Carving Images (Matthew 16:21-27)
Pastor Alex Choi, September 20, 2020
Part of the Encounters with Jesus series
God forbids his people to make graven images of him as a way of teaching us that we do not shape or form him. He shapes and forms us. The Israelites forgot this and created a golden calf. Peter forgets this and declares that Jesus will never suffer because he carved an image of God free of suffering. Jesus harshly rebukes Peter because of how deadly this sin of carving images is. Humans create idols because we are anxious. The only cure for this anxiety is to remember that God is jealous and zealous for us…the only thing powerful enough to overcome our fears and anxiety because our ultimate fear and anxiousness is whether we are loved and accepted.
Matthew 16:21–27 (Listen)
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
(ESV)