

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday, August 30, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Just when St. Peter thought he was doing something right. Right? Like last week, he was doing great. In our reading last week, you know, he stands up, and Jesus asks, "Who do people say that I am?" And they give the answers, and then Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter, filled with God's Spirit, stands up and says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus praises him: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven has revealed this to you." And you have a new nickname. We're going to call you Rock. And on this rock — the rock of your confession — we're going to build a church, and the gates of hell will never stand against it. And Peter's thinking, yes — I did it. I did something right.

And then just one reading later, here we are. Because Jesus starts saying some strange things pretty much right away, after the disciples all acknowledged — with Peter at the head — "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And from that time on, St. Matthew tells us today, Jesus starts saying some new stuff. He says, "I'm going to have to go to Jerusalem." Well, that's just a bad idea right up front, right? Going to Jerusalem is a terrible idea, because, Jesus, don't you realize that the people in Jerusalem kind of hate you? Also, Jerusalem has a reputation. It is the city that stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to it. And then he must undergo great suffering at the hands of the chief priests and the leaders. He says he must do this. Well, why must you do that? That seems like a really, really dumb idea. Like, you're voluntarily choosing to go someplace where people are going to treat you badly, and then you're anticipating that they are going to treat you badly. And then he says something that makes it even worse — and you're going to be killed.

Now, if you're St. Peter, this is a major alarm bell for you, right? Because Peter just was saying, "This is the Christ, the Son of the living God," and they're excited, because this is the anointed one. This is the Messiah. That's what Christ means — it means Messiah, or anointed one. And so they're excited: hey, finally, here's the movement we've been wanting. We're building something good and new. And now Jesus is saying that he's going to intentionally go to Jerusalem, be mistreated, and killed. Awesome. Great plan, Jesus. Love that one. And then he throws in at the end: be raised. And I think that one goes in one ear of Peter's and right out the other. That's just crazy talk there.

You can understand why Peter thought he had a special role to play. He thought it was his declaration that made him special to Jesus. And so he was going to declare something else, right? And so when Jesus starts saying that he must go to Jerusalem, that he must be mistreated and then he must be killed, and then on the third day he will rise, St. Peter has an opinion about that. He's going to declare something else. He says, "God forbid it, Lord!" Now, wait just a second here, Peter. I thought you said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now you're saying, "God forbid it, Lord." I thought you said that Jesus is the Lord. Well, you say it, but apparently he's not in charge — you are. How does that work exactly? He says, "This must never happen to you." And therefore Jesus rejects Peter in incredibly harsh terms: "Get behind me, Satan! For your mind is set not on heavenly things, but on earthly things."

In asking Jesus to dodge the work of the cross, he has not become a voice of reason. He has not become an advocate for what is prudent in the church; he has literally become the devil's advocate. And Jesus is having none of it. He has become the voice of Satan himself. And Jesus says, "You have become a stumbling block to me." Think of the irony of that. Just last week's reading, just a couple of verses before, Peter is the rock — the rock upon which the church will be built. And now he's a rock, but he's worse than a useless rock. He's actively in the way, because his will is not aligned with the will of God in Jesus. And so Jesus says, "Get behind me." Not because he doesn't want Peter to lead, but because the only way that Peter can lead is from the rear. You see, he has to follow Christ if he's going to lead the church.

This is the nature of human beings coming into contact with the demands of a holy God. We hear the word of God that speaks to us with its demands, and we say, you want me to do what? You want me to sacrifice what? You want me to stop doing what? And too often we try to soften that. There are whole denominations and non-denominations of Christians trying to talk people into a Christianity that demands nothing of them. There's no call to sacrifice, no call to discipleship — just an inspiring self-help message, some happy music, and maybe some decent coffee. Does that sound like the call of Christ? Does that sound like the Son of the living God in our reading today?

Because Jesus himself puts it this way, just a few verses later: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves." Your flesh does not desire the things of God, so appealing to your flesh does not produce the fruits of repentance and faith. He says, "If any want to become my followers, let them take up their cross and follow me." If you would follow your Lord Jesus Christ, if you would truly be found to be among his disciples, you must take up your cross — and we hate this. The sinful flesh hates this, because the cross is an image of pain. The cross is a burden to bear for the sake of others, and ultimately the cross is an instrument of death. You must be crucified with Christ. You must be buried with Christ through baptism into his death. That is not a self-help message; that is a self-denial message. If you seek to help yourself, you will lose your soul. But if you seek to deny yourself, you will gain your soul.

But there is a cost to following Christ. It's not a cost you pay because you're hoping to earn your salvation, but rather it is a cost you pay because your Lord has already paid the great cost for you. And it might mean that you have to be different. You might have to become like Jeremiah the prophet, who knew the painful cost of telling the truth and speaking God's word to a rebellious and sinful people, to the point where he was mistreated terribly. You may have to forgive something that seems to you to be unforgivable. You may have to not just laugh with those who are laughing, but weep with those who weep. You may have to overcome evil with good. And these are the crosses that we are called, as Christians, to bear in everyday life.

And yet today is a day of celebration. It's a day of great joy for me, because my friend Brynn Jordahl has come here to work at Our Savior's Lutheran Church. And as we install Brynn to her ministry of children, youth, and families among us, I think we have in her a good example of what it is to bear a burden, to hear the call to follow Christ, and to move. So she sold a house and packed a moving truck, and she drove it up here and we unloaded it. And she has made her home now here among us.

And there's a temptation in bringing a youth minister into our congregation to make this about the greater glory of Our Savior's Lutheran Church — about its history and its tradition, about making it about the institution or the organization. It's important for us to remember that what we are doing here, with or without Brynn, is not building an institution. We are teaching discipleship. We are ultimately teaching people to follow Jesus Christ — Jesus Christ, who calls us to empty ourselves for others, not to seek our own glory, who commands us to forgive, who calls us to take up our crosses and follow him, who admonishes us to turn over our lives to him that we may live.

Because in the end, our Lord is worth all of this sacrifice and infinitely more. And to follow him gives us the true purpose of our lives — the true purpose of this church. Our Lord is worth all of this sacrifice and infinitely more, because he has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has given us not a way of salvation, but the way of salvation. He has opened to us the way of everlasting life. He has given us eternal life with him, forever. And ultimately, Jesus was right, because he needed to go to Jerusalem for our sake. He needed to suffer as he did, for our sake. He had to bear his cross and die, for our sake. And he has been vindicated in all of that, because he is risen from the dead. And being risen from the dead, he now lives at the right hand of God the Father, even to this very day. Not a figure in a bygone time and a distant location, but a God who is with us and who rules over us now — in this church and around the world — even at this moment.

And so we will recommit ourselves to the path of self-denial. We will give ourselves for the sake of our neighbor, and we will do all of this trusting in the grace and love of the Lord who gave himself for us. May you find peace in that which is better than the peace the world has to give, and may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord, to life everlasting. Amen.