Get Behind Us Satan

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct." (Matthew 16:21-27)

According to Matthew, Jesus said to Peter: "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." This is a strange thing for Jesus to have said when Peter expressed his concern for Jesus’ welfare.  

In Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus told Peter that he was the rock on which Jesus would build his Church.  Moreover, the gates of the netherworld would not prevail against it.  Jesus then had said: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.  

Clearly, Jesus had big plans, and Peter’s hesitancy to grab the key and understand he was the rock on which Jesus depended might have prompted Jesus’ remark: “Get behind me Satan!”  That is quite the rebuke.  

Frankly, who can blame Peter for not getting it right?  He was supposed to “think as God does.”  Who among us thinks that way and not as human beings do?  

We are all obstacles to Jesus when we don’t think as God does.  God is love, so when our thoughts are contrary and focused on hate, envy, and evil, for example, we are not thinking as God does.  Satan is in front of us leading us astray.  So, Satan, “Get behind us,” and watch us walk away with each of us being rocks for Jesus by taking up his cross and following him.

Deacon David Pierce