The passage I’m about to speak about is a passage which is very controversial between Protestants and Catholics. I’ll bet you can figure out my position on that. But what I want to look at is another angle of what’s being said in the text, about Peter as a person, and how that applies to us. I’ll leave the theological argument for other people or another time.
Let’s look at what Jesus and Peter say to each other. Jesus has been asking his disciples about the various theories as to who he is:
15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16And Simon Peter answered and said, “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I say also to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. 19And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Regardless of whether you think Jesus was setting Peter up as Pope, setting him up as a leader of the apostles, or not even giving Peter any leadership at all, there is no doubt that Peter’s having a good day here. All is well, Peter is on top of the world, and I’m sure he feels like even the gates of hell cannot prevail against him. But what happens next is most curious:
20Then he commanded his disciples not to tell anyone that he was Jesus the Christ. 21From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again on the third day.
Now, Peter was having such a good day. Why did Jesus have to start ruining things by talking about death? He was, after all, the living Son of the living God. Surely God would not let his own son die.
22Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will not happen to you.”
23But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an offence to me, for you do not keep your mind on the the things of God, but the things of men.”
Oops! I’m sure Peter had good intentions. Probably he just thought the Son of God was getting a little too gloomy and needed a little verbal encouragement. But if we try to read between the lines of what’s going on here, I think that what Peter just did, however accidentally, was to contradict his own previous statement.
Earlier, Peter said that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But if he is, we have to believe what he says. And that’s what Peter is learning here. We step out of bounds whenever we try to tell God how things are supposed to be; whenever we, however well-intentioned, try to correct him. And Jesus found that point so important that he was willing to use the word “Satan,” that old Hebrew word meaning “Enemy,” to describe Peter when overstepped his place as a disciple.
May we all know our places as disciples, in service of a God who doesn’t always seem to make complete sense to us. And a God who, even when we wind up wrong, always lets us come back to him. Amen.
get behind me, satan! how sometimes jesus smacks us in the face (so to speak)
The passage I’m about to speak about is a passage which is very controversial between Protestants and Catholics. I’ll bet you can figure out my position on that. But what I want to look at is another angle of what’s being said in the text, about Peter as a person, and how that applies to us. I’ll leave the theological argument for other people or another time.
Let’s look at what Jesus and Peter say to each other. Jesus has been asking his disciples about the various theories as to who he is:
Regardless of whether you think Jesus was setting Peter up as Pope, setting him up as a leader of the apostles, or not even giving Peter any leadership at all, there is no doubt that Peter’s having a good day here. All is well, Peter is on top of the world, and I’m sure he feels like even the gates of hell cannot prevail against him. But what happens next is most curious:
Now, Peter was having such a good day. Why did Jesus have to start ruining things by talking about death? He was, after all, the living Son of the living God. Surely God would not let his own son die.
Oops! I’m sure Peter had good intentions. Probably he just thought the Son of God was getting a little too gloomy and needed a little verbal encouragement. But if we try to read between the lines of what’s going on here, I think that what Peter just did, however accidentally, was to contradict his own previous statement.
Earlier, Peter said that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But if he is, we have to believe what he says. And that’s what Peter is learning here. We step out of bounds whenever we try to tell God how things are supposed to be; whenever we, however well-intentioned, try to correct him. And Jesus found that point so important that he was willing to use the word “Satan,” that old Hebrew word meaning “Enemy,” to describe Peter when overstepped his place as a disciple.
May we all know our places as disciples, in service of a God who doesn’t always seem to make complete sense to us. And a God who, even when we wind up wrong, always lets us come back to him. Amen.
Related Posts: