In Matthew 16 - in the span of just minutes - Peter (the apostle, the rock, one of the ‘Sons of Thunder) - moves from receiving one of the greatest encouragements of all time - to receiving one of the most outstanding rebukes of all time. Both…come from Jesus.
After posing a question about His identity (to His boys, His inner circle, the Twelve) - Jesus praises Peter for his response: ”You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“Blessed are you Simon” replies Jesus. Upon YOU…I will build my church. To YOU…I give the keys to the kingdom. Peter must have worked hard to hide his blush, his grin, his delight in these affirmations from his Lord
So it must have been shocking later, as he pulled Jesus aside to help Him restate some of His future intentions, to get straight up kicked in the teeth (at least verbally). ”Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me.”
“No…but wait a second Lord. It’s me! It’s Simon. It’s Peter. The Blessed One, the Rock, the Key-Master.”
Of course this harkens back to the days leading up to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. After His baptism, after His Father praised His obedience and said “this is My beloved So, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Do you remember the next chapter of the story? Jesus, led by the Spirit, goes out into the wilderness. And it’s there - isolated, vulnerable, alone - it’s there…that He is tempted by Satan. Again and again Satan tries to distract and distort and disrupt God’s purpose for Jesus. ”You don’t have to submit! You’re an equal of God’s. Just step outside of His will for You…and receive ALL OF THIS!” Sound familiar?
I love that Jesus doesn’t spare Peter this rebuke. He could have easily been softer, gentler, more understanding. I mean it wasn’t like Peter was acting intentionally, like Satan was - trying to maliciously thwart God’s plan of salvation for the world . Peter was just ignorant.
But Jesus doesn’t hold back. ”This is what God has for me! This is what God has for us! Don’t you dare get in the way of that!”
Of course Peter would ‘get it’ soon enough. He would ‘get it’ - and he would give his life for it. But he might not have had Jesus not been loving enough to help him reorient his minds-eye. ”For you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” How Peter must have replayed that, over and over again.
There are a number of very relevant life applications to process here. Certainly one of them has to be: are there people getting in the way of God’s purpose(s) for you?; are they your family?; your friends?; your inner circle?
And…how are you responding? Is God’s will for your life enough…to call someone ‘Satan’? Definitely something to chew on.
Oh and by the way, just for the sake of clarity, don’t really call them Satan - probably not going to be very effective. Only realize, that unbeknownst to them, Satan may be using them to distract and distort and disrupt God’s purpose for you.
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