From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”
He turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Mt 16:21-23)
One of the songs from the Bangles was “Walk like an Egyptian”. It was a catchy tune and, for a while, it began a craze of people “walking like Egyptians”. Even certain products began using that Egyptian theme in their advertisements.
The fact of the matter is, we often like to identify with a certain group of people. We lean, of course, toward the most popular of the time.
However, that can get us into trouble.
Jesus remonstrates Peter because Peter was thinking “as human beings do”.
A lot of people would say, “Well, of course. He’s a human being, after all!”
The sad reality is that thinking like a human gets us all in trouble because, when we think like humans, we forget the divine.
Peter was upset because Jesus said He was going to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter did not want to see that happen. If Jesus were taken from them, they would be marked men as well. That thought terrified Peter. So, in his own way, Peter tried to talk Jesus out of it.
Jesus knew that He needed to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. He knew that if He did not, we would not be redeemed. Jesus was thinking not as a human being but with the mind of His Father.
When we think through the mind of our Father, the way becomes and/or remains clear to us. When we think like human beings, the way becomes confused and we find ourselves lost.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to make His will for you clear in your mind today. Do all that you can not to allow the world to distract you from what God wants of you.