“Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Peter rocketed from hero to zero quite quickly. The distance from confessing the Lordship of Jesus as the Messiah and receiving the recognition of Jesus to aligning with satan may seem far, but Peter spans it quickly. Moving from hero to zero is something that I can relate to.
Many times I’ve done something for my wife that has been deeply meaningful only to turn around and seemingly erase my efforts with one bone-headed comment or failure. Whether or not my actions qualify as aligning to satan or not might be up for debate, but perhaps this happens more times than we realize.
In the statement quoted above, Jesus connects the things of man to satan.
How many times have we simply done what comes naturally or reflects our society because it’s just “normal” and unwittingly aligned to satan? The enemy has so deeply influenced this world that the values of this world reflect the values of satan more than we realize.*
Peter meant well, for he could not understand a messiah who would have to die. The Messiah that he knew was all powerful. Natural wisdom would say, “no way.”
Peter serves as an example to us to allow Jesus to be our source of truth and wisdom. The conventional wisdom of our day only has value when it aligns to His words. To align to anything else may just be aligning to satan.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to allow Him to examine your beliefs about Him and what you expect Him to do. Perhaps God wants to show you His purposes. Maybe God wants to reset your thinking and reestablish what is “normal.”
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 427–430, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 16:21-23) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).