Happy Friday,
Remember that time Jesus called Peter, βSatanβ? Talk about a bad day!
Here are some thoughts. Much love to you, and more βοΈ,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
In Mark 8:33 Jesus called Peter, "Satan". Imagine that? Imagine being Peter? You've given up your whole life to follow this wandering teacher and even though you get some things wrong and mess up once in a while, the guy you've vowed to follow calls you "Satan".
What gives?
Jesus called him Satan because a few verses earlier he had asked his disciples WHO people are saying HE is. In other words, "I know people are talking about me and you guys have likely heard some things, so fill me in - what are people saying about me, who do they think I am?"
They tell him that ...
Some people think he's John the Baptist.
Other people think he's a prophet.
Some say he's Elijah.
Maybe Elvis. (jk)
And so he pressed them a bit harder and said, "that's nice, but how about y'all - who do YOU say I am?"
Peter responded with the seemingly correct answer and said, "You are the Messiah!"
BINGO.
Bravo, Peter.
You got it right.
Jesus then tells them not to tell anyone, which is kind of a weird thing to say until the rest of the story unfolds and we see that although the disciples are realizing who Jesus is, that he is the Messiah, they have a severe misunderstanding of the KIND OF Messiah Jesus is and will be.
After he tells them not to tell anyone that he's the Messiah, he begins to teach them about how he (the Messiah) will have to suffer and how he will be rejected by the Priests and killed and how he will then rise again from the dead.
He goes on and on for a bit until Peter pulls him aside and "begins to lecture him" (verse 32).
I wonder what Professor Peter told him? Maybe, "hey stop with the crazy talk, Jesus. You do realize that the Messiah isn't supposed to die, right? He's supposed to kill his enemies? You know this, don't you? You can't go around telling people that you're the Messiah and then talk about how your enemies will kill you - YOU NEED TO KILL YOUR ENEMIES. If you keep talking like this no one is going to take you seriously."
The next verse says that Jesus reprimanded Peter, called him "Satan", and told him to go away.
I think Jesus called Peter Satan because his view of God and his view of the Messiah were immature views. Peter was still looking for Jesus to be the kind of Messiah he wanted in the boat back in chapter 4 when Jesus was asleep in the midst of the storm - Peter pulled Jesus aside to lecture him and tell him to "wake up" and "get with the program" because Israel didn't need a Messiah who would die, but a Messiah who would lead her into victory, calm all of the storms, and once and for all topple all of her enemies.
Peter was looking for a Messiah who would make things better again.
He was looking for a Messiah who would provide a quick fix.
He was looking for a Messiah who would be Omnipotent, All-Powerful.
He was looking for a Messiah who was nothing more than a wonder-worker.
In his book "Radical Transformation" Alexander Shaia says that Peter was proving to still be "young in his faith, and tempted by immature notions about an omnipotent God" and this is why Jesus called him Satan and told him not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Why?
Because how could Peter teach others about a reality that he clearly has not yet understood for himself? Had Peter left that scene to go tell other people of Jesus' Messiah-ship, he would have botched it up.
Right?
He would have lectured people just like he tried to lecture Jesus and would have told people that Jesus was going to do a bunch of stuff that Jesus had no intention of doing. He would have told people that Jesus was getting ready to mount his horse, build his army, and bring Rome and all of Israel's enemies to their knees. He would have told everyone that Jesus was going to make Israel great again, and make it the super power everyone longed for it to be.
Jesus had to silence him, and he did.
Peter needed to learn that Jesus was not going to be the Messiah he wanted him to be. He had to learn that following Jesus would not make trials and tribulations and problems go away, but that it would continue to invite trials and tribulations into his life and into the world. This is why after he told Peter to go away, he turned to the disciples and said, "if any of you wants to come after me, you should deny yourself, pick up cross, and follow after me."
In other words ...
Life is hard.
I can't snap my fingers and make it easy.
I won't promise you that it'll be smooth sailing.
There will be storms.
BUT.
But, know this - I will be with you in the storm ... asleep in the back of your boat ... and inviting you to curl up next to me and go to sleep too.
The part about being a disciple of the Messiah that Peter still needed to learn, that Jesus was desperately trying to teach them, was how to foster and maintain an inner peace when the outside world is filled with heartache and brokenness and crosses and bloodshed and wind and waves and problems and countless things to be afraid of.
The Messiah wasn't here to make the storms go away, but to help people endure their storms and develop an inner peace in the midst of them.
I wonder how many pastors and preachers and churches Jesus would call Satan today, and tell to shut up and go away? How many churches have made Jesus into a finger-snapping Magic Man who does little more than get people to heaven and out of hell when they say a special prayer? And makes their problems go away when they behave in all the right ways?
Perhaps that's a #CoffeeThoughts for another day, but it makes me think about my own understanding of God and how often I want God to be the finger-snapping, problem-fixer that God clearly isn't. The reality is that life is hard, storms will come, but the Good News is that I'm never alone in the midst of the storms and inner peace is always available to me.
Hallelujah.