Wednesday, April 13

Wednesday

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,  “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”  They replied,  “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  “But what about you?” he asked.  “Who do you say I am?”  Simon Peter answered,  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus replied,  “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it…

…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.”  Then Jesus said to his disciples,  “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

                                                                                                      – Matthew 16:13-18, 21-24

Take just a few minutes and read the passages above through 3 times slowly…

What do you notice?  What strikes you about Peter’s interactions with Jesus?

In the space of just a few verses Peter goes from getting the question of who Jesus was exactly right to totally misunderstanding what Jesus was really about.

Think about this for just a minute.  Jesus asks a question, “who do you say I am?”   Peter answers it and Jesus tells him that he is blessed because he has been given spiritual insight straight from God.  That had to be a pretty good moment for Peter don’t you think? 

Next, Peter hears Jesus talking about how he is going to have to suffer and die and he thinks, “this is no way for the Son of God to be talking, I better remind Him of who He is supposed to be…”  Before the words are hardly out of his mouth, Jesus puts Peter in his place and tells him that he clearly does not understand what his Master is really all about.  How do you think Peter felt when he heard Jesus call him Satan?  My guess is that it was not such a good moment.

Apparently, one of the lessons we learn from the life of Peter, is that it is entirely possible even for a disciple to know who Jesus is and yet not understand what He is up to.  This encourages me, because I often feel like I fluctuate between faith and doubt, praise and pettiness, joy and anger, hope and fear far too easily.

The other day I was driving in my car and listening to a worship song called “By Faith” by Keith and Kristyn Getty.  I usually listen to sports talk radio or country music when I drive.  However, a friend had given me this CD (I know, cds are old school now) and told me that this song was a great modern hymn.  Anyway, I was driving along and enjoying a beautiful early spring day.  It was a very real moment of worship and praise right there in my car on Randall Road.  I guess I wasn’t paying very close attention to how long the light ahead had been yellow when I went through the intersection, because the flash from one of those automatic traffic cameras totally surprised me.  You could say that in a “flash” I went from worshipping God to cursing my bad luck (not literally cursing but you get the idea).

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can go from praising God to, well, to the opposite!  This is one of the reasons that I love the stories of Peter so much in the Bible.  In many ways I see myself in Peter, one minute getting things right and the next minute getting it totally wrong.

Like Peter, we must learn that it is not the strength of our faithfulness to Him that matters, but it is the unbreakable strength of His faithfulness to us!


Jeff Frazier