Understanding the Cost

Matthew 16:21-27

Peter is a powerful figure in Scripture. He is the only one who stepped out of the boat during the storm walk with Jesus on water. Unlike the others, Peter was swinging his sword when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden. Peter was compulsive. He had a strong desire to be with Jesus where ever He was no matter what the cost.

But that’s just it, Peter really didn’t understand the cost. Just like the others, Peter accepted the idea that the coming Messiah was to be a ruling King. He dreamed of position and power along with being a close friend and the chosen follower of Jesus. All of his hopes and expectations superseded any idea of cost.

Jesus laid out a new understanding of what it cost to follow the Messiah. Giving the picture of the cross was 180° opposed to Peter’s thinking. Peter clearly understood that the cross meant shame, rejection, suffering, heart ache, and ultimately death. Yet now Jesus, the one he recognized as the Son of God, was saying that to follow Him would cost giving up ourselves daily to be abandoned to the cross. All the personal wishes, hopes, desires, and positions, would be vacated for Jesus.

The ultimate desire for Peter and any true disciple of Jesus is to treasure Christ totally. In valuing the Lord we become oblivious to those things which we have to give up. Just as Jesus faced the cross joyfully because He could see beyond it, making Jesus Master of our life will allow us to see the joy of following Him as more desirable than the restrictiveness of our own dreams.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for allowing me to place my hope in You. I now abandon all of me so that I may pursue all of You. The cost has been counted and understood. I treasure You more than life itself.