Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, March 8, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Ouch. That’s pretty harsh. As I wrote yesterday, I got the sense that Jesus was already irritated with his disciples, as they utterly failed to understand an obvious allegory and he had to spell it out for them. Now in the verses immediately following, Peter professes his belief that Jesus is the Messiah, then Jesus tries to tell his friends that he is going to die horribly. This time he is not speaking in allegories, but plainly, and I can only imagine how much this upcoming trial weighed on Jesus’ mind and heart. Perhaps that’s why he was so irritated with his friends when they failed to understand his warning about the “yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
So imagine you’re pretty raw because you know something terrible is coming your way and there’s no avoiding it. And imagine your best friend has just shown uncommon understanding of the fact that you are the Messiah. So you try to level with your followers—give them the unpleasant but inevitable truths of the near future, maybe hoping for sympathy and support, but certainly expecting basic understanding.
And Peter blows it. He says, “God forbid!” and tries to argue Jesus out of it, showing that while he might be right that Jesus is the Messiah, he has no clue about what the Messiah actually is.
And Jesus loses it. “You are the Adversary! (Satan) You’re getting in my way! That’s not what I need from you!”
As with yesterday’s comedy moment, today’s altercation simply draws me to Jesus’ humanness and helps me relate to him on a visceral level. I want to give him a hug, tell him I will support him no matter what it is he chooses to do, or has to go through. Of course, I have the gift of retrospect—I know what happens in the end. In the moment, I probably would have been no different than Peter.
Where do I find myself in this story? How does Jesus’ reaction to Peter make me feel?
