Learning the Hard Way

“Then Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.  But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence to Me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”  Matthew 16:22-23

Jesus had informed His disciples of His impending death and resurrection in Jerusalem.  This was some very difficult words for them to hear.  Peter, who was fearless and outspoken, was not goin to accept this.  The verse says that “Peter took Him”, and in my imagination I can see Peter taking Jesus gently by the arm and leading Him a short distance away from the other disciples.  Peter “began to rebuke” Jesus, paraphrasing, “This is so far from reality, Lord.  There is no way that this is going to happen.”  Jesus was Peter’s best friend.  How could Jesus even suggest such a thing, Peter likely thought.  Jesus is the Messiah.  He is going to reign over Israel.  How could God, Jesus’ Father, allow this?  The disciples were aware of His great power and authority.  None of this made any sense to Peter.  When death overtakes one of our loved ones, we fail to see any sense in it either.  However, God has a purpose in all that He does.

Peter had no idea what the death of Jesus could accomplish for mankind.  According to Webster’s Dictionary, “rebuke” means “to address in sharp and severe disapproval; to reprimand”.  To think of any person showing disapproval to the Lord Jesus Christ is unthinkable, but isn’t that what millions upon millions have done and are doing by their rejection of Him as Lord and Savior?  Since none of us were there to witness Jesus’ and Peter’s conversation, we do not know what tone of voice in which Peter spoke.  Some commentators believe that Peter’s tone was one of gentleness and soft-spokenness.  However, what I know about Peter’s personality from scripture, I tend to think that he was a little harsh with Jesus, not meaning to be disrespectful, but sometimes emotions rule over logic.  To think about losing Jesus as his friend and constant companion was more than Peter could take.  Peter apparently did not catch the last part of Jesus’ statement about rising again on the third day.  He was focused on the part about Jesus’ death.  Peter was very protective of Jesus and was adamant about not allowing anything to happen to Him.

Peter’s rebuke brought a quick response from Jesus, who turned and said to Peter, paraphrasing, “Get behind Me, Satan: you are an offense unto Me.  You are more concerned about the things of men rather than the things of God”.  Jesus was offended at what Peter had said, but He wasn’t laying the blame on Peter.  He was attributing the rebuke to Satan himself, who was using Peter as a tool to try to thwart God’s plan of salvation.  There are some Bible commentators who believe that Jesus did not turn to Peter, but to Satan, who could not be seen by the disciples.  If there was a crowd gathered around Jesus, one could assume that Satan was also there in disguise.  Satan had tried earlier (Matthew 4:1-11) to stop Jesus from going to the cross by trying to convince Him that He didn’t need to die to achieve greatness among mankind.  Satan was apparently attempting this again through Peter.  Even the most faithful Christian can be used by Satan if he or she reverts to operating through the sinful flesh.  The Bible Commentator Matthew Henry wrote:  “We must not regard who speaks, so much as what is spoken: we should learn to know the devil’s voice when he speaks in a saint as well as when he speaks in a serpent”.  Well-meaning friends can unintentionally lead us astray if we are not spiritually discerning.  We must know God’s voice through diligent Bible study and prayer.  In so doing, Satan’s voice is much easier to recognize.

Peter had gone from being blessed to being rebuked within a short period of time.  In Matthew 16:17, Jesus had blessed Peter for recognizing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.  But that was then, this was now.  We cannot rest on yesterday’s victories; we must be alert at all times.  Jesus told Peter that he did not savour, that is, regard, as the most important and significant, things of God, but rather he let what men thought, said, or felt be his guiding principle for life.  He is not alone in this.  Is this not where the world is today?  People care about what others think a lot more than they care about what God thinks.  Our eternal judge is God, not the neighbors, the boss, friends, acquaintances, or kinfolks.  There is an old saying about folks who do or buy things to impress people that they don’t even like.  Go figure.  Many folks are so concerned about what others are thinking about them that they do not stop to consider that all those other folks don’t even give them the time of day.  In several episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond, his brother Robert walks in a room where a discussion is going on and always asks, “Is this about me?”  And it never is.

Since Peter and the other disciples still had much to learn about Jesus and His mission, Jesus saw this incident as a teachable moment, not only for them, but for us as well.  First we learned that we should never doubt Jesus.  Secondly, Satan is always looking for an opportunity to influence us to slack up on our commitment to Christ and thus diminish our witness, and thirdly, considering what God thinks is much more valuable and helpful to us than dwelling on the opinion of men and women.