Deacon Jerry Franzen at Cathedral
Basilica of the Assumption
Isaiah 50:5-9 James 2: 14-18 Mark 8: 27-35
We hear today’s Gospel story each year.
It appears in some form
in each of the
Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Jesus, first, wanted to
check out the disciples, his closest friends,
to see what they thought of him.
He questioned them, “Who do
you say that I am?”
Peter gave the correct
answer, “You are the Christ.”
Jesus told the disciples what
will happen to him,
their Messiah, their “Christos” in Greek.
Then Peter rebuked Jesus;
“to rebuke” means “to criticize.”
This rebuke by Peter was apparently
his attempt to correct Jesus.
You might ask, “Why did Peter rebuke Jesus?”
After all, Jesus was clearly
the leader,
and Peter should
have been the dutiful follower.
Who did he think he was to
tell the Master that He was wrong?
Peter did have a certain
tendency to speak his mind at times.
Jesus, then, rebuked or
corrected Peter and
called out to Satan in or through Peter.
I don’t think that He was actually
calling Peter, “Satan.”
He directly told Satan to
get behind him,
and told Peter, and the others present
to stop
thinking like a human beings
and to start thinking like God.
That could be tough – to
know the mind of God.
I
I see three questions raised
in progression by this Gospel reading:
“Why did Peter feel that he
had to correct Jesus?”
“Why did Jesus address Satan
when he corrected Peter?”
And “What does it mean to
think like God?
What if Jesus came to each
of us and asked ,
“Who do YOU say that I am?”
We might have to search for
an answer but, hopefully,
we would come up with one similar to Peter’s.
This was one of Peter’s
shining moments,
and hopefully it would be one of ours as well.
Jesus is the Messiah, the
Christ,
the one anointed to
save God’s people.
Hopefully all of us,
gathered here at this Mass,
acclaim Jesus as the
Messiah, Our Savior.
All of the Jews, including
Peter, were expecting a powerful Messiah,
one who would raise up an army and free the Jewish people
from the oppression
of the Roman Empire,
the current member of a long list of
nations
that had, in some way, oppressed the
Israelites.
But then Jesus ruined this
lovely picture.
Peter picked up on the suffering,
rejection, and being killed,
but probably did not “get”
the part about rising on the third day.
He probably ignored that last
part and focused on the other parts.
After all, how could those
awful things happen to someone
who was to be triumphant over the Roman oppression?
What kind of a ridiculous
kingdom
is built on the
broken Body of a defeated Messiah?
What Jesus was saying was
just the opposite of the traditional image
that the Israelite nation had
of what their
Messiah would be like.
The disciples would have to
learn, with some difficulty,
that the victory was
not to be over the Romans;
it was to be the
victory over the suffering,
the rejection and the death of sin.
Jesus did not want the word
of his being the Messiah
spread around at this time in his ministry, because
more people than just the disciples would have
these
same incorrect expectations of Him.
He knew that all would be
revealed to the people in good time.
II
Why did Jesus
bring Satan into the picture?
It would seem
that Peter was trying to convince Jesus
that He, Jesus, could bring about the kingdom
without His suffering, rejection and death.
Peter probably
realized that
if Jesus would have to suffer, be
rejected and die,
then his nearest followers
would meet that same fate.
But why bring Satan
into the picture here?
*Could it be
that Jesus was referring back
to His previous encounter with Satan –
the one where he was tempted
three times by Satan?
Remember that incident?
Turn these
stones into bread because you are hungry.
Throw yourself
down from the tower and God will save you.
Bow to me and I
will give you power over all nations.
Three
temptations:
The first amounted to the
temptation to do all we can
to fulfill all our earthly
hungers.
The second represented the
temptation to presume God’s will and favor
to be in accord
with our will.
The third meant the temptation to do whatever is necessary
to have all power.
We don’t know from this account what Peter said to Jesus,
but it certainly could be that he was
trying to convince Jesus
to bring about His kingdom by
way of “human thinking,”
by creating
wealth to satisfy all of the physical needs
of the people,
by exerting His
authority over God’s will and favor,
and by extolling His
fame from gaining power over all.
What more could
a person, and his closest friends, want?
Truly Jesus was
seeing Satan acting through Peter,
and he was addressing Satan directly,
“Get behind me,
Satan.”
Jesus was saying,
“Get out of here! I have already dealt
with you.
We have already fought this
battle. And I have won.
This is not
going to play out according to your plan!”
III
So where are we in this
story?
We are definitely Peter and
the disciples in three aspects:
1. We must know that Jesus
is the Messiah and act accordingly.
Praise Him every day, thank Him for every day
and follow
his will.
2. We must resist the
temptations of Satan. How do we do that?
**Coyotes have been a
problem for sheep ranchers out in Montana.
It seemed that no matter how
well the sheep were guarded,
the coyotes found ways to steal and kill lambs.
Then one of the shepherds
discovered llamas.
The llama is a
funny-looking,
aggressive and
afraid-of-nothing animal.
When llamas see something of
interest,
they raise their
heads and walk straight for it.
A coyote recognizes this as
aggressive behavior
and will have nothing to do with it.
Coyotes are opportunists,
and llamas take away
the opportunity to attack a herd.
Apparently llamas know the
truth of what James wrote in his letter:
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (4:7)
We must tell Satan to get
behind us, as Jesus did.
3. We, like Peter and the
disciples, must think as God does.
The path to God’s kingdom is
not one that
fulfills our every desire for pleasure,
gives us the authority over all
and is littered with all the signs of our fame and fortune.
That would be thinking like
a human being.
Jesus is challenging us like
he challenged Peter and the disciples
to think like God – to deny ourselves,
to take up our cross and to follow Him.
We must deny ourselves, that is not give
in to every desire.
To practice self-denial
for that bigger house,
for that better-paying job,
for that bigger spread at the table
is to be better ready for leaner times in
God’s plan,
when denial is not self-imposed.
We must take up our crosses,
not just leave them lying someplace.
To take up the cross
of providing more support for the poor,
of spending more time visiting relatives,
of forgiving someone who has hurt us,
is to be better prepared to bear the crosses in
God’s plan
that we have no control over.
We must follow the path of Jesus,
not that presented by Satan.
***I’ll leave you with this
little piece on dealing with temptation
and the path of Satan written by Portia Nelson entitled,
“Autobiography in Five Short Chapters.”
Chapter 1: I walk down the
street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in.
I am lost….. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter 2: I walk down the
same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again, I
can’t believe that I am in the same place,
but it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter 3: I walk down the
same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there.
I still fall in…. It’s a habit. My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault and I get out immediately.
Chapter 4: I walk down the
same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.
Chapter 5: I walk down
another street.
*John W
Martens in “The Things of God” America,
August 31-September 7, 2015 p 42
** Craig Brian
Larson, “750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, teachers and Writers” Baker
Books, Grand Rapids, MI p 570 # 713
*** Ibid p 569 # 713
