In a very interesting exchange between Peter and Jesus, Jesus looks at Peter and tells Satan to get behind Him. I find this to be problematic because Peter is a person, a follower of Jesus, a man who declares Jesus to be the Messiah just 4 verses before Jesus calls him Satan! Let’s take a look at why Jesus might have said this to Peter and how we can stop Him from saying that to us.
Jesus was familiar with Satan’s tactics
In Matthew 4:10 Jesus tells Satan himself to “Go away” as Satan tempts Jesus to worship him. That was the last of three temptations in the wilderness, and after Jesus tells Satan to be gone, He says that the Word of God instructs Him to worship the Lord our God and to serve Him alone (a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:13). So, in this exchange we can see that Jesus’ focus was to serve the living God and to follow His ways. This was Jesus’ act of worship, and it should be our act of worship as well!
When Peter rebuked Jesus for teaching that the Son of Man (that is Jesus’ favorite title for Himself, taken from Daniel 7) was to suffer, be rejected, and killed, Jesus seen that Satan was using that exchange as an opportunity to take Jesus off course and to fill Him with pride (possibly).
Satan is a deceiver. He takes all of what God has done, and is doing, and tries to counterfeit it so that the weak-minded and weak-willed person will succumb to his schemes. 1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan is waiting to devour anyone who will fall into his alluring traps. Jesus knew this too, so when Satan offered Him an easy way out, Jesus stayed strong on the purpose of God for Him and denied the father of lies the worship he was seeking from the King of Kings in His weakened state (remember that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days!).
We Must Stay on Mission
Jesus knew the mission/purpose of His earthly ministry, and He stayed focused on doing exactly what the Father had sent Him to do. To suffer, be killed, and to raise up from the dead three days later (see Mark 8:31). When Peter affirmed that Jesus was the Christ, he should have known that this was the mission of the Messiah (as prophesied in Isa 53, and other places).
Well, not only did Jesus know His mission, He called out the mission for all of His followers as well. Here is what Jesus says in Mark 8:34, Then Jesus called the crowd, along with his disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to become My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”. Did you hear your calling and mission follower of Christ? Take up your cross and follow Him! Following Christ requires a denying of self, a willingness to lay down our lives for the sake of the Gospel, and a relentless pursuit of Jesus whatever opposition comes our way!
Peter got caught up in image management! The reason he rebuked Jesus was because Jesus was saying all of the things that made Him appear to be weak in the eyes of men in front of everyone (Mark 8:32 says that Jesus spoke openly about the suffering He was about to endure). Peter apparently didn’t care for this and became caught up in appearing put together and in conformity to expectations set by the people around them. This seems to be an unfortunate pattern for Peter that follows him for at least another 14 years (or so). Check out the exchange between the Apostle Paul and Peter in Galatians 2, and that was because Peter was caught up in trying to please people and stay in conformity to what he felt was expected of him. It is not good to get side-tracked from God’s mission and purpose in your life because you become consumed with the interest’s of men instead!
Here is what Jesus told Peter in Mark 8:33, “You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” If Jesus was to look at the way in which we live right now, would He say the same to us? Is our life spent trying to please people, or do we have an immovable and unshakable desire to fulfill the mission God has given to us – no matter the cost? Are we willing to compromise our mission for status, fame, wealth, friendships, etc.? We must reflect upon the condition of our hearts, even though we may claim Jesus to be the Christ as Peter did, are we willing to pick up our cross in order to prove that He is the Christ!
Suffering does not Equal Shame!
I think that way too often we associate suffering with shame, and I want to just say that this will hinder us if we ever want to grow in our faith! I believe suffering is a necessary element to growth and perfecting our faith. Take a look at Romans 5:3–5 (ESV), “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
See, the world sees suffering as something to be ashamed of, but we who belong to Jesus know that suffering is just a part of the mission. Just as the Lord told Ananias in Acts 9 to go to Saul and to lay hands on him in order to call him into the mission that God had for him to carry out, namely to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and to suffer for the Name of Christ, we too must suffer for His Name. The Gospel will bring division, it will cause people to stumble, it will bring suffering, but it shall never be a source of shame for the believer!
Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes,.”, So please be careful not to allow the outward appearance of suffering for the sake of the Gospel to stop the forward motion of that message to be expressed through your life! Remember that it is Jesus who says to us His followers in Mark 8:38, “For if anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Stay Focused on Jesus
Galatians 1:10 says, “…If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.” Whenever we prioritize people above Christ, we become their slaves. This will inevitably distract us from the mission Jesus has given us to fulfill. We must stay fixed on Jesus and close to Him. We must recognize His voice over all of the other voices that are bombarding us on a daily basis! We must remain in a constant state of dependance upon Him, especially when we are tempted to take the easy way out where it might compromise the message of the Gospel. Peter unfortunately found this out as he ended up having to suffer for the sake of the Gospel too, but not before he was used by God in some mighty ways to expand the Church!
I will end with a passage from Galatians where Paul declares his faith in a powerful way.
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 (NET)
May we all have the resolve of Christ to be willing to set our minds on the things of God and to lay our lives down in order for Christ to be exalted through us as we stay on the ultimate mission of proclaiming the Gospel!
God bless you!