The last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about the stories that were left out of the Lectionary. I want to go over some more of that soon, but I don’t want to skip over what just happened in the Gospel today.
As with all passages, it is important to look at what happens just before and just after to give you some context as to what is going on here, and today’s reading is right in the middle of a nice three part story with Peter playing a big role in all three. Last week we heard part one, but we won’t hear part three for a long time so I’ll just briefly cover it.
Last week, Jesus asked his disciples:
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the
Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Peter here gets a new name – The Rock. Way before Dwayne Johnson took it, Peter was given it. In doing this, Peter is lifted up out of all of the other disciples – Peter, who got out of the boat because he doubted, who will later cut off a soldiers ear when they try to arrest Jesus, who will Jesus three times, who will not want Jesus to wash his feet – his feet that he often sticks into his mouth by speaking before thinking!
If there were ever a disciple I can relate to more than any other, its Peter. He asks dumb questions and does impulsive things, yet Jesus is patient with him and even puts him in a place of authority.
So, in last week’s reading we see one of the rare times Peter gets a gold star, but right after that, in today’s reading we see him revert to his normal impulsive self.
Jesus starts to tell the disciples about how he is going to go to Jerusalem and be put to death and rise again. Peter, now imagine this… Peter pulls Jesus aside and tells him “NO – this can’t happen!” and Jesus tells Peter to “get behind him” calling him “Satan”.
A few minutes ago he was The Rock. Now, he’s Satan. What a switch!
Now, a couple of things… the words that Jesus uses here sound harsh, but translation can be tricky and tone can be altered easily. Think of a time you texted someone or posted something on Facebook and someone misunderstood your words. Printed words can be easy to misunderstand because you don’t have body language or tone of voice along with them to give you an idea of what’s being said.
Now, having said that, Jesus is definitely putting Peter in his place here, but maybe not as sharply as suggested. The words he uses for “get behind me” are the same words he used earlier in the gospels when he told Peter “follow me”. If you think about it, get behind me and follow me are kind of the same. In this context though I think he’s telling Peter to “get in line” or “get with the program” and keep following him.
Calling him “satan” is another example. There is a lot of commentary and different thought on what “the satan” is. The word itself means “adversary” or “accuser” and is sometimes translated as “the tempter”. Jesus calling him this is very interesting. One, it shows that Jesus may not have been too crazy about this idea of going and being tortured and killed. We see this also in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prays that this cup be taken from him. Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine and I can’t imagine he was looking forward to this. Jesus rebuking Peter is a sign of this and recalls the temptation in the desert he faced before he started his ministry, where Satan offered him everything if he would worship him, thereby avoiding all this. In Luke, it says that after the temptations in the desert that Satan “left him until an opportune time” – maybe this was the time? Maybe Jesus heard echo’s of the tempters voice in Peter’s remarks and called him out on it.
Either way, we see both Peter’s well-meaning impulsiveness and Jesus’ humanity clearly here.
In the very next story, we see Jesus once again raising up Peter, Peter’s impulsiveness and not Jesus’ humanity, but his divinity.
Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a mountain and he is changed before their eyes – light came from his face and his clothes were brilliantly bright. Moses and Elijah show up and they start talking to Jesus about what is coming up – his death.
Peter seems to think this is the greatest thing ever and has an idea – Lets build three booths here and you guys can hang out here all the time! Now, I have no reason to think this other than my own bias, but I wonder if Peter is thinking – Dude, this is great! We could have a place where people can come and see Jesus and Moses and Elijah! People would come from all around! The gospel of Mark says that he said this because he couldn’t think of anything else to say. Might be a good lesson is not saying anything when you don’t know what else to say. The Bible doesn’t tell us how Jesus responded to the idea, but God’s voice comes from the sky and tells the three disciples to listen to Jesus because he was God’s son.
Interestingly, there is a church there now, which has a chapel of Elijah, chapel of Moses and one for Jesus. As far as I know, they don’t hang out there.
The point to this, to me anyway, is that even though Peter is kind of inconsistent and he says and does a lot of dumb things, Jesus trusts him with this experience, along with James and John and tells them not to tell anyone about it until after all is finished.
(It’s worth pointing out here that James, who was John’s brother is pretty impulsive himself. They were nicknamed the “sons of thunder” – they both asked Jesus for seats at his right and left when he came into his glory, which annoyed the other disciples and earned them some sharp words from Jesus and they also asked Jesus to call down fire on a Samaritan town and got another rebuke from Jesus.)
So, there’s a lot that happens here. Jesus is revealed as the Messiah to his disciples, Peter is put into his place by Jesus and then invited to be part of something miraculous as well.
By the way, I almost left out something important here. Peter not wanting Jesus to die isn’t just rooted in the idea that he was his friend and didn’t want that to happen... it’s a total reversal of what the Jews thought of what the Messiah was going to be. Last week we talked about the Judges, who came and rescued Israel when they fell into enemy hands – to them, the Messiah was going to be the Ultimate Judge – someone who would come and deliver them from their enemies once and for all. And the thing is, he did! Our greatest enemy is not Rome or the Russians or Isis or White Supremacist – our greatest enemy is sin, which Paul pointed out a few weeks ago in our Romans readings. Through Christ, we’ve been freed from sin, we just have to choose to walk away from it. Jesus’ plan of rescuing them was a total 180 from what they expected.
So, we may be like Peter and the sons of thunder – impulsively encountering Jesus and being put in our place, but the rewards of his trust will, in the end, greatly outweigh the embarrassment of his correction.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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