Thomas J Parlette
“Some Peculiar Glory”
Matt. 16: 21-28
8/30/26
A young man walks into an electronics store and stares longingly at the brand-new, cutting-edge, 60 inch, high-definition, TV’s lined up against the wall. A -smooth-talking salesclerk approaches and begins explaining all the enticing and entertaining new features of the latest model. “But you’d better hurry,” he says, “we’re almost sold out. Tell you what, I can let you have this display model with a 10% discount. We can have it delivered and set-up just in time for football season.”
The young man smiles and nods, and says, “I’ll take it.” Just then, a funny-looking man who looks remarkably like a pig with little triangle ears on top of his head, chubby pink cheeks and a flat snout of a nose slides into the camera’s view. He just stands there looking disappointed and shakes his head back and forth to show his disapproval.
The young man thinks for a moment, and has a change of heart.
“You know, you’re right. I don’t really need a new TV.”
The pig man smiles a little, although the salesclerk is visibly annoyed that he has lost the sale. That little scenario is actually a commercial from an organization called feedthepig.org. They’re a financial consulting group that specializes in helping people manage their finances, make a budget, reduce debt, pay off loans and in general save money. The name “feed the pig” is meant to recall those childhood days when we used to relish putting money into our piggy banks to save up for something special.
When I googled feedthepig.org, I found lots of commercials they have produced over the last 15 years or so. I also found lots of facebook references and reddit threads that ranked their commercials as some of the most hated on the internet. I think that might be because one of the organizations basic tenets is self-denial. They teach, “learn to say “No”, you don’t need everything. Sometimes we buy things that we don’t really need. It’s better to feed the piggy bank, rather than our need for the newest and most trendy new thing.”
Self-denial is not something we hear a lot about in our consumer oriented society. We are much more comfortable with ideas like self fulfillment, our self-care, where we can encourage ourselves to indulge our cravings to make ourselves feel good. None of us really want to hear about saying “No” to ourselves. We’d rather hear about saying “Yes” to whatever pampers our body and soul. America is all about saying Yes – not No. Yet, self-denial is one of the key themes in our passage for today.
This story comes right on the heels of the one we heard last week when Jesus and his disciples visited Caesarea Phillipi and Jesus asked his disciples – “Who do people say that I am?” Some say, John the Baptist, some Elijah, or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
“But who do you say I am?”
Peter comes up with the answer Jesus is hoping to hear when he says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
It was a glorious moment. Finally, the disciples had put all the pieces together – Jesus was the Messiah. Things were going to change now. They had their ace-in-the-hole. They had the Messiah on their side. They would put together an invincible army, drive the Romans out of town, and they would rule over Judea. They would all be rich and powerful. This was great and glorious news!
But for now, Jesus didn’t want them to tell anyone. A little strange – but okay. Whatever you say Jesus. You’re the boss, you’re the Messiah after all. We will keep our mouths shut. So, the disciples followed along behind Jesus, bursting at the seams with their amazing news, visions of power and glory dancing in their heads. And yet, from that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, undergo great suffering and be killed – then raised to life on the third day.
When they hear this, I’m sure the disciples mouths dropped open.
“What are you talking about Jesus? That can’t possibly be your game plan. What kind of glorious victory is this?” I’m sure the disciples were utterly shocked. The 1999 film simply called “Jesus” captured this sense of shock pretty well. We see Judas there urging Jesus to reconsider, strike while the iron is hot, act now while you have so much popular support. Passover is coming – that would be the perfect time to galvanize opposition to Roman power. Jesus then addresses the group, “In two days, it will be Passover, and I will be killed.” The response around the room is disbelief, shock and rejection. Peter, speaking for all the disciples, insists that he will defend Jesus, that Jesus’ death cannot be God’s will, that Jesus’ mission is just beginning.
Finally, Jesus turns on Peter and shouts, “Satan, get away from me.” The room is shocked into silence, and Judas storms out in disgust. But it doesn’t stop there. The passage moves from the shock of Jesus’ impending death to the even greater shock that they too will have to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow if they want to be disciples. What sort of peculiar glory is this? This is not what the disciples wanted to hear.
Still isn’t, in fact. It’s not what we want to hear either. We don’t want to hear about suffering and loss being the way to spiritual fulfillment. Self-denial is not a popular topic. I once heard about a professor at Luther Seminary in St.Paul named Fred Gaiser, who once did an admittedly unscientific survey of church mission statements. He looked at websites and old bulletins to see what churches were saying about themselves, and how they presented themselves to the world. What he found was pretty surprising. Churches generally described their mission in terms of being warm and welcoming communities. They wrote of their commitment to serve Jesus by ministering to the needs of the community. They described their efforts to provide excellent educational programs, fellowship opportunities and weekly worship. They declared themselves committed to inspiring, biblical preaching. But not one church he surveyed mentioned the call to suffer in Jesus’ name. What was missing from practically every mission statement was the cross.
No, we don’t like to hear about the suffering and self-denial it takes to follow Christ. When we hear that we have “lose our lives to save them, deny ourselves, take up a cross and follow” – well it might be tempting to follow Judas as he storms out of the room.
And yet, that is what we are called to do. When we commit ourselves to follow Jesus we commit ourselves to suffering in that we pledge to put our own ambitions in second place, our own plans for our lives take a back seat. When we commit ourselves to follow Jesus, we commit ourselves to self-denial instead of self-fulfillment. And in so doing, we discover a peculiar sort of glory. A glory that finds joy in serving instead of being served. A glory that finds meaning in the struggle instead of avoiding conflict altogether. A glory that can only come through loss.
William Willimon tells the story of a woman he knows who lost the possibility of ever having a family of her own. So, she and her husband decided to become foster parents. One day Willimon stopped over for a visit and he admitted he was a bit taken aback at the situation he found. This middle-aged couple had signed up to be foster parents for a group of 6 special needs foster children – not one, but six. The shape of their day was constant washing, cleaning, cooking and caring. Yet, they could not have been in better spirits.
“These children make my life worth living,” said mom as she put in another load of laundry. “They give me a meaningful life. I don’t sit around and mope looking for something to do – I don’t have time. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in somebody else’s aches and pains.”
That’s what it is to lose your life. I like the way Barbara Brown Taylor says it. She writes: “Like every believer I know, my search for real life has led me through at least three distinct seasons of faith – not once or twice, but over and over again. Jesus called it finding life and losing life, and finding life again… You don’t have to die in order to discover the truth of this teaching. You only need to lose track of who you are, or who you thought you were supposed to be, so that you end up lying flat on the dirt floor basement of your heart. “Do this,” says Jesus, “and you will live.”
“As hard as we preachers may work to clarify this, I’m not so sure we ever can. Jesus’ promise contains truth that can only be experienced. Loss and self-denial is how we come to surrender our lives to God. And even those who profess no faith at all may still confess that losing really has helped them find their way again.”
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me,” said Jesus. Lose your life for my sake, and I will show you a peculiar sort of glory.
May God be praised. Amen.
