Anchor My Faith

Peter Is A Hinderance To Jesus

Scripture: Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:34

In the previous lesson, Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die on a cross and then be raised on the third day. This rebuke was totally improper, resulting in some harsh words from Jesus: ^{Mt 16:23} “But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”’

As Jesus traveled with his disciples he talked with them about what was going to happen one day in Jerusalem. The idea that Jesus would be arrested, tried falsely, and nailed to a cross to suffer and die was not acceptable to the disciples as their view of the Messiah was a great military leader that would deliver the Jews from under the bondage of Rome. To see the Messiah, as described in Isaiah 53, as a suffering servant was not understood or accepted by them.

As Peter thinks about what Jesus said and maybe talks it over with the other disciples, he finally comes to the point of taking Jesus aside and confronting him about it in the form of a rebuke. Peter didn’t want to discuss it to learn more about why it had to be that way, he simply tells Jesus that it is not going to happen. As a disciple of Jesus, he had no right to rebuke Jesus, especially in a way that goes against God’s plan for obtaining our salvation.

Jesus turned to Peter to give him his full attention and identifies him as Satan and instructs him to get behind him and stop hindering his work. It is interesting that in Matthew 4:10, when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted, he said to Satan, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written.” As Peter opposes Jesus in going to Jerusalem to die, he is doing work for Satan and makes Peter an enemy of God. He has become a hinderance to Jesus because he does not understand God’s plan for salvation, and instead wants Jesus to follow his plan for the Messiah.

Jesus make it very clear to Peter what the problem is. He says, “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” As Paul said in Romans 8:5 ESV: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit had not yet come to indwell Peter and so he was still living according to the flesh and as a result he had the wrong view of the Messiah.

When Peter said to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” his view of the Messiah was a deliverer from worldly bondage. Jesus was speaking of the Messiah as a deliverer from spiritual bondage, which Peter did not yet understand.

^{Mk 8:34} “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them.” When I look at this portion of Mark 8:34, I see in my mind images from various Christian films in which Jesus and his disciples were up front and following behind them was the crowd strung out in a long line. When Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke him, Jesus and probably the disciples stopped, but after Jesus made his comments to Peter, he calls the strung-out crowd to assemble around him for a teaching moment. What he tells them will be covered in the next lesson.

Conclusion

How important it is to take care that we live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. We must continue to learn how to live as an expression of the Word. It is to be no longer I who lives, but Christ living in me and as I abide in him my life will bear fruit to the glory of the Father.