Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.
Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Under the Influence
A near impossibility! How do mere mortals avoid becoming instruments of Satan!? If associating action based on a human point of view with satanic influence, then every one of us is doomed to fall under his influence.
Peter’s eyes did not glaze over and an other-worldly voice emanate from his throat, neither did he labor under some heavy weight of spiritual despair. This was neither possession nor oppression. Peter simply did what comes natural to all of us – to me – act out of the perspective of our humanity.
Read it and weep! We live in these bodies. We exist on this time and space bound planet. Our human cultures have radically shaped our life stories, good grief, my culture IS my life story. And Jesus associates the only perspective through which I understand the world around me with demonic influence. Give me a break!
That’s exactly why he came; to give me a break. If Jesus were, in fact, God with skin on (and not just a great human prophet), we could expect a perspective that transcended, even contradicted, human culture. If he really did enter our human reality in order to restore that which was completely mangled by rebellion against God, to the reality he meant for all his creation, then we could expect that reclamation project (if you want the religious term, redemption) to turn everything we assume, perceive, believe, and know to be truth, on its head.
And that is exactly what Jesus does.
No one expected Messiah to accomplish the heart of his mission through death. This just did not make sense. But Peter had to unlearn the sense his 20-some years on planet earth bequeathed to him and learn a radically different truth (reality). The reality he knew – we know – is too twisted by Satan to be a reliable guide to truth.
(Human experience can point us to truth, but if it were sufficient to take us there, God would have never bothered to enter its sphere in Jesus.)
Somehow, we must get into the mind and sense of God by seeing through the eyes of Jesus. That is why we call this blog, Mind Meld of a Different Kind! Today, we need not wrestle with how we do this, just with that we must.
God, whose ways are far above our own, give me the humility to submit all my perspectives – assumptions, world views, beliefs, philosophy – to your Son, Jesus. Forgive me when I act and react out of human perspective. Take me deeper into your mind and heart, no matter how strange a reality it, at first, seems. - Mike Leamon
Strength in weakness
I shared with my congregation on Sunday about strength in weakness from John 13:13-14:7. Here I find the same principle at work. I can’t blame Peter for rebuking Jesus, what Jesus was saying made no sense at all. The concept of suffering and dying was foreign to his understanding of the Messiah.
Jesus looks through a different lens. We get all fired up about standing strong, beating our swords, fighting the enemy with strength and dying with our boots on. After all, this is the American way, the frontiersman mentality that drives more of our decisions than we would like to admit. Far too often we follow the same thought process in our faith. Be strong; don’t let anyone know you have weaknesses or struggles. Speak loudly, denounce sin boldly, and shoot the opposition into submission. Be a good soldier of the cross.
Frankly, God is not impressed with our bravado. Jesus is looking for those who will be weak. In our weakness then we are strong the apostle states. If you want to follow me, you must take up your cross, lose your life, give up the right to be right. Strength in weakness. It makes even less sense in our culture than it did for Peter, but Jesus has the same expectations today he had for his followers then. The question is who will I follow: my culture or Jesus? Will I become weak that He might become strong in me?
Father, help me to boast only in my weaknesses so your strength is displayed in my life. Give me the courage to reject the American idea of a strong faith for your call to take up my cross. - Dan Jones
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