The Necessity of the Cross, Part 1
Matthew 16:20-23
Over the last few weeks we have been taking a close look at a central passage in Matthew 16. Jesus took His disciples away from the Jewish crowds in Galilee to the mostly Gentile area of Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13). There Jesus questioned them about His identity, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). Simon Peter spoke up for the group and confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). That Jesus is “the Christ” means He is the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a Savior, an anointed King in the line of David who would reign forever. That Jesus is “the Son of God” means that He is divine, having the very nature and essence of God Himself. Jesus blessed Peter and his confession, saying “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17).
Then Jesus told Simon, “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” Matt. 16:18). And we spent three weeks examining the church that Jesus builds—its foundation, builder, victory, and authority. Peter and the other apostles believed that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. And based on the reality of Jesus’ identity—the truth that God revealed and they confessed—Jesus will build His victorious and powerful church.
But as great and true as that confession was, Jesus’ disciples did not really know what all that meant. They understood that Jesus was the Christ, but they did not understand what it meant for Him to be the Christ. They knew His identity but they did not know His mission.
Matthew 16:20 says, “Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.” Why did Jesus tell His disciples not to tell anyone? Well, for one, the disciples were not ready. They did not understand all they needed to about Jesus Christ and His mission to save sinners. That would not become clear to them until after Jesus’ resurrection. In our text, Peter, who had just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, would rebuke the Lord as He predicted His suffering and death. And later, when Jesus is arrested, Peter will deny the Lord.
They were not ready because they did not understand the gospel message was about Christ saving sinner through His death and resurrection. And they were not ready because the Holy Spirit had not been given to empower them to be His witnesses. So it was not yet the time to widely proclaim the Jesus is the Christ.
Secondly, it was not yet time to proclaim Jesus is the Christ because the people held to unrealistic and unbiblical expectations about Christ. The Jews expected the Messiah immediately to be a conquering ruler. They expected Him to save the nation of Israel from their oppressors. After Jesus fed the five thousand, the people tried to take Him by force to make Him king (John 6:15). If Jesus had played into these popular expectations it would have been an obstacle to the one thing He came to do: to save His people from their sins by dying on the cross.
Expectations affect what you hear. Peter and the other apostles, like most of the Jews, had a certain expectation of the Messiah. In the words of the prophets:
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer. 23:5-6).
“He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked” (Isa. 11:4).
“Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isa. 9:7).
“He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness will bow before Him, And His enemies will lick the dust.” (Psa. 72:8-9).
These are all true prophecies of the Messiah. They speak of Christ’s second coming and the consummation of His kingdom, not His first coming and the commencement of His kingdom. But this is what they expected from the Christ. So, when Jesus says that Peter is right and He is God’s promised Messiah, Peter hears, “I’m about to bring down Caesar, overthrow Rome, and establish my own throne with the twelve of you at my side.” Rather than hearing what Jesus said about Himself, Peter heard what he expected Jesus to say.
Because of these misunderstandings and wrong expectations, the time was not right to tell everyone that Jesus is the Christ. It’s altogether different for us. We live on the other side of the cross. We have a risen Savior. We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to be His witnesses. Jesus has commissioned His church to preach the gospel to all nations. Before the cross, the disciples were to tell no one. After the cross, we must tell everyone.
So, Jesus now teaches His disciples the necessity of the cross.
1. The Necessity of Christ’s Cross (Matt. 16:20-21)
In our passage, Jesus for the first time tells His disciples plainly what awaited Him in Jerusalem. Matthew tells us that, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matt. 16:21). Here, Jesus speaks plainly about His suffering, death, and resurrection. The fact that Jesus mentions the three groups of the elders, chief priests, and scribes is quite intentional. These three groups made up a court who would declare Jesus guilty of blasphemy and hand Him over to Rome with the charge of treason. So, Jesus wasn’t simply suggesting some kind of violent mob attack but a judicial rejection where they would find Him guilty and sentenced Him to death.
We have seen Jesus hint at His death before in Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew 9:15, when asked why His disciples didn’t fast, He said, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” It was a veiled allusion to His death. In Matthew 12, when the Pharisees demand a sign from Jesus, He says, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:39-40). He told them the same thing in Matthew 16:4.
The difference now is that Jesus speaks about these things clearly and “openly” (Mark 8:32) to the disciples. From this point on, Jesus will teach these things repeatedly to His disciples (Matt. 17:9, 22-23; 20:18-19; 26:2, 12,31). He is preparing them for these things by teaching them the necessity of the cross.
Jesus teaches that “He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matt. 16:21). The word “must” (dei) shows that what Jesus describes was a necessity. It absolutely had to happen, for it was the very reason He had come to earth as a Man (Matt. 1:21; 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 19:10). There was a divinely-appointed inevitability about the things that Jesus had said were about to occur to Himself. Jesus’ rejection, suffering, and death occurred “by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). How we should praise our Father for such a faithful Savior! Jesus suffered these things because, in the wise decree of the Father, and in His mercy toward us, they “must” happen. They must happen to save sinners.
Jesus knew the necessity of the cross. It was the Father’s divinely appointed purpose for Him. Because of this, Jesus also shunned anything that would dare to divert Him from that divine purpose. As we see in our text, Peter tried to deter Jesus from the cross.
So next we see…
2. The Misunderstanding of Christ’s Cross (Matt. 16:22-23)
Matthew 16:22 says, “Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”” Why did Peter take it upon himself to rebuke the Lord? Peter had no doubt been thinking himself very important since the Lord had just given him a great word of blessing for the confession he had just made. Jesus had called him Peter, the rock, saying “on this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Jesus had just said He would give Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19). Now Peter heard Jesus talking about suffering and death. To him, it didn’t compute. It made no sense. And so, he dared to take the Lord aside as if to privately correct Him. He told Him, “Far be it from You, Lord . . .”; or more literally, “God have mercy to You, Lord!” Peter thought that it could not have possibly been God’s will for Jesus to die. And then, he used the strongest negative possible in the original language so as to say, “In no way shall such a thing be to You!“
In Peter’s mind, what Jesus said was incompatible with Him being the Christ. In Peter’s understanding, the Messiah doesn’t suffer and die but lives and conquers. Death doesn’t fit Peter’s expectation of the Messiah. Peter and the other disciples were following Jesus, believing Him to be the promised Messiah who would conquer, judge, and reign. I’m sure Peter thought it would be glorious, and as His closest followers, they would share in His glory. So, when Jesus announces His own death, what does that mean for Peter? What will become of those who follow Jesus? Think about it. Whenever someone proclaims himself as a rival king and then is killed by the reigning king or government, they typically don’t say to that dead leader’s followers, “Now you go about your way and be happy. We know you weren’t responsible for that man’s rebellion against the king.” No, they kill his followers too.
And maybe that’s why Peter and the other disciples missed what Jesus said about the resurrection. Again, it did not compute in their minds. Mark 9:10 tells us that another time, after Jesus mentioned to them that He would rise from the dead, the disciples “kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.” You see, people rising from the dead wasn’t more common in the first century than it is today. So, when they heard Jesus say he would rise from the dead, they didn’t just say, “Right. Of course.” Rather, they thought, “He obviously doesn’t mean that in any literal way. What does he mean by that?” And they didn’t bring it up. So Peter dismissed Jesus’ predicted death, missed His predicted resurrection, and probably feared for his own life.
Look at how Jesus responded to Peter’s rebuke. Matthew 16:23 says, “But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” I can’t imagine what a horrifying blow that must have been to poor Peter. To have heard such powerful words of rebuke from His beloved Lord—especially after he had just been told that he spoke a confession about Jesus that was the very revelation from the Father! I don’t believe that Jesus meant to say that Peter was Satan. But I do believe that Jesus knew Peter was being used by Satan at that moment. And Jesus spoke directly and sharply to the one who was seeking to tempt Him through Peter.
The devil had tempted Jesus in a similar way in Matthew 4. There, the devil took Jesus up to an exceedingly high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and—in the most outrageous act of blasphemy imaginable—said to his own divine Creator, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:8-9). It was an offer of “instant kingship”—”instant Messianic rule”. The devil was offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world without ever having to go to the cross—if He would just bow down and worship the devil. Satan’s temptation, in short, was: get the crown without going the way of the cross.
And do you remember our Lord’s response to the tempter at that time? He said, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matt. 4:10; marginal reading). He told the devil to get out of His way and take his proper place out behind Him. And now, as Peter strongly suggests to the Lord that these things would never happen to Him, Jesus turns and says the same words to Peter: “Get behind Me, Satan!” Peter understood that Jesus was the Messiah. But he did not yet understand what kind of Messiah Jesus was. Jesus did not come as a political Messiah to deliver the Jews from their bondage to Rome. No, Jesus came as a suffering Messiah to deliver us from our bondage to sin.
Jesus put His finger on the motives that drove Peter as well saying, “You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Peter had put his agenda before Jesus’ agenda. He didn’t have the thoughts of God, but the thoughts of men. At this moment, Peter was more concerned about his own comfort and plans than he was God’s plan of redemption. To unredeemed men, the message of the cross is utter foolishness. It doesn’t make sense that the King of kings would come to suffer and die. And yet, Jesus here shows His devotion to the Father by the fact that the devil’s alternatives to the cross are an “offense” to Him.
The devil is still using this same tactic today. He still peddles his falsehoods in Christ’s church. He seeks to downplay the seriousness of sin, telling people that it is your right to just be yourself and to “love” whom you desire, calling murder reproductive healthcare, destroying God-ordained gender roles, and telling many other lies. He tries to get Christians to soften the offense of the cross, to abandon the doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary atonement, and to doubt God’s inspired word.
Jesus was committed to the divine necessity of the cross. He shunned the world’s praise to die on the cross being despised and rejected by men. He utterly rejected the devil’s alternatives to the cross. He set Himself resolutely to go to Jerusalem and to death on the cross. Jesus, “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus rejected the devil’s way and man’s way, and He chose instead God’s way—the way of the cross. And it was then that He turned to His followers and called them to do the same, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). We will look at this verse and those that follow it more closely next time. But let me just remind you, the way of the cross was necessary for Jesus, and it is necessary for us.
That is why we come to the Lord’s Table today. By it, we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins on the cross. His body was broken, His blood poured out. He suffered and died in our place for our sin. Jesus came to save sinners. He came to give His life as a ransom for us—for all who believe in Him. Do you believe today that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? Do you believe that He died as a sinless lamb on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin? Do you believe that He rose from the dead on the third day and lives forever to save those who believe in Him?
When we eat the bread representing His body and drink the cup representing His blood, we do so, remembering Him and believing these things. We do so, knowing that by faith we are united to Him in His death and resurrection, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” (Rom. 6:6). “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” (Rom. 6:10). So, as we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we “reckon [ourselves] to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 611).
