The Path Towards Kenosis: A Homily for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

Preached over Zoom at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church
Toronto, ON

+In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Poor Peter. You really have to feel for him. The scene in today’s Gospel follows immediately after last week’s scene where Peter correctly identifies Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” and receives the highest of praises from Jesus for this divinely inspired revelation. Any yet, soon thereafter, Jesus rebukes Peter, rather harshly, because Peter tries to dissuade Jesus from heading to Jerusalem to face his Passion. Jesus tells Peter “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” 

Perhaps Peter is riding high on the praise he received from Jesus in last week’s gospel and hopes to once again provide some of that divinely inspired insight to encourage or convince Jesus that he does not need to go to his death in Jerusalem. Peter had good intentions that were informed by his personal relationship with Jesus and the theology of his time. As Origen of Alexandria and Saint John Chrysostom explain, Peter could not conceive of the Messiah, the Son of the living God, having to endure suffering and death and was therefore afraid of what Jesus was saying to his disciples. Death was something beneath God, something that God could not experience. The Messiah was not supposed to die, rather he was to restore the Earthly Kingdom of Israel and establish it over all the nations. The Messiah was to make a new empire that would conquer and subjugate the powers of this world. This was what Peter was taught, this was the eschatological hope people had in the Messiah, and so he sought to rebuke and correct Jesus for not fulfilling his expectations. Peter had good intentions.

As the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Peter desires a world free from the injustices of his era, but he has set his eye on earthly or human things—the desire for power and might making right by replacing one empire with another. This scene between Peter and Jesus evokes the final temptation the Devil puts before Jesus in the Wilderness. The Devil took Jesus to the top of a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms and empires of the world and tells him “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Satan offers Jesus his own empire over all the earth to rule and dominate. Jesus replies in a manner foreshadowing his rebuke of Peter “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Both Peter and Satan attempt to draw Jesus away from the will of God and focus on earthly power and might, and though Peter’s intentions were good, Jesus still draws the comparison between the two because ultimately the consequences of Peter and Satan’s attempts are the same, focusing on power and might causes people to stumble on the path towards righteousness.

Rétire-toi, Satan by Jacques Joseph Tissot

The image on the front cover of the bulletin, Rétire-toi, Satan by the 19th century French artist Jacques Joseph Tissot, imagines the scene between Jesus and Peter in a more violent manner. Jesus pushes Peter behind him to keep Peter from blocking his way to Jerusalem. Peter is a literal stumbling block in Jesus’s ministry that has to be pushed away from the road lest he and others trip and fall on their way. Yet even as Jesus rebukes Peter, he provides consolation to him and to the other apostles and explains why he must go through his Passion. 

Jesus in his incarnation experiences an act of kenosis, or an act of self-emptying of himself, save for his love for us, in order to live among us and to suffer, die, and rise again to redeem and restore this world. Jesus empties himself of power and might, and through his Passion he receives glory and majesty and opens the way for humanity to be transformed. The Kingdom of God is made manifest by Jesus’ sacrificial love on the cross. Jesus therefore invites us to become like him by taking up our own crosses and following after him so that we too can manifest the Kingdom of God in this world. 

Earthly and human power cannot alone change this world. Too often we are caught up in our pride, greed, and wrath and these things can cloud our judgment when we try to follow Jesus. We can be like Peter and focus on the earthly without giving thought to the heavenly. We can desire our own mini empires to rule and dominate over. We may have good intentions, but if our desire is not aligned with the Heavenly Will, if we focus on our own will and desire for power and wealth, we will stumble along the road following Christ. We can end up responding to harm and evil done to us in ways that can compound the error. When that happens nothing truly changes, nothing is transformed. However, we can also be like Peter because by the Grace of our Father in Heaven we, as individuals, as a community, and as Church can embrace that which is “really life-giving and detecting what might appear to be life-giving and freeing, but in reality is killing us” and “make a decision about what is of ultimate value and importance in this life.” as Fr David said last week. When we accept Jesus’ invitation to follow him, we become open to being transformed by him.

Jesus’s kenosis, his emptying of himself, is the model that we ought to embody if we wish to follow after him. Jesus invites us to empty ourselves, deny ourselves, turn away from our pride, our ego, and our domineering, and take up our cross, those tools of our own sacrifice, service, and love, to follow him. We empty ourselves to find ourselves, and in doing so we can orient our will towards God. Saint Jerome in his commentary on this Gospel says that “he who lays aside the old man with his works denies himself. He is one who says: ‘But I live no longer, but Christ lives in me.’ And he who is crucified to the world takes up his own cross. Now the one to whom the world has been crucified is following the crucified Lord.” When we empty ourselves, Christ comes to embody and dwell within us. 

How can we do this though, how do we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus?

Turning to Saint Paul, the Epistle for today from Romans gives us the instructions on how to do this. I will not repeat the whole of the Epistle, but in it Paul emphasizes on the need for humility and love to be the guide on our way to follow Jesus, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.” When we act with love, compassion, and justice to all, including those who have wronged us, we embody Christ’s love for all people. Serving the needs of others opens the way to denying our pride. We no longer exist solely for ourselves or those things we can seek to dominate over, we walk the way of service, sacrifice, and love with Christ who redeems and transforms this world.

Peace and love towards not only our friends and neighbours, but also towards our enemies can sweep away the stumbling blocks that keep us from following Christ because peace and love fundamentally transforms the path that we are walking upon and clears our vision as we walk that path. When we turn away from might, power, pride, ego, and earthly things we align ourselves to the Will of God and it is in this place that we receive the divine wisdom to identify correctly who Jesus is and to follow after him. Rather than building an earthly empire of might and power, we work with Christ to build the Kingdom of God here on Earth. We no longer walk that road alone but do so as a community supporting one another, we each become like Christ to one another. We carry our crosses, but we are also carrying each other’s crosses. 

Here, in this place, we find Jesus among us, and we will see the “Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Amen