This Sunday, we continue in Matthew 16. Jesus never told us that “everything happens for a reason,” but he did tell us to take up our cross and follow him. In Matthew 16, Peter discovers that discipleship means getting behind Jesus and following where Jesus is actually going, even when that road leads toward suffering, solidarity, and the people the world would rather forget. The cross is not a religious synonym for inconvenience, but a public sign of what happens when the powers of this world encounter the way of Jesus. And still, the cross does not get the final word: not for Jesus, and because of Jesus, not for us.