Peter the blockhead is now a stumbling block.
It’s easy for us to laugh at Peter. He is often the voice of the disciples in the gospels, and maybe we recognize something of ourselves in his impulsiveness and desire to please, or in his attachment to playing it safe and staying comfortable.
But Jesus’ rebuke of Peter is no joke.
Having set his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9), Jesus told the disciples that being the Messiah would mean that he would undergo suffering and be killed. It’s the first of three such predictions in Matthew’s Gospel.
And immediately, Peter responds, “God forbid it, Lord! Say it ain’t so!”
And immediately, Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Get behind me, Satan!”
Addressing Peter this way, Jesus echoes his confrontation with Satan in the wilderness after his baptism. (Matthew 4) There when the Tempter laid traps for him, Jesus said, “Away with you, Satan.”
Maybe Peter thought he was speaking up for Jesus or even protecting him, but what he was really protecting was his own human understanding and ideas about who the Messiah was, what submitting to the Lord should look like and how others should receive Him.
And Jesus calls him out for paying more attention to the human things than to divine things.
Peter proclaimed Jesus as Lord, but the prediction of suffering and death sounded profane to Peter’s ears and he was unable to reconcile how the Messiah, Lord and Savior could also be arrested, tortured and executed. He could not imagine how God could be present in the events Jesus foretold. Surely, there would be triumph and victory, not the cross and crucifixion.
But Jesus’ rebuke is not only a rejection of the temptation to remain in the comfortable and safe company of his disciples and to preserve his own life.
With his words, Jesus put Peter in his place both figuratively and literally.
When he tells Peter, “Get behind me” Jesus uses the same words he used to call first disciples, saying to them, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19) and it’s the same words he used to teach discipleship, saying, “[W]hoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38)[i]
With his rebuke, Jesus reminds Peter that he is a disciple, a follower of Jesus. With his protest, Peter tried to put his own thoughts ahead of God’s ways and stand between Jesus and the calling on his life.[ii]
So Jesus tells him, “Peter, you’ve gotten ahead of yourself, and me.” “Get behind me so that you can follow me.” “Don’t be a stumbling block or obstacle on the Way.”
When we first hear Jesus’ rebuke, the scolding sounds harsh, but Jesus didn’t break off his relationship with Peter. He didn’t send him away. He got his attention, corrected him and called him back to discipleship, back into relationship centered on God’s will.
Listening to Peter and Jesus,
I wonder what I try to protect, thinking I am guarding things of God, when I’m really protecting my own human understanding and ideas. I wonder where I hold on too tight to what God has given me, placing my trust in the gifts instead of the Giver. I wonder, too, where my imagination is so limited that I cannot understand what God is doing.
Public theologian Brian McClaren has said,
the gospel is a transformation plan, not an evacuation plan. It is focused not on airlifting souls to heaven, but on transforming lives so [we] can be agents of God’s will being done “on earth as in heaven.[iii]
I need Jesus to speak into my life and call me out when I fall to the temptation to be a guardian or gatekeeper, or fail to see how God may be doing something entirely new, even if it feels frightening and unpredictable to me. I need Jesus to remind me to follow him and follow God’s will.
I wonder, too, where I fall to the temptation to play it safe and preserve my life or the life of our congregation, instead of following Jesus in suffering for the sake of the world, and where I lose sight of the promise that God is with me.
Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the midst of evil is evil.” The gospel gives us, as followers of Jesus, an imperative to stand up, speak out and show up — to be witnesses against injustices that are happening in our world, even, or perhaps especially, when it means we will be uncomfortable or unpopular.
These human things — intellectual knowledge and ideas, security and comfort — trick me into following devilish plans and draw me away from God and from following Jesus. [iv]
These human things tempt me to put my self and my thoughts ahead of God’s ways so I can make something happen the way I want it to, instead of trusting that God is present and events will unfold according to God’s will.
Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t walk away from me in all my humanity. Most of the time, he doesn’t even scold me too harshly.
He patiently and tenderly calls me back to what is Holy,
reminds me who I am as a beloved child of God,
as a Jesus’ follower,
a disciple of this loving and merciful, abundantly gracious Lord and Savior.
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for your Son Jesus who shows us how to serve in the world according to Your Way and thank you for your loving rebuke when we put ourselves ahead of You.
Help us to follow Jesus and trust in Your will even when we cannot make sense of what we see happening;
Thank you for calling us to account when we try to limit Your power and presence in our lives; give us courage and strengthen us to deny ourselves for Your sake.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
[i] Audrey West. “Commentary on Matthew 16:21-28.” Luther Seminary. workingpreacher.org
[ii] ibid
[iii] https://brianmclaren.net/
[iv] Joy J. Moore. “Dear Working Preacher.” Luther Seminary. workingpreacher.org
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