Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Hm aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

- Matthew 16:21-28

In yesterday's reading, Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And 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 commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Hm aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." Immediately after Peter's confession of faith, and Jesus' acknowledgement of that confession and its power as foundation for the Church, Jesus begins to teach His disciples about what is to come: His suffering and death and Resurrection. But this is too much for Peter; it is too far beyond the concept of the established expectations of Messiah. My study bible says that Peter expected Jesus to go to Jerusalem and establish an earthly kingdom, one in which He would rule forever and not die. "But Jesus," it notes, "was to be a suffering Messiah, a scandalous idea to the Jews." Jesus' rebuke to Peter is one of the most powerful statements in all of the Gospels, and it tells us of the crucial role of obedience in this Kingdom, an obedience to God, in all of God's continuing mystery to us. We discern the Spirit for a reason; human understanding and expectations aren't always -- and sometimes are directly opposed -- in the interest of God, a plan that unfolds in ways we least expect and even understand. Through worldly expectation, and even good intention, Peter "unwittingly serves as a mouthpiece of the devil," as my study bible puts it.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desire to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." I will quote again from my study bible: "The cross, a dreaded instrument of Roman punishment, is also a symbol of suffering by Christians in imitation of Christ. Self-denial is for the sake of Christ and the gospel, for a better life; it is not a punitive end in itself. . . . 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." The powerful image here, which includes the end of the age, the Judgment, is the vision of the coming of this Kingdom, for which every sacrifice is worthwhile, every imaginable thing we give up is rewarded beyond our conception. The true abundance of the life in this Kingdom is worth every loss, every little death of something we let go or give up, in exchange for its power and meaning and substance. I think this applies not only to its fullness in the Judgment and the end of the age, but in the here and the now - in the things that make for our own souls.

We have the great paradox of Peter, as spokesman for the Apostles, as the one named for the rock of the faith because of his confession, speaking unwittingly as the voice of the enemy, the one who opposes the plans of God. How can Christ correct His apostle out of the great love for God, and the plan for salvation for this world, and yet be understood? We will see as the Gospels unfold, how the Apostles will react, how their lives will be, even after crucifixion as they await the word, uncertain and unsure. But His faith in them exceeds their faith in Him, and this is what we have to know within ourselves. Wherever we are, whatever our plans, even a little faith begins in us a covenant for which God is the author, and we will be drawn along with this plan, so that our own uncertainty diminishes as we grow in faith. It is Christ who tells us about discernment today, the importance of distinguishing merely good intentions from the real power of this faith to reveal and to transform, to take us along His Way, not ours. What is it worth to you? Do you understand the things that make for the true substance of the soul? Can you let go of what stands in the way? Sometimes God may come in the form we least expect, something - in this case - abhorrent to our understanding. But we enter a kingdom beyond our grasp and are made citizens of it, as it roots itself in us and in our world, far beyond our seeing.