Jesus said, “But who do you say that I am?”
“You are the Christ,” Peter gave the truest confession. You are the Christ—not a Christ, as if there were many more to come, but rather the Christ. You are the one we have learned of, looked and longed for. The Jews expected one Messiah and Peter was declaring, they recognized Jesus was it.
You are the Messiah.
The Jews in Jesus’ day were an oppressed people. They were not only looking for the Messiah to come, but also to deliver them. They were dominated by Roman rule—known to be the cruelest of empires. In addition, the Jews felt demoralized by other Jews who worked for and upheld Roman laws. Also they were subjugated to burdensome religious laws by the legalistic Jewish authorities—the Pharisees. The Jews hoped the Messiah would come and set-up His kingdom, dispensing with the injustices of the Romans and their other taskmasters. The Jews felt they were back living in Egypt, except this time, the dominators spoke Italian.
When Peter made his declaration about Jesus, it seems all the burdensome weight he felt for the oppression of his people breathed itself out in a sigh of expectation and hope—“You are the Christ.” How relieving and exciting it must have been for Peter and the other disciples to grasp this truth. Whether they did grasp the entire truth is less certain. Peter had his moment in the sun, but the clouds were about to roll in.
“And He (Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31)
At hearing Jesus plainly speak these words, Peter grabbed the LORD, pulled Him aside and began rebuking Him. In other words Peter might have said something like this; “Have you gone mad—are you a lunatic? We’ve just agreed and acknowledged that You are the Messiah…and I know You told us to keep it to ourselves, which I don’t understand, but okay. Still You can’t just dash our hopes like this when we believe You are the one we have waited for and are prepared to follow You to whatever end. If You keep talking like this, You might lose all Your followers and then where will You be?”
Okay, I made all of that dialogue up, but can’t you just imagine Peter trying to save the moment of greatest triumph for himself and the disciples? Then Jesus turns, sees all the other disciples watching Peter’s diatribe, and very strongly rebukes Peter.
“Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mark 8:33)
Jesus said it all. God had a plan in sending Jesus to earth. God had a plan for the redemption of mankind and it included sacrifice. It also included resurrection, which Jesus mentioned in the statement before Peter went off the handle, but evidently, Peter didn’t hear that part. God had a plan and Satan would do whatever he could to thwart God’s plan, including use Peter’s own logic and loyalty to lead him and possibly others astray.
Jesus had to rebuke Peter, else the other disciples would have jumped right onto Peter’s bandwagon, which was not the Red Flyer God planned to use for the salvation of man. Just like Peter, how often do we misinterpret a situation simply because we are viewing it from man’s perspective? God’s ways are so far above our ways, His thoughts are beyond finding out, scripture says. What we are to trust in, is the character of God. We hope in the person we know God to be, in what He has said about Himself, and demonstrated by His actions. (Easy Example John 3:16-17)
The older I become, the more I understand life is seldom the way I understand it to be. I think everyone should be healthy, wealthy and wise. Not that I believe in prosperity doctrine, but, I just want everyone to be safe and happy. What’s wrong with that? Well, sadly that’s not life on earth. That’s close to heaven; and one day, believers in Jesus will experience the place of no more death, tears, sorrow, pain or suffering. Hallelujah! But while on earth, I must realize, God works in the midst of suffering. He uses pain to draw people to Himself. He allows sorrow, death, and tears. They humble us so that we cry out to God. How sad is mankind so marred by pride, kept in a perpetual state of self-sufficiency and ignorance of how loving is our God.
From God’s perspective, Peter made the truest confession…”You are the Christ.” From man’s perspective, Peter needed a smack-down, to point him back in the right direction. How about us? Who do we say Jesus is? Are we conforming to God’s plan or confronting Him? Does the statement of Jesus to Peter ring any bells? Are we setting the proper example for others of people who trust in God as opposed to their own interpretation of life’s events? Are we setting our minds on the things of God? I hope you will consider the following few verses and let me know your thoughts. (Philippians 2:3-8, 3:17-20, 4:4-9, Colossians 3:1-2)
(Continued Next Post)
No comments:
Post a Comment