August 30, 2026 - sermon - Michael Anthony Howard

Sermon Text...

What Kind of Christ? 

The Federated Church / Pentecost 14A 

Matthew 16:21–28 

Rev. Michael Anthony Howard 

Sunday, August 30, 2026 

1. “You Are the Christ” — The Confession 

You have to feel a little sorry for Peter. 

Last week, Peter had what may have been 

the best five minutes of his entire life. 

Jesus asks the disciples, 
“Who do you say that I am?” 

And Peter gets it exactly right. 

“You are the Messiah, 

the Son of the living God.” 

And Jesus says, “Blessed are you, 

Simon son of Jonah! 

Flesh and blood has not 

revealed this to you, 

but my Father in heaven.” 

I mean, can you imagine? 

God personally revealed 

the secrets of the universe to you. 

You nailed it. 

And then, six verses later: 

“Get behind me, Satan.” 

That is quite a performance review! 

Peter goes from, 

“God is speaking through you,” to, 

“Get behind me, Satan,” 

in what must have been 

a very uncomfortable five minutes. 

But here’s the interesting thing. 

Peter hasn’t changed his answer. 

He still believes Jesus is the Christ. 

What changes is that Jesus 

begins to tell Peter 

what Christ means: 

“From that time on,” 

Matthew says, 

“Jesus began to show his disciples 

that he must go to Jerusalem…” 

Jerusalem! 

And that they are going 

to see suffering. 

And that he will be killed. 

And on the third day be raised. 

And Peter says: 

No! 

“God forbid it, Lord! 
This must never happen to you!” 

Peter has the right confession. 

But something underneath that confession 

hasn’t changed yet. 

His sacred imagination. 

Because when Peter says, 

“You are the Christ,” 

what does Peter imagine? 

What does he imagine Christ is for? 

What does he imagine God is about to do? 

What does salvation look like? 

What does victory look like? 

What does the Kingdom of God look like 

when it actually arrives? 

Peter knows the word. 

But Jesus is trying to change 

the world Peter sees when he says it. 

And I wonder how often that’s true of us. 

We can say Christ while imagining domination. 

We can say justice while imagining vengeance. 

We can say security while imagining exclusion. 

We can say church while reproducing fear. 

We can even say the Kingdom of God 

while imagining essentially 

the same world we already have— 

except this time, our side gets to be in charge. 

It is possible to have the right confession 

and still carry an unredeemed sacred imagination. 

Peter believes Jesus is the Christ. 

He’s just not sure he wants 

the kind of Christ Jesus intends to be. 

2. “Get Behind Me” — The Correction 

Now, I have this problem with GPS. 

Maybe you do too. 

You put the destination into the GPS. 

You know exactly where you want to go. 

And then it tells you to make a turn 

that you know cannot possibly be correct. 

You can hear me shouting at the thing 
in noonday traffic: 
“No. No, no, no. That’s not the way.” 

And suddenly I’m arguing 

with the woman in my dashboard. 

She says, “Turn right.” 

I say, “Absolutely not.” 

She says, “Turn right.” 

I say, “I’ve lived here longer than you have.” 

And then, of course: 

“Recalculating.” 

That’s Peter. 

Peter knows the destination. 

Kingdom of God? 

Absolutely. 

Salvation? 

Yes. 

Jesus is the Christ, 

the Son of the living God? 

Yes! 

Okay, Peter. 

Jerusalem. 

This way. 

“No, no, no, no. 

That cannot possibly be the route.” 

Peter wants the destination. 

He doesn’t trust the road. 

And I think the geography of this story matters. 

They are going to Jerusalem. 

I wonder, Federated— 

where are we going? 

Which direction are we journeying with Jesus? 

Because Jerusalem isn’t just a dot on the map. 

Jerusalem is where the world 

as Jesus proclaimed it 

collides with the world as it is. 

Religious power is there. 

Political power is there. 

Imperial power is there. 

Money is there. 

Violence is there. 

Fear is there. 

The institutions and authorities 

that decide who matters, who belongs, 

who gets heard, who gets protected— 

they’re all there. 

And we know that world. 

We see it on the news. 

We encounter it in our communities. 

We encounter it in our families. 

And, if we’re honest, 

we bring pieces of it into church with us. 

So maybe Peter’s objection is painfully recognizable. 

“Surely we’re not going to get involved in all of that.” 

Or maybe: 

“Surely Jesus’ way isn’t sufficient for that.” 

Love your enemies? 

Forgive? 

Make peace? 

Welcome strangers? 

Put the vulnerable at the center? 

That’s beautiful, Jesus. 

But Jerusalem? 

The real world doesn’t work that way. 

And maybe that’s the deeper temptation 

underneath Peter’s rebuke. 

Peter wasn’t rejecting Jesus. 

Peter is having trouble believing that 

the way of Jesus can actually save the world. 

Not just save our souls. 

Not just make us nicer people. 

Not just get us into heaven. 

Can we trust the way of Jesus 

with the world as it actually is? 

Can we trust the way of Jesus 

with Jerusalem? 

And Jesus’ response is fierce. 

“Get behind me, Satan.” 

But listen to the geography of that sentence. 

Behind me. 

Peter has gotten out in front of Jesus. 

He’s trying to tell Jesu 

 which direction the Christ ought to go. 

He’s trying to take the wheel. 

And Jesus doesn’t say, 

“Peter, you’re finished.” 

He says: 

“Get behind me.” 

Get back where a disciple belongs! 

Follow. 

You told me who you think I am. 

Now let me show you where we’re going. 

Because there is another way to inhabit this world. 

Jesus will go to Jerusalem. 

He will confront power. 

He will speak truth. 

He will overturn tables. 

He will stand before authorities. 

He will not retreat from the suffering of the world. 

But neither will he allow the violence of the world 

to determine what kind of person he becomes within it. 

That is the kind of Christ Jesus intends to be. 

3. “Come Behind Me” — The Invitation 

And then Jesus does something 

I hadn’t really noticed before. 

He says to Peter: 

“Get behind me.” 

And then Jesus turns to the disciples and says: 

“If any want to become my followers…” 

The language is almost the same. 

If anyone wants to come behind me. 

The rebuke of Peter 

becomes an invitation to discipleship. 

To Peter: 

“Get behind me.” 

And then to everyone else: 

“Who wants to come behind me?” 

Because Jesus isn’t simply 

revealing what kind of Christ he is going to be. 

Jesus is forming a people. 

A body. 

An ekklesia. 

A church. 

And so maybe the question this morning isn’t only: 

What kind of Christ is Jesus? 

Maybe the question is: 

What kind of body are we becoming? 

Because we can confess one thing and embody another. 

Peter just showed us that. 

We can believe in peace 

and organize ourselves around fear. 

We can believe in justice 

and become consumed by vengeance. 

We can believe in reconciliation 

and still carry a list of enemies. 

We can proclaim grace 

and create communities 

where nobody is allowed to fail. 

We can confess Jesus Christ 

and still be formed by all kinds of other stories 

about what will finally save us. 

And that’s why spiritual formation matters. 

That’s why worship matters. 

That’s why prayer matters. 

That’s why Scripture matters. 

That’s why community matters. 

Because Jesus isn’t simply trying 

to get us to believe the right things. 

Christ is forming us into a particular kind of people. 

A people who can walk into places of fear 

without becoming afraid of one another. 

A people who can confront violence 

without surrendering ourselves to violence. 

A people who can enter division 

without needing to manufacture enemies. 

A people who can encounter suffering 

without surrendering our hope. 

What kind of church will be able 

to walk into the nexus of power in Jerusalem 

without becoming like the power-hoarders of Jerusalem? 

That’s what Jesus is forming. 

And we’re not finished. 

Peter certainly wasn’t. 

And I think that’s part 

of the good news in this story… 

Peter gets it right. 

Peter gets it terribly wrong. 

And Jesus doesn’t give up on Peter. 

“Get behind me.” 

Keep walking. 

Let me keep forming you. 

Let me keep redeeming your imagination. 

Let me show you another way to inhabit the world. 

4. “We’re Going That Way” — The Resurrection 

So, Church— 

where are we going? 

Which direction are we walking? 

Where is that Easter sunrise taking us? 

Peter could imagine victory. 

Jesus was teaching Peter 

to imagine something greater. 

Resurrection. 

And victory and resurrection 

are not quite the same thing. 

Victory requires somebody to lose. 

Resurrection says God can make life 

where the world has already declared the power of death. 

That’s why we’re walking toward the nexus of power. 

Not because suffering is good. 

Not because the cross is good. 

But because we know where the road goes. 

We’ve seen the sunrise. 

We believe death does not get the final word. 

We believe violence does not get the final word. 

We believe fear does not get the final word. 

We believe hatred does not get the final word. 

We believe there really is another way to inhabit this world. 

So Jesus turns to Peter and says: 

“Get behind me.” 

And then he turns to the rest of us: 

“Who else wants to come?” 

Church, what kind of body are we becoming? 

What kind of people are we being formed to be? 

Where is God’s Dream taking us? 

Toward resurrection. 

Toward life. 

Toward the world God is making new. 

And Jesus says: 

“I am the way. 

Get behind me.”