Matthew 16:22-23 (KJV) _Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
When I considered the response of Jesus Christ to Peter’s rebuke in the verse above, I received inspiration.
Can you imagine your best friend, walking up to you and telling you how he or she will suffer many things and DIE?
That would sound ridiculous to you.
I’m sure your reactions will exceed Peter’s.
You might even go ahead to land a slap on her face; Perhaps it would awaken her from the delusion she’s sinking into, with a threat never to think of or say such again.
Were your actions borne out of hatred?
Of course, No!
That was “love” in action, right?
Who would tolerate such words coming from a beloved individual?
To make my illustration explicit, consider this scenario between a young couple. How would one react, if the other mentioned such?
When Peter rebuked Jesus, he probably did that out of “love”. He wouldn’t want to lose the master anytime soon.
Considering all the wonderful moments they had, the enriching words they had heard, the supernatural miracles he had performed which had left them awed, the inspiration and power that flowed from his personality that intrigued them, and so much more.
How could the master think of such?
After all, the master is still in his prime years! He hasn’t attained a good old age yet, so, why would he talk about suffering and death? ( the resurrection part of the Master’s words didn’t resonate with him.)
He went ahead and rebuked Jesus without understanding the purpose of that statement Jesus made.
“Get thee behind me Satan!” was Jesus’ response.
Master, this is Peter and not Satan.
“You do not discern enough,” Jesus might have responded;”Those are the words of Satan in Peter’s voice.”
“I have got a mission; and this mission ordained by God includes my sufferings, death, and resurrection. These are the greatest components of my mission.”
Well, back to Peter.
I thought you loved the master? How come you didn’t know his purpose?
You just confirmed his personality as Christ, the only son of God; How come you didn’t discern the purpose attached to his personality?
I thought you loved the master?
If you loved him truly, you would support the process that would fulfill his purpose.
Now, the scripture is for our learning. There’s a cogent lesson for us to learn from this scenario that occurred over 2000 years back.
When God created us, he ordained us to multiply and fill the earth. He had given us a great mission with great responsibilities.
It is in attending to our responsibilities that we fulfill our God-given mission.
Within us, there’s a voice like that of Peter’s that keeps petting us whenever we want to make giant strides.
Those strides we take are proofs of our progress in our assigned tasks.
The voice doesn’t want us to “stress ourselves”. It does not want us to pay the price of hard work and self-discipline. It always wants us to have it easy, sleep a little more, while away a little more time, cruise a little, and a whole lot of ephemeral things, in the name of self-love.
That voice doesn’t understand that, in fulfilling our God-given purposes, we must suffer these things.
It doesn’t understand that it’s in the bearing of our cross that we walk closer with God, and find fulfillment of purpose.
That voice is the devil’s, through our flesh.
The Flesh loves comfort, and it will strive against anything that wants to terminate its comfort.
Therefore, the devil finds it the perfect ally.
As Christ did, we should rebuke every voice that wishes to discourage or weaken us from bearing our cross.
I pray that God will grant us the wisdom to discern these voices, rebuke them and bear our cross, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
