"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, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day raised to life." (Matthew 16:21 NIV)
Jesus had a very clear idea of who He was and why He was here. That sense of identity and purpose steered Him through life. You and I cannot see into the future or predict our own death, but we can figure out who we are and why we are here (at least in the broadest sense).
Our identity? Sons and daughters of God.
Our purpose? Loving our Father and loving others as He leads us.
We may not know the details but we can know the Lord and He knows the details. We can trust His perfect sight, plan and leading.
"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 concerns of God, but merely human concerns." (Matthew 16:23-23a NIV)
This interaction is interesting to me for the following reasons:
- Peter didn’t possess the power to control anything – least of all himself.
- Peter had a habit of getting in the way of what God was doing.
- Peter got to choose to be a stumbling block to God’s agenda or to become supportive of what He was accomplishing. (Supportive seems far less painful.)
- Jesus asked Peter to elevate his thinking.
As always, we consider any interaction in the gospel and recognize our own human tendencies amidst the account. Friend, our flesh trends toward stumbling block. The Fall has firmly placed us in the center of our story and God calls us out of our sinful thinking. He invites us to cooperate with the agenda of heaven. Let’s look at Peter’s invitation again and personalize it this time around.
"you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." (Matthew 16:23b NIV)
Peter’s preoccupation with human concerns is understandable, he was human! And so are we! But when we begin to follow Jesus, we can adopt a higher level of thinking. What God desires can eclipse what we desire. We are able to move from ‘What do I want?’ to ‘What does God want?’. A simple exchange of nouns opens up an entire new world to us! We learn to trust that our Savior is well-practiced in Kingdom thinking. We let Jesus teach us, rather than trying to teach Him.
Forgive us, Lord, for all the ways we have stood as a stumbling block instead of the support beam You are hoping for. Today we see how silly our posture has been. Our vision is shortsighted in comparison to Yours. Our motives are self-absorbed. We forget who we are and why we are here, but You tug us back toward divine connection and thus direction. Forgive us for our stubborn donkey act and, please, rebuke us when we’ve crossed the line. Teach us Your ways as we learn to abandon ours. We want to live on Kingdom mission with You. Amen.