Lord of the Streets, Houston
August 30, 2026
Proper 17, A
Romans 12:9-21
Psalm 26:1-8
Matthew 16:21-28
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” That’s what Morpheus said to Neo the 1999 sci-fi film, “The Matrix.” In the movie, humans were struggling to be freed from machine overlords, and humanity was waiting on a savior, The One. Morpheus was looking for this savior, and he was firmly convinced that Neo was the one. At one point, after Neo did some truly amazing things, Morpheus again said how he believed Neo was The One. Neo again protested, and Morpheus said to him, “Sooner or later, you’re going to realize just as I did, there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” You may not know exactly where this is leading, Morpheus was saying, but you can walk the path you are meant to walk, regardless.
As I read today’s Gospel, I have a lot of questions, particularly around Jesus telling his disciples that some of them would not taste death before they saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Was he talking about when Jesus would return in the clouds with great majesty, bringing in this new paradise on earth? If so, he was wrong, because that hasn’t happened in 2000 years, much less in the disciples’ lifetimes.
Did Jesus mean they would see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom because they were going to see him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to much fanfare and praise, because they did see that. A week after he rode into Jerusalem, of course, he was executed as an enemy of the state, so maybe Jesus meant that they would see him come into his kingdom, but that his kingdom was not some great seat of governmental power that they thought it was. I kinda like that, but it also feels like a stretch.
So, maybe Jesus meant they would see his resurrection, that rising from the grave with everlasting life was Jesus coming in his kingdom. Many of Jesus’ disciples did see him after being resurrected, and that’s certainly amazing and wonderful and far greater than riding a donkey into a city, but Jesus said the Son of Man would “come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he [would] repay everyone for what has been done.”
That just straight up ain’t happened yet. So maybe he did mean his resurrection when he said they would see him coming into his kingdom and the whole coming with his angels in the glory of his Father thing was something else? I don’t know. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of questions on this one. I’m not sure what I believe about Jesus coming with his angels in the glory of his Father and his disciples not tasting death before they see him coming in his kingdom.
I could try to come up with an exact answer that suits me, and fits all the pieces together, and defines everything exactly. I’ve seen it done, but those answers, fitting everything together perfectly, tend to leave me cold. They kinda sorta make sense-ish of what Jesus said, if you don’t ask too many questions, but they tend to feel like an unskilled writer tying up loose ends in a script. You end up with something that’s definitely, almost a movie but the kind that you’d wait till it was out of theaters to watch and then just decide to skip entirely.
The other reason I don’t tend to come up with an exact answer that suits me, and fits all the pieces together, and defines everything exactly is that I don’t really need to. “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
In the midst of all my questions, I don’t really know the right answers, but I choose to believe in Jesus’ resurrection, nonetheless. I believe Jesus was showing us that life does not end in death, but that life is transformed in death into something else, that we will all continue living together after our deaths. I find that beautiful. It gives me hope.
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| Morpheus - "The Matrix", 1999 |
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
That’s some of the highlights. Paul shows a path of hope and peace, a path of trust. Now, full disclosure, Paul seems to have thought that the end was coming very quickly, that Jesus would return any minute. So, you could see Paul’s advice as being, “Eh, since it ain’t gonna be too long, you can put up with some suffering for now.” That may be what he was thinking, but my question there is, if Paul had thought that Jesus wasn’t coming with his angels in the glory of his Father for at least 2000 years, would he have given the same advice. I think so, because as much as he thought Jesus was returning any minute, his hope was in Jesus’ resurrection, in life after death. So, Paul taught a path of hope, and peace, and trust. Paul walked that path, and he taught the churches to walk that path as well.
Hope. Peace. Trust.
That is a decidedly different path than Peter was on when he rebuked Jesus. Peter thought he knew the path he wanted to take. He thought he knew the path he wanted Jesus to take, a path of power and glory. So, when Jesus said that he was going to be arrested, beaten, killed, and on the third day raised, Peter rebuked Jesus for being on what he thought was the wrong path. Power, glory, destruction of enemies, that’s the path Peter thought Jesus should have been on.
Now, they hadn’t been walking the path of power, glory, or destruction. Peter had been with Jesus for years, watching Jesus walk the path of hope, and peace, and trust, and yet, somehow Peter still thought the path they were on was power, glory, and destruction.
“You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things,” Jesus told Peter. Peter assumed he knew the end, power and glory, and so he was ignoring the actual path they were walking. That continues to happen quite a lot in the church. Sometimes followers of Jesus know how things should be, and they are so determined for things to be that way, that they leave the path of hope, peace, and trust in order to force their way in the world.
They form groups based on political beliefs to try to force things to be the way they think Jesus wants them to be. They try to pass laws to force others to conform to their morals or beliefs. They want Jesus’ kingdom here on earth, and they try to make it happen, but the path they end up walking is the path of power, glory, and destruction.
That wasn’t the way of Jesus, it wasn’t the way of Paul, and even Peter abandoned that way of power and glory after Jesus’ resurrection. They all walked in the path of hope, peace, and trust. That’s the way of the church.
I want to walk that path, except of course in the times when I don’t because I want to walk the path of power, glory, and destruction, because I want my way and I know how things should be, and I’m angry, or I’m frustrated, or whatever else it is. Jesus tells us to take up our cross as we follow him, and we put onto that cross what that cross represented for Rome: power, glory, and destruction. We put on to that cross our desires to force our way in the world and crucify those with Christ so that we can then walk with Christ in the path of hope, peace, and trust.
We don’t know exactly where that’s going to lead in this life. We seek to bring healing and love as we walk the path of Jesus. We crucify our desires for power, glory, and destruction, forcing the world to be how we want, and we don’t know when or how the path will end. We do know we can’t force Jesus’ kingdom on the world. We can’t force Jesus’ kingdom to come. It isn’t ours to bring about. So, when will Jesus’ kingdom fully come? Where exactly will walking the path of Jesus lead? We don’t know, but we don’t need to know. We don’t need to know the path. We just need to walk it.
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