Which Way Will You (We) Go?

Author: Mark Fenstermacher
July 08, 2022

There’s an argument going on out there between two friends. It’s heated. Things get bad enough there is name-calling.

Simon Peter pulls his friend and teacher, Jesus, aside. Peter “rebukes” his teacher and friend. Jesus, who we think of as mild-mannered, calls his friend Simon Peter “Satan” or the “Devil.”

What’s going on?

Jesus has announced he is going to Jerusalem where he will suffer, be rejected, be killed, and on the third day rise again. Simon Peter is shocked and dismayed. The Galilean is not going to seek power through the sword or political manipulation. He is not going to win over the crowds and overwhelm the palace guards, instituting a new regime.

No, the power Jesus will use to heal the world in the name of God will be the power of love. Not just any kind of mushy, romantic, love that is all about getting what it needs and wants, but a courageous, bold, suffering love. 

Simon Peter doesn’t get it, and he still doesn’t get it when—later in Jerusalem—the temple guards come into the garden to arrest Jesus after Judas betrays the Carpenter. They approach Jesus and Simon Peter (John 18:10) pulls out a sword and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest.  Jesus tells his friend to put his sword back in its place. In Matthew 26:52, Jesus says, “All who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

Here is what is clear out there on the highway and then, later, in the Garden of Gethsemane: we can choose the way of love, the way of the cross, or we can choose the way of the sword. We can’t choose both.

As I write this, I find myself thinking of the signs on four way highways that warn drivers about to turn into the opposite lanes: DO NOT ENTER.

You can choose Jesus or you can choose the sword, but you can’t choose to make both your lord and savior.

I thought of that as I drove in traffic behind a well-waxed pickup truck in Fort Wayne that had a cross decal wrapped in the national colors of the USA, and then two other decals spelling out a profane and vile threat against the President. I shook my head and thought, “If you knew Jesus, you wouldn’t put those messages next to the cross. Because the way of the cross is the way of love: it is not the way of hate, name-calling, and vulgarity."

The funerals will have begun in Highland Park, Illinois by the time you read this. There will be talk of mourning and prayers said. People will remember and grieve those lost by the violence visited on our city streets. 

Out there on the highway, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus makes it very clear: we can choose the way of love or the way of hate. But if we are going to follow him down the road and into God’s redeemed, hopeful, just, peaceful future, love is our way. The cross is our banner.  We can’t choose both the cross and the sword as our savior and lord. We can’t post decals of the cross side-by-side with hateful, violent, vulgar threats against our brothers and sisters. To follow Jesus as Savior and Lord is to embrace the courageous, bold, self-suffering way of love.

Which way will we go?

Which way will you go?

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Our Alaska Youth Mission team flies out of Chicago early on Saturday morning. We will be working in the Fairbanks, Alaska area. Please keep these adults and youth in your prayers.

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Pick up your yard sign for Party in the Parking Lot, and don’t forget to volunteer to be a part of this wonderful, community outreach event. 

I am so blessed to serve as one of your pastors,
Pastor Mark

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