Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Jesus had just foretold that He must suffer many things at Jerusalem, be killed, and be raised the third day, with His coming anguish and death fully before Him. Peter impulsively took Him aside and rebuked Him, insisting that this must not happen and urging Him to spare Himself from suffering. His protest came from love for Christ and from the disciples' expectation of a temporal Messiah who would defeat Rome and reign in earthly glory, which left them unable to reconcile death with His divine sonship and kingdom. Satan was speaking through Peter to turn Christ from suffering toward earthly glory, voicing human thinking rather than God's purpose, and Christ detected the tempter and sternly rebuked the real foe behind Peter. By this Jesus made clear that His mission brings the cross rather than worldly honor, and that His followers too must accept humiliation and self-sacrifice if they are to share His glory.
Words and Setting
Jesus had just told the disciples plainly that He must suffer many things at Jerusalem, be mocked and crucified, be killed, and be raised the third day, with the anguish, shame, insults and death of Calvary already fully before Him as He approached it. Peter took Him aside and impulsively presumed to correct and contradict Him, disputing with Him and emphatically insisting that this suffering and death must not happen to Him. His forward, self-confident and presumptuous nature made him vulnerable to temptation and quick to dispute when the lesson conflicted with his own ideas and plans. The words Be it far from thee carry the sense of Favor thyself, Lord, urging Jesus to spare Himself from suffering.
That protest came from the disciples’ expectation of a temporal Messiah who would defeat Rome, deliver Israel from bondage, reign on David’s throne as ruler over Israel, and give earthly greatness, honors and temporal victory over Israel’s enemies. They had not understood His teaching about death and resurrection, had not accepted His teaching about coming suffering, and expected shame to be replaced by a worldly kingdom rather than a mission bringing shame and the cross. Coming immediately after Peter’s divinely inspired acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God, the announcement was a great shock that filled him with opposition, his whole being rising against the thought that the Son of God should be so treated. He could not conceive that the Son of God could be put to death, could not reconcile death with Christ’s divine identity and the firm establishment of His kingdom, and with the other disciples in grief did not yet understand that His sacrifice was necessary for humanity’s salvation.
Peter spoke from affectionate love and the desire not to hear of suffering, unwilling to bear the prediction of betrayal and crucifixion. He felt indignation at the injustice he expected Christ and His followers to suffer, and thought such an event would bring the Christian church to ruin, believing the Lord could prevent it. His words also expressed self-pity and reluctance to share in Christ’s suffering, shrinking from fellowship in that suffering. This thought and feeling belonged to all twelve, whose eyes were closed to the unwelcome knowledge of the coming cross while they imagined honors in a kingdom.
Jesus nevertheless knowingly chose the cross, facing suffering, shame and insults in order to carry out God’s will and give His life to save the lost. He looked ahead to the joy of giving His life to bring the world back to loyalty to God.
Satan Against God's Purpose
Satan stood between Peter and Christ and worked through Peter, speaking through him as tempter to turn Christ away from suffering toward earthly glory and to place human expectation between Peter and his Saviour. Peter resisted Jesus' announcement that He would suffer and die because it clashed with the disciples' expectation of a temporal Messiah who would defeat Rome, deliver Israel from bondage, win temporal victory over Israel's enemies, and reign on David's throne, and his rebuke opposed the path of rejection and death that Jesus had foretold. Even when believed to be right, such opposition to God's word obstructs Christ's mission, and Peter's appeal, though made out of love, opposed the cross and the self-sacrifice Jesus came to teach and would have turned His followers' minds away from that purpose.
Peter's words voiced human thinking rather than God's purpose and gave voice to Satan's suggestions, with Satan tempting Peter to contradict Jesus, exploiting him and linking the human mind with his own thoughts. Coming immediately after Peter's divinely inspired acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God, the announcement that He must suffer many things at Jerusalem, be killed, and be raised the third day was a great shock, and Peter's whole being rose against the thought that the Son of God should be so treated. He could not conceive that the Son of God could be put to death, and Satan exploited his forward, self-confident, presumptuous nature by suggesting that Jesus, if He was the Son of God, could not die. Christ detected the deceiver behind Peter even though Peter himself did not suspect Satan's presence, and He put Satan behind Himself, came close to Peter, and directed His stern rebuke to get behind Him to the real foe. His denial that suffering would come to Christ spoke the doubts and unbelief Satan placed in him while Satan stood between him and Christ and came face to face with him to move him to oppose his Lord.
Peter's objection was unbelief that denied the fulfillment of prophecy through the Son of God's sacrificial death, insisting such a fate must not happen because he could not bear the thought of it and could not accept that the Messiah would suffer. His affectionate wish that Jesus should not suffer and die opposed God's purpose for Christ, and Jesus did not accept Peter's words as comfort or excuse them because they came from love but rebuked Peter severely because human affection and wishes would turn Christ aside from God's will. The lesson conflicted with Peter's own ideas and plans and expressed the temptation to spare oneself and put human wishes before God's purposes, while Jesus followed the light and instruction He received from His Father rather than human judgment, plans, advice, or counsel based on human judgment that tried to turn Him from the course set before Him. Peter was focused on human concerns rather than God's purposes, with an imperfect understanding of the plan of salvation, protesting out of indignation at the injustice he expected Christ and His followers to suffer and not wanting to see the cross in Christ's work, although through the cross life and hope would come to dying people. His words would have given the disciples an impression opposite to the one Jesus wanted them to understand and intended, turning their minds away from self-sacrifice.
The episode proves that Satan links the human mind with his own and can imbue it with his thoughts so deceptively that the person molded is unconscious of being led at his will, making one human mind a powerful agency for evil upon another. It warns that unless constantly led by the Spirit of God even God's servants will be snared and taken and have their minds possessed in the same way today, not by force but while spiritually sleeping and unfed.
Sharing Christ's Sufferings
The rebuke answers Peter's resistance to the foretold suffering and death by making plain that shame and the cross, not a temporal reign and worldly honor, lay before Christ. The correction overturns the mistaken hope for a worldly kingdom and earthly throne, teaching that reproach must be endured for Christ's sake and for salvation. His followers too must suffer for His name, bear the cross, and accept humiliation, reproach, and shame if they are to share His glory. His crucifixion teaches them to be crucified to the world, giving up hope in its pomp and pleasures.
Peter's protest rose from self-pity and shrinking from sharing suffering with Christ, insisting that this must not happen. He resisted the announcement that Christ's work would involve suffering and death. Only slowly and painfully did he learn that Christ's earthly path led through agony and humiliation. Trials afterward taught him to accept fellowship in Christ's sufferings.
He disputed with Christ and presumed to correct Him, not believing that He would go to Jerusalem to be mocked and crucified, but expecting instead that God would raise Him to a temporal throne as ruler over Israel to deliver the nation from bondage. Because he was indifferent to Christ's teaching and did not learn the lesson he should have learned, he was left unprepared and denied his Lord in his trial. The rebuke thus exposed his need to be sifted as wheat, for Christ prayed that his faith would not fail when Satan desired to sift him. That sifting came through denial in the judgment hall, repentance with bitter tears, and conversion, after which he could be safely trusted to feed Christ's sheep and lambs and to help the most tempted and tried disciple.
Jesus had just foretold that He must suffer many things at Jerusalem, be killed, and be raised the third day, with His coming anguish and death fully before Him. Peter impulsively took Him aside and rebuked Him, insisting that this must not happen and urging Him to spare Himself from suffering. His protest came from love for Christ and from the disciples' expectation of a temporal Messiah who would defeat Rome and reign in earthly glory, which left them unable to reconcile death with His divine sonship and kingdom. Satan was speaking through Peter to turn Christ from suffering toward earthly glory, voicing human thinking rather than God's purpose, and Christ detected the tempter and sternly rebuked the real foe behind Peter. By this Jesus made clear that His mission brings the cross rather than worldly honor, and that His followers too must accept humiliation and self-sacrifice if they are to share His glory.
Words and Setting
Jesus had just told the disciples plainly that He must suffer many things at Jerusalem, be mocked and crucified, be killed, and be raised the third day, with the anguish, shame, insults and death of Calvary already fully before Him as He approached it. Peter took Him aside and impulsively presumed to correct and contradict Him, disputing with Him and emphatically insisting that this suffering and death must not happen to Him. His forward, self-confident and presumptuous nature made him vulnerable to temptation and quick to dispute when the lesson conflicted with his own ideas and plans. The words Be it far from thee carry the sense of Favor thyself, Lord, urging Jesus to spare Himself from suffering.
That protest came from the disciples’ expectation of a temporal Messiah who would defeat Rome, deliver Israel from bondage, reign on David’s throne as ruler over Israel, and give earthly greatness, honors and temporal victory over Israel’s enemies. They had not understood His teaching about death and resurrection, had not accepted His teaching about coming suffering, and expected shame to be replaced by a worldly kingdom rather than a mission bringing shame and the cross. Coming immediately after Peter’s divinely inspired acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God, the announcement was a great shock that filled him with opposition, his whole being rising against the thought that the Son of God should be so treated. He could not conceive that the Son of God could be put to death, could not reconcile death with Christ’s divine identity and the firm establishment of His kingdom, and with the other disciples in grief did not yet understand that His sacrifice was necessary for humanity’s salvation.
Peter spoke from affectionate love and the desire not to hear of suffering, unwilling to bear the prediction of betrayal and crucifixion. He felt indignation at the injustice he expected Christ and His followers to suffer, and thought such an event would bring the Christian church to ruin, believing the Lord could prevent it. His words also expressed self-pity and reluctance to share in Christ’s suffering, shrinking from fellowship in that suffering. This thought and feeling belonged to all twelve, whose eyes were closed to the unwelcome knowledge of the coming cross while they imagined honors in a kingdom.
Jesus nevertheless knowingly chose the cross, facing suffering, shame and insults in order to carry out God’s will and give His life to save the lost. He looked ahead to the joy of giving His life to bring the world back to loyalty to God.
Satan Against God's Purpose
Satan stood between Peter and Christ and worked through Peter, speaking through him as tempter to turn Christ away from suffering toward earthly glory and to place human expectation between Peter and his Saviour. Peter resisted Jesus' announcement that He would suffer and die because it clashed with the disciples' expectation of a temporal Messiah who would defeat Rome, deliver Israel from bondage, win temporal victory over Israel's enemies, and reign on David's throne, and his rebuke opposed the path of rejection and death that Jesus had foretold. Even when believed to be right, such opposition to God's word obstructs Christ's mission, and Peter's appeal, though made out of love, opposed the cross and the self-sacrifice Jesus came to teach and would have turned His followers' minds away from that purpose.
Peter's words voiced human thinking rather than God's purpose and gave voice to Satan's suggestions, with Satan tempting Peter to contradict Jesus, exploiting him and linking the human mind with his own thoughts. Coming immediately after Peter's divinely inspired acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God, the announcement that He must suffer many things at Jerusalem, be killed, and be raised the third day was a great shock, and Peter's whole being rose against the thought that the Son of God should be so treated. He could not conceive that the Son of God could be put to death, and Satan exploited his forward, self-confident, presumptuous nature by suggesting that Jesus, if He was the Son of God, could not die. Christ detected the deceiver behind Peter even though Peter himself did not suspect Satan's presence, and He put Satan behind Himself, came close to Peter, and directed His stern rebuke to get behind Him to the real foe. His denial that suffering would come to Christ spoke the doubts and unbelief Satan placed in him while Satan stood between him and Christ and came face to face with him to move him to oppose his Lord.
Peter's objection was unbelief that denied the fulfillment of prophecy through the Son of God's sacrificial death, insisting such a fate must not happen because he could not bear the thought of it and could not accept that the Messiah would suffer. His affectionate wish that Jesus should not suffer and die opposed God's purpose for Christ, and Jesus did not accept Peter's words as comfort or excuse them because they came from love but rebuked Peter severely because human affection and wishes would turn Christ aside from God's will. The lesson conflicted with Peter's own ideas and plans and expressed the temptation to spare oneself and put human wishes before God's purposes, while Jesus followed the light and instruction He received from His Father rather than human judgment, plans, advice, or counsel based on human judgment that tried to turn Him from the course set before Him. Peter was focused on human concerns rather than God's purposes, with an imperfect understanding of the plan of salvation, protesting out of indignation at the injustice he expected Christ and His followers to suffer and not wanting to see the cross in Christ's work, although through the cross life and hope would come to dying people. His words would have given the disciples an impression opposite to the one Jesus wanted them to understand and intended, turning their minds away from self-sacrifice.
The episode proves that Satan links the human mind with his own and can imbue it with his thoughts so deceptively that the person molded is unconscious of being led at his will, making one human mind a powerful agency for evil upon another. It warns that unless constantly led by the Spirit of God even God's servants will be snared and taken and have their minds possessed in the same way today, not by force but while spiritually sleeping and unfed.
Sharing Christ's Sufferings
The rebuke answers Peter's resistance to the foretold suffering and death by making plain that shame and the cross, not a temporal reign and worldly honor, lay before Christ. The correction overturns the mistaken hope for a worldly kingdom and earthly throne, teaching that reproach must be endured for Christ's sake and for salvation. His followers too must suffer for His name, bear the cross, and accept humiliation, reproach, and shame if they are to share His glory. His crucifixion teaches them to be crucified to the world, giving up hope in its pomp and pleasures.
Peter's protest rose from self-pity and shrinking from sharing suffering with Christ, insisting that this must not happen. He resisted the announcement that Christ's work would involve suffering and death. Only slowly and painfully did he learn that Christ's earthly path led through agony and humiliation. Trials afterward taught him to accept fellowship in Christ's sufferings.
He disputed with Christ and presumed to correct Him, not believing that He would go to Jerusalem to be mocked and crucified, but expecting instead that God would raise Him to a temporal throne as ruler over Israel to deliver the nation from bondage. Because he was indifferent to Christ's teaching and did not learn the lesson he should have learned, he was left unprepared and denied his Lord in his trial. The rebuke thus exposed his need to be sifted as wheat, for Christ prayed that his faith would not fail when Satan desired to sift him. That sifting came through denial in the judgment hall, repentance with bitter tears, and conversion, after which he could be safely trusted to feed Christ's sheep and lambs and to help the most tempted and tried disciple.