Not the Race

 Matthew 16:13-19 August 30, 2026

 

There was a woman who decided that a goal in life

was to complete a foot race.

So she trained, she ran every day, she did strength training.

She was comfortably able to get to about 15 miles.

So she signed up for a half marathon –13 miles.

 

So she got to the race, and she lined up, started the race.

with all these other people, and she’s running and running .

One hour and she’s doing pretty well, running, running,

two hours and she feels like she should be coming close to the end.

But it doesn’t end, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else

is thinking about finishing soon.

 

So she asks one of the other runners

and she finds out that she is not in a half marathon

she is running a full marathon – 26 miles.

 

What should she do? she didn’t just want to stop

and admit defeat, so she keeps running.

But the whole time she is saying to herself

and to anyone else:

“This is not the race I signed up for.”

“This is not the race I signed up for.”

 

She finished the race in the end.

But this was not the race she signed up for.

 

That is kind of what Peter is saying to Jesus.

Jesus just tells them that he’s going to undergo great suffering

be rejected by the elders, and be killed –

(oh yeah and rise again, but I don’t think that’s

what sticks in Peter’s mind) –

Peter is now getting a fuller picture about what

Jesus ministry will be like.

 

 Peter was certainly not expecting this

when he put down his net and followed.

So he takes Jesus aside and tells him that he’s crazy.

 

Rejected and killed by those in power?

“This is not the race I signed up for.” says Peter

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

And people who have been hanging

around Jesus and the church for a while,

know what Peter is going through.

We can commiserate with poor Peter.

Usually, we didn’t sign up for this race either.

 

When I was 27 I moved to New York City to write.

I was a writer, I was ready to embark on my artsy life

of writing plays and hanging around other artsy people.

Maybe I would even start wearing a beret.

Then, I don’t know why, I started to go to church,

a Lutheran church -- for no good discernible reason

but because it was close to my house.

And then the whole trajectory of my life changed.

 

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

At my first congregation, we were going through

a really tough time, like really tough.

A very smart person was council president

and he was caught right in the middle of it.

Now he was a family court judge,

so he wasn’t adverse to conflict,

and it was like he was perfectly chosen to handle

the interpersonal problems we were having.

but something about conflict at church bugged him.

He was in my office talking about things and he said,

“Pastor June, I just want to stop all this stuff

and get back to what church is about.

Praying and meditating on God and Jesus

and listening to good music.”

In other words, this is not the race I signed up for.

 

In my internship church there was this guy named Greg,

who had a tough street life,

then he was very involved in the church.

Some guys around his apartment were

bugging him, stealing from his neighbors

painting graffiti on the garages around his house.

Greg came into church one day annoyed,

not really at the guys, he was annoyed at Jesus and the church.

He said, “Before I would have just cracked these guys over

the head and taught them a lesson.

Now I gotta think about what Jesus would do.

Stupid Church.”

 

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

When Jesus called Peter

maybe Peter thought he was signed up for

some fame, some adventure, some challenges.

Maybe he thought Jesus and the disciples would get the

Roman Empire out of their business,

or maybe they would just reform the

synagogue and change how some things were done.

 

Maybe he thought he would just watch some miracles

and bask in Jesus glory, maybe he thought it would be all prayer

and worship and spiritual life.

We don’t know exactly what Peter thought he signed up for.

But it sure wasn’t this race,

not the “rejected by the authorities, suffer and be killed” race.

 

So when Jesus said that was the future,

Peter says, “no, this can’t be. You can’t do this.”

This is not the race I signed up for.

 

But Jesus tells Peter, and Jesus tells us:

“You get behind me.”

Remember, we don’t run this show, Jesus does.

 

And this is a reminder for us too.

We follow Jesus. 

We don’t decide the way it’s supposed to be.

We follow Jesus way.

And Jesus way was not around pain and suffering

It was through it.

 

Sometimes Jesus calls us to challenging jobs.

Sometimes following Jesus calls us to lives

we never would have imagined otherwise.

Sometimes our plans get derailed and we have to let them go.

 

And being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean you get

to skirt all the bad and uncomfortable stuff.

It doesn’t mean that we get gifted an easy life.

Bad stuff happens to us, just like it happens to everyone else.

As Christians we don’t get to do praying and meditating

on God and  like we’re above this dirty, earthly things.

And sometimes we get more problems because

we’re trying to follow Jesus way.

 

And then, as followers of Jesus, we have

this extra difficult call to respond to these

challenges in ways that are different from the world.

We can’t just “crack people over the head

and teach them a lesson” anymore, although

we might be tempted to do it, like Greg was.

  

We are to lead with love, we lead with compassion.

And because of that, sometimes we are vulnerable,

and because of that, sometimes we lose.

That is our cross to bear.

 

Jesus said “If any want to be my followers

let them deny themselves and take up their cross.”

 

The cross that Jesus talks about is what happens

when we sacrifice ourselves and our own direction

and inclination and follow Christ’s direction.

When our own wants and impulses take a back seat,

and our compassion takes a priority.

When we see the face of Jesus in the strangers

and the difficult people in our lives.

When we think of the needs of the world over our own.

That is our sacrifice. That is our cross.

 

When we follow Jesus we deny ourselves deny our plans

and follow Jesus’s plans.

When we’re moved to do things that aren’t

in our best interest, that don’t profit us.

We find ourselves in situations that we wouldn’t find

ourselves in a million years.

Sometimes things don’t go right. Sometimes we get hurt.

But we keep doing the right things.

That is the cross that Jesus wants us to take up.

That is the race that Jesus has signed us up for.

“If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves

and take up their cross and follow me.”

  

So is that the end of Jesus’ story? 

Life is hard and then you die?

Is that where Jesus leaves us?

 

Of course not, because we know what happens after the cross.

On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.

 

And the same for us.

God doesn’t just leave us down in the mess.

God picks us up from there and restores us to new life.

Each time we experience these little deaths,

Those places of loss, and hurt, and betrayal.

God brings us to a new and transformed life.

A life that is changed,

a little better than the old one we left.

One that is authentic and real.

One that is closer to God and God’s compassion.

Not the same as before, but changed.

 

“Those who want to save their life will lose it,

and those who lose their life for my sake,

and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

 

Maybe this is not the race that we signed up for,

but this is the life that God has in store for us.

This is the race that we are running.

And this is the promise of God.

 

We lose our life, but God promises to find it again.