“Not For The Gain But For The Pain!”

“Not For The Gain But For The Pain!”(Mt.16:24-28).
Guide me, O great Jehovah, for I am a pilgrim in this barren land!
Today’s reflection is from a beffitting passage explaining the cost of discipleship. As has been affirmed, “a text without context is a pretext.” Jesus had just explained to his disciples how “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!”
When Peter rebuked Jesus, he turned to Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”(Mt.16:21-23).
Knowing that Peter had always spoken the mind of the rest, Jesus now turned to all of them and said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. Truly, I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
It is right to say the text of today would not have arisen if Peter had not wanted to deter Jesus from fulfilling his mission – except that it would have arisen in another context.
Peter’s rebuke and Jesus’ response raises questions about why we follow Jesus.
Jesus used a metaphor to address Peter; he did not use a simile. This takes us back to the temptation of Jesus, where Satan promised the whole world to Jesus if Jesus bowsed down and worshipped him.
Peter, like the majority of us, considers discipleship in terms of the physical with its material benefits. As such, we do not want Jesus to die; or in our time, we can not afford the church to end!
Focusing on the physical and material benefits obfuscates our appreciation of the spiritual!
Peter rebuked Jesus because he said going to Jerusalem meant going to suffer and die. He missed the point of Jesus being raised to life on the third day.
Our greatest gain is in the spiritual realm when the Son of Man returns in his Father’s glory. Many have attempted to gain the whole world at the expense of their lives. They became this otherworldly and ignored the spiritual nurturing of their souls. “They lost the world who cared so much about it!”
Discipleship is not for worldly gain but for worldly pain. This does not mean mutilation of the flesh, but self-abnegation! Carrying ones cross and following Jesus is the readiness to bear the pain, shame, suffering, and even death for the sake of the gospel. It is not the symbolic cross that we plant on the grave of a deceased.
Self-abnegation is being lost in service for the Lord, not so much for material gains, but for the sake of others and for spiritual gains now and in the hereafter.
We note however that today’s message is a foretelling that we are past the season of Christmas and are now approaching the season of Lent when we reflect in the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
May we be true disciples as we await his Second Coming!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, guide me on this pilgrimage to fix my eyes on things above. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
29/01/2026.