The trip to Caesarea Philippi had been worth it. It's recorded in Matthew 16. Jesus had probed his 12 followers about his identity. Simon spoke the acknowledgment he had wanted to hear. Soon after, Jesus thought he should more specifically prepare his closest followers. So he did, but when he did, Simon had a rather telling outburst in reaction to Jesus' words (verse 22).
Was Simon just unaware of what was happening around him? Maybe he was blind to the social setting Jesus moved in. Simon was from Galilee, not Jerusalem, so he wasn't so plugged in to the Judean power structure or as sensitive to the Judean penchant for knowing the Talmud and practicing its rules to a T. I'm sure he had heard about the nature of those Jerusalem Jews, but to walk among them and catch all the innuendos swirling around about Jesus and his band of 12 might have been just out of the awareness IQ of Simon.
The conversation started because Jesus thought that he was close to the time the Jews would act on their distaste for him. His words are found in verse 21.
Ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεικνύειν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ὅτι δεῖ αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀπελθεῖν καὶ πολλὰ παθεῖν ἀπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ἀρχιερέων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐγερθῆναι
(From that point forward, Jesus began making his close followers aware that he had go to Jerusalem for his departure, that he must come into all kinds of ill treatment by the councilmen on the Sanhedrin, the important priests, and the scholars of the law, that he must be killed, and that he must be awakened on the third day.)
Part of the reason Simon was taken by surprise was the wording Jesus used in speaking of leaving them. Very curiously, and deliberately, Jesus had used the phrasing for departure from one place to go to another place, Examples from secular Greek texts are abundant in their use of the phrase δεῖ αὐτὸν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀπελθεῖν (he had to go to Jerusalem to depart [for somewhere]. The Greeks often said they would have to go to a town to depart for a specific destination. Jesus plainly used the departure phrase to tell the Twelve he would be going to Jerusalem to depart, but he implied or didn't speak the second part, the destination. For certain, Thomas didn't catch the implication since later he tells Jesus he didn't know where Jesus was going (John 14.5). But Jesus had spoken of being from God and returning to God during his whole time of public teaching. The Twelve were not always swift in catching on to implied information.
Another part of the reason Simon took Jesus to task about leaving them was the way Jesus said that he would meet his end. Jesus was very specific about the three groups of people by name who disliked his message enough to kill him. Perhaps Matthew named them on reflection if Jesus had only said that the Judean establishment would kill him, but likely Jesus knew of the collaboration shaping up. Evidently Simon couldn't handle the part of Jesus falling into ill treatment at the hands of the Judean establishment.
Of all people, though, Simon should have heard what Jesus was really saying. Luke records a significant event (8.40-56). Jairus' daughter was stone cold dead when Simon walked into her room that day with Jesus. Yet Jesus said she was only asleep. Only six people were in the room with the girl that day, and Simon was one of them. Jesus had taken the girl's hand and used the same word that he was using on this occasion now to discuss his "death." Jesus had taken the girl's hand and said, "wake up."
Of all people, Simon should have deciphered what Jesus was really saying. Luke records a previous event of Jesus to that of Jairus' daughter in Luke 7.11-16. Jesus had stopped a large crowd of people outside the town of Nain who were mourning a young man's death, the son of a widow. Jesus asked for the coffin lid to be removed and he spoke to the young man lying lifeless in the coffin. All he had said was, "Wake up." Simon had seen it for himself.
But Simon's mind got stuck on the wrong phrases. He heard Jesus say, "I'm leaving you," and "I'll be treated badly and killed." I think he missed the phrase, "I'll be awakened on the third day." If Jesus would awaken, then Simon should have been comforted. But no, Simon's mind ignored the scene he witnessed at Jairus' house and failed to remember Jesus telling the girl, "Wake up." He ignored the overwhelming tears of the widow at Nain after Jesus had stopped a funeral procession, looked into the coffin of this widow's son's and said, "Wake up."
Simon had reacted so vociferously and had missed the point of Jesus' warning so badly that Jesus felt the need to tell Simon that he was in all reality speaking about life not death. He ends his speech to Simon in verses 25 and 26 with a really tasty morsel to ponder. The word play is with ψυχὴν, usually translated soul.
ὃς γὰρ ἐὰν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι ἀπολέσει αὐτήν· ὃς δ’ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ εὑρήσει αὐτήν
(Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.)
τί γὰρ ὠφεληθήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδήσῃ τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ζημιωθῇ; ἢ τί δώσει ἄνθρωπος ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ
(What is the advantage to a person if he or she gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his or her life? Would a person give that in exchange for his or her life?)
Another word, ζωὴ, was the usual word for life. That prompts one to ask if ψυχὴ was used as an exact synonym of ζωὴ? As with virtually all synonyms, exactness is not the case. Synonyms share properties or features, but exactness would exclude the need for one of the two words in the language. In that way language uses natural selection to weed out words from a language over time. ζωὴ was used to indicate that something was alive as opposed to dead, that a person was breathing air and the heart was beating. ψυχὴ on the other hand, was the essence of what makes a person, that person, personality and all. It was the sentient features of a person. ψυχὴ would include how a person thought. In fact, mind has sometimes been used as a translation for the word, and the derivative of the word into English, psyche, means the capacity to think, understand, and shape ideas for oneself.
Jesus on many occasions loved using double meanings for his words. This occasion was no different. One way Jesus meant the words was to say that if a person wanted to keep his own way of thinking and shaping ideas, he would lose that at his death. But if he wanted to change his thinking and shaping of ideas to Jesus' way of thinking, he would find a fulfilling life. Jesus also meant the more literal way of taking his words too. If a person lived his own lifestyle he would die, if he adopted Jesus' lifestyle, he would never die.
Jesus' second statement contained two questions. The literal consideration of the first question was that a person didn't have any advantage if he or she had reached a zenith in some way, but died after reaching the top. There would be no enjoyment. The enjoyment is not in the struggle to the top, but at the top reaping the benefits of hard work. The second meaning was, What advantage is there to shaping a "good" way of thinking to take one to the loftiest heights if the journey there would change or contaminate the original way of thinking? If one's "good" way of thinking was important in the first place, all the way through, and at the end, was it worth risking a change to it?
I love the way Jesus thought and spoke... such simplicity, yet such depth. As I reflect on such a passage, I find that I am on a journey too that will end. Preparedness has no substitute. Unlike Simon, I want to hear Jesus' words and face them head on and glean their meaning. Jesus clearly spoke of his departure for another place, the one he went to prepare for us. By all means, I want to go there. I don't want to miss it. To be there with him evidently means not shaping ideas to advance my agenda but shaping ideas that advance Jesus' way of thinking. By doing that I wake up while I live and again in a prepared place after I fall asleep here.
It's amazing what sleeping will do for a person. When we awake, there are benefits. Jesus was very consistent in referring to death as sleep. Yes, he wanted his closest followers to know about the restorative nature of sleep. He wanted them to enjoy waking up to life after lying down to sleep, finally, here on the planet.
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