Jesus' Bucket List

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“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” (Matthew 16:21).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Are you familiar with the term “bucket list”? Screenwriter Justin Zachman first used it for his own list of things to do before he died. Then he realized the idea could become a film: two dying men racing to complete their lists. The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, was released in 2007.

Since then, many people have made their own bucket lists. Maybe you have one yourself: visit Paris, run with the bulls, swim with the dolphins, sleep in an igloo. Such dreams may be exciting, but notice what they have in common: they are about what I want to do for myself. Jesus’ list was different. Every item on His list was something He would do for you.

What was on Jesus’ list? What must He accomplish before His saving work was complete? You just heard it: “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” (Matthew 16:21). Jesus would 1) go to Jerusalem, 2) suffer many things, 3) be killed, and 4)on the third day be raised. He would also show His disciples why every one of these things must happen.

Not exactly the most fun bucket list, is it? No wonder Jesus’ disciples had problems with it. But no more important bucket list has ever been, or ever will be. For in it is your salvation, indeed, the salvation of the world.

Until this point, Jesus had often withdrawn when opposition arose. Now He declares that He must face His enemies in Jerusalem—the city where God’s Son should be received with faith and joy, yet where He will suffer and die. Herod Antipas, the Pharisees and scribes, and the Sadducees may oppose Him, but their rebellion cannot overturn God’s saving purpose. Jesus will give His life as the ransom payment for many.

Death will not be the end, however. Jesus will be raised to eternal life on the third day. Judging from Peter’s response, the disciples are not able to get past the words about Jesus’ suffering and death. Their religious sensibilities simply do not allow for such a thing, and so they give no evidence here that they have even heard what Jesus has said about being raised from the dead.

Even if the disciples had heard Jesus’ promise, they could not yet understand it. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Jesus was not saying that He would be restored temporarily to physical life, only to die again. He promised that after His death He would rise to a life over which death could never again exercise any claim.

No doubt Jesus’ disciples share with the Pharisees and other Jews the belief in the Old Testament teaching that on the Last Day God will raise the dead for a universal judgment—believers to eternal life and unbelievers to everlasting death. But they cannot envision such a thing happening to one man, alone, ahead of the end time. Though they believe in some sense that the end time reign of God is even now coming through the words and deeds of Jesus, they cannot grasp that the full and everlasting resurrection will take place for Him and in Him.

Peter’s response reveals both a historical truth and a theological one. Historically, his refusal shows that contemporary expectations of the Messiah had no place for a Messiah who would suffer and die.

Theologically, Peter’s response arises out of the natural way that sinful humans think God would choose to work in the world. God’s way in the world and His reign as King should obviously entail what looks like success, shouldn’t they?

To be sure, Peter does not consciously realize the full implications of what he is saying. He says it with good intentions. But you know what they say: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Realizing the danger, Jesus’ rebuke is savage and unyielding. In the wilderness temptation, Satan had tried to lure Jesus into a path of power, toward the goal of seizing glory, away from lowliness and obedience. Now Jesus’ disciple is urging Him to follow a similar path. Much as Jesus had dismissed the adversary with “Be gone, Satan,” He now tells Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!”

This is no ordinary, but well-meaning confusion on Peter’s part. His words show that he is taking a stand against the Lord and against His Anointed. There are two ways to think about God’s activity in the world, and Peter has chosen to think and to articulate the satanic way, the “things of men.” As a disciple, Peter must begin to open himself to “the things of God.”

Jesus’ next words make clear that Peter and the other disciples must learn what it means to follow this Christ, this Son of God: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). This is, in a sense, the disciples’ bucket list—not a collection of experiences to complete before death, but the shape of eternal life lived by faith in a fallen world.

This speaks volumes about the nature of the world, as well as the plan of God in Christ to reclaim the world and reign over it in grace. The world is filled with violent men. All, by nature, are such, and all such would seek to snatch away the reign of God and destroy it. But rather than fight, Jesus will yield to those who oppose Him and suffer and die. Only in so doing, by God’s design, can God’s people and all creation be saved from sin and death. Only after dying, will the Christ rise to eternal life, and this sequence can neither be changed nor interrupted.

Accordingly, those who follow Jesus will, in fact, follow the same sequence and path: the cross before the glory, death before life. The first obstacle to such following, however, comes not from the world around. No, the real enemy lies within the heart of every disciple. This reality is so prevalent and deeply rooted in the corrupt human nature that Jesus says a person must “deny himself.”

What does such self-denial look like? In this context, Jesus exposes two closely related temptations in every fallen heart: the desire to make God’s ways conform to our expectations, and the desire to use power over others in order to accomplish what we think should be done.

The first temptation is to insist that God must deal with the world and its evil according to our expectations. If evil really is evil, shouldn’t the almighty Creator simply crush it? God’s mysterious answer is: not yet. Christ Himself first confronts evil through humble obedience, suffering, and the cross. To deny ourselves, then, is to surrender the demand that God’s work must fit our definitions of success, efficiency, power, or glory.

The second temptation is for us to insist that God work in humanly powerful ways, so that we can and must exercise authority over others, especially our fellow disciples, so that we can accomplish what we believe should be done. Living within each one of us is a tyrant who can destroy unity and do untold damage to the cause and name of Christ: “Just put me in charge, and I’ll set things right.”

The way of Jesus, however, is the way of humble obedience and submission. When first confronted by the voice of Satan, Jesus set aside His own power as well as the presumption that His Father’s providence would rescue Him from reckless independence. Instead, Jesus chose the way of service and obedience and suffering for the sake of His Church and the world. Now He calls every disciple, every Christian, every one of us, to look at the darkness within, at the desire for power over others, and to deny that desire whenever and wherever it shows itself in our lives. If any of us want to come after Him, let us deny ourselves!

In the broadest sense, the daily struggle against sin and self is part of taking up the cross. More specifically, as we live and speak in Christ’s name, we should expect hardship from a rebellious world. Cross-bearing begins with the recognition that God reigns graciously not by repaying evil with evil, but by overcoming evil with good. Jesus’ bucket list for you and me is simple, but it is not easy: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”

As you take up your cross, know that the risen and ascended Lord Jesus walks with you every step of the way. He took up His cross so that you might be His follower. He laid down His life to gain life for you. Risen again, He gave you new life in Baptism, and He continues to sustain you through His Word and Supper. His way of saving the world perplexed Peter, and His permission of suffering will sometimes perplex you. Yet the Lord did not abandon Peter, and He will not abandon you. The Son of Man will come with His angels in the glory of His Father. Many rightly fear that Judgment Day, but you need not fear it. For Jesus’ sake, you already stand innocent before God. Judgment Day is the day when your sufferings will end, and only life and glory will remain.

All this is yours for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. He checked off every item on His bucket list: He went to Jerusalem, suffered many things, was killed, and on the third day was raised. Because He completed His saving work, all this is yours: in His name, all your sins are forgiven.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.