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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples
that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders,
the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and
on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never,
Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God,
but merely human concerns.”
Matthew 16:21-23
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must
suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the
teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise
again.
He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and
began to rebuke Him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He
rebuked Peter.
“Get behind Me, Satan!” He said. “You do not have in mind
the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Mark 8:31-33
And He said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and
be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and He
must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Luke 9:22
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be
to God.
God sent His only Son from heaven to earth for one
distinct purpose: to be the Savior for all mankind. That meant that a special
atoning sacrifice would have to be made because the very inherent sinfulness of
every man and woman was when kept them separated from God. If people were going
to have the chance to reach Him, a perfect, sinless, unblemished offering would
have to be offered up and that offering was in the person of Jesus, the man
John proclaimed as the “Lamb of God” who had come to take away the sins of the
world.
This was Jesus’ destiny, one that He fully understood.
It’s important for us to remember this because it adds
understanding and insight to our scripture passage today. Look at Matthew’s
account again here:
From that time on
Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of
the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took Him
aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen
to You!”
Jesus turned and
said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do
not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:21-23
In these three verses, we find Jesus trying to tell His
disciples about what was ahead for Him, that He would go to Jerusalem where He
would suffer at the hands of the Jewish religious authorities who would end up
killing Him. But Jesus wouldn’t stay dead for long because He assures His
followers that He would “be raised to life” on the third day. Essentially, He
was telling His disciples His destiny but as we see, they weren’t ready to
accept that.
For we read where Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes
Him, the servant trying to correct the Master, saying:
“Never, Lord!” he
said. “This shall never happen to You!”
Peter was not willing to believe that Jesus, the one He
had just identified as the Messiah and Son of the Living God, could ever
experience anything as horrific as being killed. After all, who could do
anything to the man who had put His incredible power on display time after time
after time? Surely, no mere man, Jewish religious leader or not, could do
anything to harm Jesus.
But note here that Peter was essentially speaking against
the plan God had already set forth for His Son. Peter wasn’t ready to accept
the greater divine picture that was being developed right before His very eyes.
He only saw things in the now and could never see the things Jesus described as
happening to Him.
Well, we find Jesus giving a rebuke of His own, one that
was amazingly harsh,
“Get behind Me,
Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of
God, but merely human concerns.”
Let’s break this reprimand down into three parts:
1. “Get behind Me,
Satan!”
It’s not that Peter was Satan but he like anyone else
could be used by the enemy to speak sinful words. Jesus knew His destiny and it
was His Father had set forth. Anyone speaking words that would detour Him from
carrying out God’s purposes was speaking words grounded in Satan. Jesus would
not be tempted or swayed from what He had to do, no matter how terrifying and
horrible His end would be.
2. “You are a
stumbling block to Me”
This is an extension of the first part. Anything that
would get in the way of Jesus fulfilling His destiny was a speed bump on His
road of fulfillment. Peter’s words served to make Jesus stop and censure him
when He could have been doing more constructive and productive things with His
time which He knew was short as it was.
3. “…you do not
have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Had Peter been in tune with the concerns of God, He would
have been encouraging Jesus to persevere and carry out His mission, the mission
His Father had set Him out on. Peter would have been cheering Jesus on and
thanking Him for His willingness to stare down such future suffering in order
to save all mankind and usher in a way for every man and woman to come to God.
But Peter’s mind was not on the things of God. Rather, he
was measuring what Jesus said against worldly standards and human concerns. He
was basing his response to Jesus’ telling of His destiny against how he
perceived everyone else in comparison to His Master. Peter believed no one
could rival Jesus and thus saw anyone doing harm to Him, let alone kill Him, as
an impossibility.
Through His own words, we find that Jesus is laser-focused
on what was still ahead. Calvary and the cross were still a ways off but Jesus
had His eye on the target, understanding His destiny and the reason His Father
had sent Him to earth in the first place.
Today and every day, let us celebrate Jesus’ loyalty. Let
us praise His obedience to the will of God, His Father and ours. And may we
celebrate that through Jesus’ willing and willful sacrifice, bearing the
penalty for sin we deserved, we as Christians, have not only the understanding,
but the blessed guaranteed assurance that death will not be the end for us, but
rather an entry point into glory as we receive the reward of salvation and dwell
with Jesus our Savior and God the Father forever.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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