The Struggling Christ
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." 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." Matt. 16:22, 23, RSV.
What a fall! All the way from being inspired by God in verse 17 to being Satan in verse 23.
Peter may have correctly identified Jesus as the divine Messiah, but he had not the slightest idea what that involved. Thus the strenuous education program Jesus begins in verse 21 and extends up through His death on Calvary.
But why the forcefulness of the rebuke? Because Peter had usurped the role that Satan had earlier taken in the wilderness of temptation. Both of them had suggested that Jesus could fulfill His mission without His death on the cross. And to both Jesus exclaimed, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mark 8:33, RSV).
We miss the point if we imagine that Jesus thought Peter was Satan. Rather, He saw Satan speaking through His chief disciple. Peter was playing the part of the tempter. And the temptation was the central one in Jesus' life. In fact, He undoubtedly found the thought of His forthcoming death to be even more distasteful than did Peter.
Jesus had seen crucifixion in His travels, and like any normal human being, He had no desire to exit the world by the excruciating death of the cross. He would have found it much easier to become the political Messiah that the Jews and the disciples expected.
But even more important, He had no wish to bear the judgment of the world by becoming sin for all humanity in the sacrifice of Calvary (John 12:31-33; 2 Cor. 5:21). The thought of separation from God while bearing the sins of the world on the cross was abhorrent to Him in the extreme.
The lure to do His own will by avoiding the cross was the great temptation of Jesus' life. He had conquered it after feeding the 5,000 when they tried to make Him king, and He would face it again in Gethsemane, where He would repeatedly pray, "If this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done" (Matt. 26:42, RSV).
Here is a fruitful thought. We too often picture Jesus as above the daily problems that we are content with. Not so! He struggled also as He passed through life one step at a time. And He had to constantly resort to His knees. So do I.
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." 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." Matt. 16:22, 23, RSV.
What a fall! All the way from being inspired by God in verse 17 to being Satan in verse 23.
Peter may have correctly identified Jesus as the divine Messiah, but he had not the slightest idea what that involved. Thus the strenuous education program Jesus begins in verse 21 and extends up through His death on Calvary.
But why the forcefulness of the rebuke? Because Peter had usurped the role that Satan had earlier taken in the wilderness of temptation. Both of them had suggested that Jesus could fulfill His mission without His death on the cross. And to both Jesus exclaimed, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mark 8:33, RSV).
We miss the point if we imagine that Jesus thought Peter was Satan. Rather, He saw Satan speaking through His chief disciple. Peter was playing the part of the tempter. And the temptation was the central one in Jesus' life. In fact, He undoubtedly found the thought of His forthcoming death to be even more distasteful than did Peter.
Jesus had seen crucifixion in His travels, and like any normal human being, He had no desire to exit the world by the excruciating death of the cross. He would have found it much easier to become the political Messiah that the Jews and the disciples expected.
But even more important, He had no wish to bear the judgment of the world by becoming sin for all humanity in the sacrifice of Calvary (John 12:31-33; 2 Cor. 5:21). The thought of separation from God while bearing the sins of the world on the cross was abhorrent to Him in the extreme.
The lure to do His own will by avoiding the cross was the great temptation of Jesus' life. He had conquered it after feeding the 5,000 when they tried to make Him king, and He would face it again in Gethsemane, where He would repeatedly pray, "If this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done" (Matt. 26:42, RSV).
Here is a fruitful thought. We too often picture Jesus as above the daily problems that we are content with. Not so! He struggled also as He passed through life one step at a time. And He had to constantly resort to His knees. So do I.
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