16:21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 16:22 And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." 16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 16:25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 16:26 For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? 16:27 For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. 16:28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." What strikes me the most about this passage (there are a bunch of things, but I'll just start here) is that Jesus telling Peter "Get behind me, Satan!" seems to give him the strength to say what he says in 16:24. It seems to me that when Peter tells him "This shall never happen to you, Lord!" that Jesus is tempted to let Peter's words be the ones that come to pass - hence Jesus telling Peter that those are words that Satan would try to use to trip up Jesus into deciding not to save the world. What a trick of Satan (if he does have some involvement here) to use Jesus' friend and a man whom Jesus just blessed for having insight from God to try to tempt Him. I think Peter responds to Jesus with a rebuke because he a) doesn't understand what Jesus is saying and b) is afraid for his friend. He doesn't want Jesus to go to Jerusalem and die, and he's telling Jesus that he will fight to protect Him from death. I'm sure that Jesus' response of "Get behind me, Satan!" hurt Peter deeply; however, Jesus needed to say it for both of them. For Jesus, it meant that he was fighting the temptation to follow Peter's thoughts into inaction; for Peter, it meant realizing that what he was saying was NOT of God, but of men, as Jesus tells him in the following sentence. Due to Jesus' willingness to fight the temptation that would make life so much easier for all of them, He is able to rise above His circumstances and realize that "God's ways are higher than man's ways." After He fights the temptation, He is able to put a challenge to the disciples: Are you going to follow Me even to the cross? Are you willing to give up your own comfort for My sake? Are you willing to exhange your plans for your life for the plans I have for you? There are many, many, many Christian living books out there that suggest that God wants you to have the dreams you've always wanted. I don't think that's necessarily untrue. However, I know that God wants you to have the dreams that He has always wanted for you. Maybe they're the same dreams, maybe they're not. But we have to choose whether we will accept the dreams He has for us, and change our own ideas about what those may be, if necessary. When the challenge is put forth in that way, it's not so difficult, is it? But when the challenge is more like "Allie, will you stay in this job that you hate, that you have to drive an hour each way every day to, until I say you can have something else..." well, then it's a little more challenging. "Disciples, will you follow me even to the cross? Will you follow me to suffering and humiliation and death?" |
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