Finding Our Place in Line

Matthew 16:21-28

Photo by Paul Dufour on Unsplash

An attendant at a busy airline desk was frantically attempting to assist a number of airline passengers who were trying to check in, following a cancelled flight. 

As the attendant was helping the frustrated passengers, one irate customer toward the end of the line began weaving through the line toward the front. 

After storming to the front of the line, dropping his bags, and slamming his palms against the counter, he demanded that the attendant immediately issue him a new boarding pass and transport him directly to the gate. 

In shock, the attendant just stared at him blankly, then after a few moments took a deep breath, looked him in the eye and exclaimed; 

“Sir, as you can see, there are a number of passengers that were waiting ahead of you. I apologize for the inconvenience but if you can just wait patiently like everyone else I will get to you as soon as possible. Please, get back in line.”

Enraged by this response, the irate customer slammed his fist on the counter and shouted; “Do you know who I am!”

Calmly, the attendant leaned forward and pulled the PA microphone toward their face and announced; 

“There is a Delta customer at the outgoing flights check in desk who is unsure of who he is, if there is anyone who can identify this individual, and help him back to his place in line, please step forward. Thank you for flying Delta!”

I don’t like waiting in lines. 

In fact, I have a tendency to avoid lines altogether. 

I tend to eat last during cookouts and church functions. 

Some of you may have noticed this. 

The lines I experienced in the military were so long and frustrating that I vowed I would avoid lines at whatever the cost upon returning home. 

Some lines are unavoidable though, like a Harris Teeter check out line just before cyclone ten strikes Virginia Beach. 

But sometimes you have to consider the up side to those long lines.

It gives you the opportunity to take a few test nibbles of the cookies in your cart, 

Catchup on the latest gossip in the magazine racks, cause it's always nice to know who has given birth to the latest half bat - half child in Arkansas.

You can even test your will power by staring at that half pound Reese cup until your turn to check out comes; it truly is the ultimate test of willpower. 

But why do we despise lines sooo much?

Because, when we look up and down the length of a long line, we always know that somehow or someway, we are more important than everyone else waiting ahead of us. 

This is how we all feel in check out lines, airports, even in lines when we are waiting to board a ride in an amusement park on vacation.

And here in Virginia Beach, we all know how it feels waiting in line whenever we are waiting to pass through that tunnel. 

Always the tunnel, right?

Photo by Nabeel Syed on Unsplash

~

Today’s gospel immediately follows Matthew’s account of Peter’s confession to Christ that we heard last week. 

But the most significant part of that story is the place in line bestowed upon Peter. 

Peter hears the Lord proclaim that upon that ROCK, the Lord will build the church. 

Now, the rock spoken of could signify either the literal rock they are standing on at that given time, the cliff above the shrine where the pagan god Pan was worshipped

Or

It could signify the confession that is made by Peter, declaring Jesus to be the Messiah, and the Son of the living God. 

Or 

It could signify Simon Peter himself, whose name Peter literally means rock. 

It could mean all three, and for Matthew there is significance to all three of these approaches to this text. 

But what is most important about this text is that Peter, and we, forget what is said about this place in line. 

Jesus declares that the church WILL BE built on that rock. 

Jesus declares that the keys to heaven WILL BE given to Peter.

Jesus does not declare that these things have taken place or that they are taking place at that particular time, 

He declares that those things WILL take place. 

But Peter puts the cart before the horse, weaving his way to the front of the pack, assuming that he is a pretty big wheel among the disciples.

But as my father has always warned me, be careful of big wheels because big dogs always pee on big wheels. 

Peter assumes his position a bit prematurely without realizing the threat this assumption poses to Jesus’ own ministry. 

The account of Peter’s confession at Caesarea of Philippi marks a shift in Jesus’ ministry. 

He has completed his ministry in Galilee and he is now beginning the final leg of his journey

TOWARD Jerusalem

TOWARD the Temple

TOWARD courts that will condemn him

TOWARD Golgotha and the cross that will be planted there.

So, while Peter sees an opportunity to inch toward the front of the line, he not only does so a bit prematurely but he goes a bit too far. 

Placing himself between Jesus and Jerusalem both literally and figuratively as a stumbling block. 

Because Jesus cannot be declared the Messiah and face such a demise as this, and Peter knows that there is nothing in scripture that will substantiate a claim of a persecuted Messiah. 

And while I do not want to discredit Peter’s authentic care and love for our Lord, let there be no doubt, this serves as a double edged blade to Peter, 

Not only endangering Jesus’ role as THE Christ, but endangering Peter’s role as THE rock. 

Peter tempts Jesus with a detour

A detour away from Jerusalem and a detour around the cross. 

The same detour that tempts Christ when he is tested in the wilderness, the same detour that tempts Christ in the garden on the eve of his crucifixion. 

~

Jackie Robinson is a national icon. 

And it could be debated as to whether he is a national icon because of his role as a baseball player or because of his role as a civil rights leader. 

I hate to say it but this makes me kind of sad, because I admire Jackie for his role as a Brooklyn Dodger.

I admire Jackie Robinson for his role as part of that team. 

Jackie Robinson said very little about being the first black man in baseball. 

He said very little about much of anything. 

He was relatively soft spoken and went out of his way to draw very little attention to himself. 

Jackie wasn’t really even a flashy ballplayer. 

He didn’t play in a way that drew attention to himself or declared him the leader of that team. 

He solidified his place in baseball by being a member of the team, an integral piece of that group of ballplayers that became the finely tuned, well oiled machine, that won the pennant in '47, '49, '52, and '53 before winning the World Series in 1955. 

He took his place among the other members of his team, not by putting himself in the front of the line but by pushing his fellow ballplayers to the front of the line, all the way to home plate, 

leading the league in sacrifice hits and stolen bases, driving his teammates home for scoring runs 48 times in his first year!

The Dodgers, including (from left) Wayne Terwilliger, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Preacher Roe, Chuck Dressen and Carl Erskine, celebrate in the clubhouse after defeating the Phillies in 14 innings to tie the Giants for first place in the National League on Sept 30, 1951 Charles Payne/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

And he did it all while being called every name in the book, names so vile and offensive that I have spent most of my life believing they would remain a thing of the past, until this year. 

The most beautiful thing about this team was the bond that grew between the other players and Jackie. 

It took time but they became well known as more than just a team, they became a family. 

In the film "42", which depicts the first year of Jackie’s career, Harrison Ford plays Branch Ricky, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who brought Jackie into the Major Leagues in 1947. 

In one scene Ricky and Harold Parrott, the Dodger’s publicity chief, are meeting in the general manager’s office where Parrott has been infuriated by the vile things that are being said publicly about Jackie. 

As Parrott concludes outlining his plans of physical violence against the Phillies dugout in their upcoming game, Ricky just laughs.

To which Parrott questions “Did I say something funny?”

Ricky responds by stating,

“When I first told you about Robinson, Harold, you uh, you were against it. Now all of a sudden, you’re worried about him. I wonder how that happened?”

He then explains exactly how when he states; 

“Sympathy, Harold. It’s a greek word, it means to suffer. 'I sympathize with you’ means ‘I suffer with you’ and that Philadelphia manager, he’s doing me a service, he’s creating sympathy on Jackie’s behalf.”

Then Ricky follows up this observation with another observation of complete irony, explaining that Philadelphia is also a greek word that means “brotherly love”.

In his autobiography, Harold Parrott confessed that the moment when a fellow Dodger, Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Jackie during warmups before his Kentucky hometown crowd in Cincinnati, it was a turning point. 

It was a turning point because no one wanted to cut Jackie in line anymore, no one wanted to send Jackie to the back of the line anymore, and Pee Wee Reese was booed by his hometown crowd because he was willing to take Jackie’s cross onto his own shoulders.

And that was what made the Dodgers the powerhouse team of the 40’s and 50’s. 

No one carried their own cross, they carried one another’s. 

~

Sisters and brothers, I try my best to point to that cross every Sunday. 

This is intentional, because the gospel points to that cross every single time we hear it. 

And today, in most congregations you will hear a call to pickup your own crosses but if that is what we hear we’ve missed the most important call of them all in this text. 

We are called to deny ourselves first. 

We are called to stop standing by and proclaiming “Oh well, that doesn’t effect me!”

We are called to stop looking down the line and finding out how we can inch our way ahead of the next one in line. 

We are called to stop pushing those we feel are pulling us down or are the root of our problems to the back of the line. 

We are called to deny the urge to put ourselves before others, regardless of whether we know them, we like them, or we think we have anything in common with them

Peter and the other disciples are called to deny themselves if they intend to follow Jesus, and this word for deny only comes up in Matthew’s Gospel three more times. 

Matthew Chapter 26 in verses 34, 35, and 75. 

Anybody wanna guess what the context is?

It isn’t Peter’s denial of himself, it is the warning and acknowledgement of Peter’s denial of Jesus as he is sentenced to death. 

The Denial of Saint Peter, by Caravaggio 1610 (PD)

Peter, the disciples, and we are called to deny ourselves the same way that Peter denied Jesus. 

WOW!

Tell me that doesn’t make you want to check the footnotes or hold your nose through the rest of the service

And I’ll be honest with you, I’m not entirely comfortable with it either. 

Don’t think that just because I’m a pastor I don’t want to push others to the back of the line or inch myself up closer to the front. 

But if we value our own lives above all other things and people, can we ever truly know anything that may be of equal or greater beauty than ourselves?

What would this world look like if it looked exactly like what I see in the mirror daily?

In all honesty, it would look pretty useless and bland, because I know that I am not the pinnacle of God’s creative power and in order to fully see that, I may need to find a way to be comfortable in the back of the line… for once. 

Amen

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601) by Caravaggio (PD)

Sources


Helgeland, Brian. 42. Directed by Brian Helgeland Burbank, California: Warner Brothers, 2013. DVD.

Krell, David. "Harold Parrott: The Lord of Baseball Public Relations » The Sports Post." The Sports Post. February 01, 2014. Accessed August 31, 2017. https://thesportspost.com/harold-parrott-the-lord-of-baseball-public-relations/.