Yet again, as recently as last night, I begged Jesus for insight and help with CORAC—particularly with whatever is hindering our progress toward becoming what we truly set out to become.

And finally, Matthew 16 was placed before me.

I have learned never to begin by applying Holy Scripture to somebody else. That is certainly faster and considerably more enjoyable, but it is not generally how Scripture is meant to work. So I first applied this chapter rigorously to myself, looking for my own blindness, resistance, attachment to comfort and preference for having Christ endorse my plans rather than surrendering myself to His.

Only then did I begin to see how completely Matthew 16 speaks to what ails many of us.

The chapter may be one of the clearest summaries in Scripture of what stands between ordinary people and mature Christian discipleship.

It begins with religious leaders demanding another sign from Jesus. The evidence is already before them, but apparently one more spectacular demonstration might finally do the trick. Jesus refuses. Their problem is not a shortage of signs. It is a surplus of resistance.

Then Jesus warns His disciples about the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Sadducees—the assumptions, biases and habits of mind that quietly work their way through everything we believe.

The disciples promptly think He is upset because they forgot the bread.

Jesus is warning them about spiritual corruption, and they are trying to remember whose turn it was to pack lunch.

That sounds uncomfortably familiar. Christ speaks about the Kingdom of God, and within seconds we are back to schedules, shortages, inconveniences and whether anyone remembered the hot dog buns and mustard.

Then comes the great breakthrough.

“Who do you say that I am?”

Peter answers correctly: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

But within a few verses, Peter is rebuking Jesus for saying that He must suffer and die. He recognizes who Jesus is but resists the path Jesus intends to take. He wants the Messiah—but not the cross.

Peter goes from “You are the rock” to “Get behind me, Satan” with astonishing speed. It may be the fastest promotion and demotion in biblical history.

It is also painfully human.

We sincerely believe. We say the right things. We join good organizations, follow reliable voices and surround ourselves with people who share our concerns. But when belief asks us to change, act, sacrifice or venture beyond our comfort zone, we suddenly discover the need for further study.

Perhaps a committee.

Possibly more discussion on a Signal thread.

Or a reassuring note that we know someone who knows the person already doing the thing we were being encouraged to do.

Jesus gives Peter the reason plainly: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Human thinking says to protect yourself, wait until conditions improve and avoid looking foolish. It prefers learning to doing, discussing to risking and preparing indefinitely to beginning imperfectly. Given the opportunity, we can turn discipleship into a spectator sport—and still feel quite accomplished because we have strong opinions about how everyone on the field is performing.

Then Jesus closes every loophole:

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

This speaks directly to what we are trying to accomplish through CORAC’s Go Forth initiative.

People may join CORAC for many good reasons: fellowship, information, spiritual encouragement, practical knowledge or preparation for difficult times. All of those have great value. But CORAC cannot become merely another place to observe events, exchange information and compile an impressively detailed catalogue of everything wrong with the world. Or even the great thing our nephew’s teacher’s mother-in-law is doing.

The internet already has that department fully staffed.

Go Forth means leaving the safety of spectatorship. Meet someone. Offer help. Make an honest ask. Connect people. Do something together. Come back around. Then help others do the same.

These are small actions for starters, but they confront the same obstacles exposed in Matthew 16: our attachment to comfort, our preoccupation with immediate concerns, our inherited habits of mind, our fear of sacrifice and our preference for a Christianity that affirms us without disrupting our afternoon.

The hardest step is rarely understanding what should be done. It is surrendering the part of ourselves that does not want to do it.

Peter had the right answer about Jesus. What he still needed to learn was what that answer required of him.

So do I.

So do all of us.

The question is not merely whether we recognize Christ, believe the warnings or understand the times. The question is whether we are willing to follow Him out of our comfortable places and into the lives of the people He has placed within our reach.

That is where belief becomes discipleship.

That is where CORAC becomes more than an organization.

That is where we Go Forth.