Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

oops, 2 days in a row

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."

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.

Sometimes I don’t really hear a friend’s argument until he shouts at me, and I realize he’s angry. Then I hear and understand.

I wonder if Peter was astonished at the Lord’s sudden outburst. Moments before, as we heard last Sunday, Jesus had conferred on him great authority:

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

These words seem to come out of the sky, as “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” had once been heard. In future centuries these very words about Peter will be chiseled over church entrances for all the world to read. Parents will read them to their children and their children’s children and tremble at their import. Perhaps the rush of authority went to Peter’s head. Perhaps he believed he could now advise Jesus on certain matters. Hadn’t he just been consulted about Jesus’ public image? (“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”) All this talk about torture and death sounded pretty negative. It was downright gloom and doom, and certainly no way to maintain the morale of the cadre around him.

But suddenly Jesus was lashing out against Peter, “Satan!” And then Jesus spoke directly to his disciples again, as if Peter were no longer spokesman or chief disciple of the group. If anything he was now the whipping boy as the Master specifically rebuked this kind of behavior. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” 

“Dear Peter," I want to say, "it’s not going to get any easier. Get used to it.” To be a disciple of Jesus we must learn to see as God sees and think as God thinks. We will have to forget ourselves even as God forgets himself, and that is a total sacrifice beyond all imagining.

Six days later Peter would ascend a high mountain and see Jesus transfigured, in the company of Moses and Elijah. Any thought of advising the Lord should be banished from his mind:

Who has directed the spirit of the LORD,

or instructed him as his counselor?

Whom did he consult to gain knowledge?

Who taught him the path of judgment,

or showed him the way of understanding?

                Isaiah 40

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man,
   I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
   Tell me, if you have understanding.

                Job 38

Each one of us finally must learn to let God be God. Life is so much simpler after that.