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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
Jesus, Example of Patience (4/5)
"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 Him 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.'" (Matthew 16.21-23).
Consider carefully the response to Peter's expression of apparent concern for Jesus. Some might look at Jesus' sharp response as an indication that He lacked sufficient patience, or that His patience ran short on this occasion. After all, to refer to a friend and close associate as Satan, is pretty harsh. However, when we notice the entire context and not just the one word, and when we couple that with a proper definition of patience, our conclusions can be quite different.
First, notice the approach that Peter took to the "problem" of Jesus going into Jerusalem where He would be killed and raised again on the third day. The text plainly says that Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. The first issue here is one of recognizing roles in this scenario. To whom did Peter think he was talking when he began to rebuke Jesus? Did he not know that Jesus was the Messiah, God incarnate as promised in the Old Testament? Well, truth be known, Peter not only knew who Jesus was, he had just been commended for knowing that fact! Peter made the "good confession" in Matthew 16.16 and then rebuked the Christ in Matthew 16.22. Something was drastically wrong with that picture and Jesus knew it well!
Secondly, notice the specific command that Jesus gave to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!" When one is leading others, he cannot be tripped up by one of the followers as long as the followers continue to do what they are supposed to do, i.e. follow the leader. The issue here was that a follower had promoted himself to the position of leader. Peter needed to continue in his role of follower; he needed to be behind the Christ and not in front. That is why Jesus said, "Get behind Me, Satan." At the conclusion of Jesus' temptation by the literal ruler of darkness, He said, "Away with you, Satan!" or, as the Revised Standard Version says, "Begone, Satan! (Matthew 4.12). On this occasion, however, He just told Peter, "Get back in line!" As long as Peter followed, Peter would not fail and He certainly would not be able to trip up the leader!
Thirdly, Jesus saw a real problem, a problem that would lead to Peter's falling away if not corrected. Jesus tells us the nature of this problem: "[Y]ou are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." Peter was more mindful of his own personal wishes that he was of the will of God. Given this situation, Peter needed a "wakeup call" and Jesus made that call. Even with that, however, Peter failed to place God's will first on all occasions. It was that spiritual weakness that led to his denial of the Christ on three distinct occasions the night of Jesus' betrayal. Jesus was right in referring to Peter as Satan (the adversary)!
Patience is the resolve to persevere toward a righteous objective regardless of the trials or sufferings that might tend to detract or turn aside; Jesus was patient with Peter and with all men!
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