Get behind me, Satan

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

- Matthew 16:21-28

In yesterday's reading, we read of Peter's confession of faith, and Jesus' pronouncement that this would be the rock upon which his church will be built. In today's reading, Jesus begins to inform his followers about the meaning of his messiahship and how it will be lived. Jesus is a suffering messiah, as in Isaiah's prophecy of the Suffering Servant.

Peter, in many recent readings, has begun to play a very vocal part in the interaction of the disciples and Jesus. We can clearly begin to see his leadership role in the ways in which he is signified as speaking for the others. It seems to me that Peter is in some way representative in many ways of the growing understanding of the apostles and at the same time the conflicts and misunderstanding they are going through. In today's reading, after Jesus has described what he will endure at the hands of the religious leadership, Peter takes Him aside. Peter's idea of the Messiah is traditional: that the Messiah will reign forever, that he will be established at Jerusalem as ruler in a political kingdom. The idea of a suffering Messiah is scandalous to traditional Jewish thought. I think it's important to recall, once again, that Matthew's gospel was written for an audience oriented to Jewish tradition. "Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’"

But Jesus has his own uncompromising reply to Peter's rebuke: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Jesus clearly understands the importance of the Passion that he will endure and its centrality to the will of the Father. He must be a suffering Messiah. He will take on the sins of the world, in so doing he offers redemption and reconciliation; and at the same time an indictment of evil, an instrument of Judgment.

Jesus continues: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?" In some sense, this may be one of the most important passages of scripture we can read and remember. The essence of Christ's ministry is summed up in these words. We exchange one life for another. We live a life to the glory of the kingdom, and in so doing, all of our lives become sacramental in this sense. My study bible has an interesting note regarding verse 25 ("For those who want to save their life..."): "Here Jesus states the central paradox of the Christian faith. In grasping the temporal, we lose the eternal; in sacrificing everything we can know, we gain unimaginable riches. In dying, we live."

Jesus goes further: "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." This is a statement of exchange, of justice and judgment, and of the reality of this kingdom. My study bible has a note that says that "seeing the kingdom" may refer to the Transfiguration which will occur immediately after this.

I think it is important, however, to pay attention to all the elements included in this passage. Passion, crucifixion, resurrection, Judgment, kingdom. Jesus is not just the Suffering Servant, but his death and his passion will play itself out for the will of the Father - a great, transformative, powerful reality is setting itself into motion. We are at once healed and reconciled via this exchange, we are set an example, and justice is served. The forces of evil that draw us to hate the ideas of the kingdom, to fight against the reality of that kingdom within ourselves are thereby indicted in the death and execution of one who lives to do the Father's will. And yet, this death, bringing Judgment is an act of the greatest mercy, and the greatest sacrifice and service. It is an act of reconciliation that will open to all of us the way to go forward, the way out of sin and condemnation, the way to this kingdom - regardless of who we are, where we have been. It calls us all in its call of love and mercy and inclusion. A tremendous paradox indeed. When we open our hearts to the presence of God, to this reality of so much paradox, we must be prepared to expand our understanding and perception of all of these concepts: of judgement and justice, of mercy and love, and of what we may be asked to give up in order to serve something much greater than our own understanding can necessarily grasp. St. Peter works as a great example to us, our suffering and struggling humanity in discipleship. We are asked to go, sometimes, where we do not want to go. But it is that great Love that draws us forward, nevertheless.