Peter Rebukes Jesus – Out of the Heart the Mouth Speaks. Part 1
Jesus brings His disciples to Caesarea Philippi — the stronghold of Roman gods — to impart knowledge and to give them a glimpse of the future. It is here that Peter announces that Jesus is the Christ and Jesus renames him ‘Peter’, the rock. Jesus goes on to tell him “on this rock I will build My church”. Then Jesus tells His disciples He will have to go to Jerusalem and be killed. Peter reacts in his own Peter-like way – he rebukes Jesus. What is that all about? And what does Peter’s rebuke have to do with me? Read on.
After correctly identifying Jesus as the Messiah, Peter speaks words to Jesus that he will probably regret or at least look back on, shake his head and say – “what was I thinking?”. Here is the Scripture (Based on Luke’s account it appears that Peter’s faux pas occurred on the same day, and maybe minutes after his epiphany about Jesus):
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ‘Never Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”” (Matthew 16: 21 – 23).
This brief exchange between Jesus and Peter opens an important window into Peter’s heart, because “out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6: 45). There are four elements in this passage: 1) Peter rebukes Jesus; 2) Jesus commands satan to “get behind Me” – a powerful rebuke in its own right; 3) Jesus tells Peter he is a stumbling block to Jesus; 4) and the reason Peter is a stumbling block – he does not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. I’ll cover the first two elements in part 1, and 3 and 4 in part 2.
Peter Rebukes Jesus
“No Way, Jesus. You will not die. This will never happen to you” (Peter seems to have missed the point about “raised to life on the third day”). This was not a friendly, gentle correction. The Greek word used for rebuke here means “to reprimand, admonish strongly.” Probably, based on Peter’s actions later in the Garden, he was also saying, “I will never let this happen.” What is Peter thinking? Hard to say, but here are three thoughts:
Peter loved Jesus as a brother, and Jesus certainly loved Peter. Peter just acknowledged Jesus as Messiah. In hindsight, we know what that means. But I suspect it means something completely different to Peter. He probably saw Jesus the way all Jews at the time thought about the Messiah, even John the Baptist – as the coming King. The One who would restore Israel to its rightful national greatness. The One who would rid Israel of the Gentiles, especially the hateful Romans, probably by the sword and spear. That Messiah, God Himself, could not be defeated and certainly would never die at the hands of the very people He was coming to rescue. “No way, Jesus. You will not die. You will lead us to victory.” And that was true. Except the victory that Jesus had in mind was not an earthly victory. Jesus would defeat the ultimate enemy – not Rome, but satan.
And perhaps there was some self-interest here as well. Peter is human – Jesus basically just elevated Peter to be His right-hand man, as Peter saw it. Later John and James would take Jesus aside and try to get Him to confer that honor on them. Peter, like any of us would, saw his future, and it looked very good. Power, prestige, and the abundant life at the right-hand of the King– not bad for a poor Galilean fisherman. But if Jesus died – well, all that would all go away.
“Never Lord. This shall never happen to You.” Here is another thought. Peter is certainly responding out of his love and concern for Jesus. But I think there is more than that here. I believe that Peter is telling Jesus, “I know what the future looks like for this ministry”. And as amazing as it seems to us 2000 years later, Peter is telling Jesus He is wrong. Peter is speaking impulsively from his heart – “for out of the heart the mouth speaks” – that, I believe, is the heart of a man still living in the self-life, shrouded in a veil of the outward man. This veil “is woven out of the fine threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit. They are not something we do, they are something we are” (Tozer, The Pursuit of God, pg. 42). The hyphenated sins of the self-life include: self-sufficiency, self-love, self-confidence, self-righteousness, and self-motivation.
Peter sees Jesus fitting into Peter’s world, instead of seeing himself fitting into the world that Jesus is trying to describe for the disciples. Peter’s confidence is in his abilities and not in the power of Jesus, although he has seen that power displayed many times in amazing ways. Peter is still living in the kingdom of the world, and his faith is as much in himself as it is in Jesus – although a Jesus Peter misunderstands. So even though Peter had correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah, it appears to me that this knowledge came from his mind and not his heart. Peter is still walking with what I have been calling ‘false faith’. He will become a man of true faith soon enough. But first Peter will pass through his own crucifixion.
Jesus Rebukes Satan
Jesus spins around to face Peter and issues one of the most chilling rebukes directed at a disciple, “Get behind me satan”. How and why did satan get dragged into the conversation? Good question. Here is what I think:
Even though Scripture tells us that Jesus was speaking to Peter, these words, while directed at Peter, were addressed to satan. Jesus is not calling Peter satan. Jesus is rebuking the force or power behind Peter’s words – and that is satan. When we speak or act from a false faith – life in the kingdom of the world – we open ourselves up for our words and our actions to be influenced or controlled by satan. It is not insignificant that John tells us, “The whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 19, NIV) and Jesus calls satan, “The prince of this world”. Here John is referring to the kingdom of the world, obviously not the Kingdom of God. When we find our value in the things of the kingdom of the world, as Peter is doing here, we are not loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are loving something else. Paul calls this Sin. Sin opens a door into our heart that allows satan access, even for Christians, to influence or control our minds and hearts. Jesus is rebuking and commanding satan to leave Peter, demonstrating once again the power Jesus has over the demonic. More specifically, how is satan influencing Peter?
Behind Peter’s rebuke of Jesus are the words the serpent spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “You can be like God, knowing good and evil”. Satan was subtly speaking to Peter, “You know He is wrong. If you love Him, you will not let Him die”. Satan would do anything and use anyone to try to prevent the crucifixion. Jesus was not going to let satan succeed a second time so He commanded satan to ‘leave’.
Peter’s Faith
In Caesarea Philippi Peter is given doctrinal insight into who Jesus is. But he does not yet have Spiritual insight. Peter is operating from the outermost man. His innermost man has not yet been activated. He has been in the presence of Jesus, but the Presence of Jesus has not yet touched him, and there is a big difference. That will come later, after Peter’s outward man is broken and he receives the Holy Spirit.
We might love Jesus, as Peter loved Jesus, but have we surrendered and submitted our hearts to Him? Have we trusted and depended upon Jesus with our entire personality? Do we still hold on to self-sufficiency and self-confidence? “I know how to get that done”, and we do it in our own power and in our own way, believing that we are doing Kingdom work. But are we accomplishing God’s will and His purpose? Are we doing something out of our love for Jesus, but with an objective and in a way that will harm God’s Kingdom plan rather than advance it?
What if Peter worked really hard to prevent Jesus from dying? Operating out of love and sympathy for his friend, Peter would be working against God’s plan and for satan without understanding the cosmic significance of what he was trying to do. This is especially true in our prayer life.
This is what Oswald Chambers writes, speaking of intercessory prayer:
“Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others and step into having emotional sympathy with them, the vital connection with God is gone. We have then put our sympathy and concern for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God . . . It is sympathy with ourselves or with others that makes us say, “I will not allow that to happen.” And instantly we are out of that vital connection with God” (My Utmost for His Highest, May 3).
I think this is what Peter did. Out of sympathy for Jesus, disconnected from God (how do we know this? Jesus tells us. Speaking to Peter, He says, “You do not have in mind the things of God”) he rebuked Jesus and said, “I will not allow this to happen”. Do we do this out of sympathy for people or groups of people? Do we say, “Your sin will not separate you from God. I will not allow that to happen”. Does the Church in our rapidly changing culture today do this? When we (the Church) do, then we no longer have Jesus at the center of our heart. And if Jesus is not at the center of our heart, we are no longer the Church of Jesus Christ. Culture changes, it has always changed, and it always will change. And culture always puts pressure on the Church to “get with the program”. But “the program” is the Gospel, and the Gospel will never change. The Gospel is Jesus, and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is not only the best way to the abundant, eternal life that God wants for every person, He is the only way. God is love. Love is not God.
Most of us know Jesus doctrinally. Jesus wants us to know Him Spirit to spirit. Jesus wants more than “I believe”. “I believe” is the necessary first step to true faith. But it is only the first step. He wants true faith, which says, “I believe, I will trust, I will obey, and I will follow.” Jesus wants Peter to follow Him, not try to lead the way. The same is true for us today.
In part 2 of this post I’ll look at the other words Jesus spoke to Peter: “Peter, you are a stumbling block to me because you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”. These words describe in more detail Peter’s life in the kingdom of the world and warn us of the pitfalls that we can avoid.
In all of this there is wonderful news. Jesus is drawing Peter closer and closer to Himself and He will redeem and restore Peter, ultimately making him a great man of God. But first Peter will have to pass through the fire!
John