I once made my wife cry over sushi.
I started that night as the hero. I made the reservation. I bought her flowers. I even called the sitter. About fifteen minutes in, she was in tears. Instead of telling her she looked beautiful, I handed her a report card on life at home. All she heard was “you’re doing a terrible job.” Her tears were seasoning the shoyu.
Hero to villain in fifteen minutes. Peter did it faster. In Matthew 16 he goes from solid rock to stumbling block in about seventeen seconds, and Jesus answers him with one of the hardest lines in the Gospels: “Get behind me, Satan!”
What does “Get behind me, Satan” mean?
In Matthew 16:23, Jesus says “Get behind me, Satan!” to Peter after Peter pulls him aside and rebukes him for saying he will die in Jerusalem. Peter said it out of love, but his words were doing Satan’s work: trying to steer Jesus away from the cross, the same thing Satan tried in the wilderness. “Get behind me” also means “get back in line.” Peter had stepped out in front to lead, and Jesus called him back to his place as a follower.
Peter had the right answer and the wrong agenda
A few verses earlier, Peter nails it. Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus calls him blessed.
Then Jesus tells them what that means. Matthew says Jesus began to explain “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21).
Peter takes him aside. I picture it like this: “Hey, Jesus. Real quick. I’m on board with the whole Messiah thing. I’m your guy. But not the cross. Not death, man. Let me tell you why.” Matthew gives us the short version: “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!”
Peter has Jesus’ job title right. He has the job description wrong.
The problem is his worldview. Peter expected the Son of David to drive Rome out and set up his kingdom in Jerusalem. A Messiah who gets killed didn’t fit. Peter would have loved Jesus right off the road to the cross. If Peter gets his way, there is no Lamb who was slain.
Jesus had said nearly the same thing to the devil in the wilderness: “Away from me, Satan!” (Matthew 4:10). Satan couldn’t stop Jesus head-on, so now he tries through one of his closest friends. Jesus names it: “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
I know that sounds harsh. It is harsh. And family, you and I do the same thing. We can say the right words about Jesus with our mouth and still resist the way of Jesus with our life. Right words, wrong way.
“Get behind me” is also an invitation to follow
In Greek, the “behind me” of verse 23 is the same phrase Jesus uses in the next verse for following him, literally “come after me.” It’s also what Jesus said when he first called Peter by the Sea of Galilee: “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19).
So it’s a rebuke. A disciple is telling the Messiah how to do his job. It’s also a call back to his right place. Get back in line. Follow me.
Then he turns to all of them: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (16:24).
We hear “take up your cross” and shrink it down to whatever is bugging us this week. Rome used crucifixion on slaves and rebels, and it was built to shame. When the disciples pictured a man hauling a beam down the street, they pictured pain and mockery. Jesus says, identify with that. Church history says many of them died for him.
We want the crown without the cross. And we take Jesus aside all the time.
My plans are pretty solid, church. Colored arrows. A slide deck that will blow your mind. I’ve caught myself with my arm around Jesus’ shoulder: “Real quick, let me tell you how I think this should go.”
Maybe yours is the calendar. Jesus, you can have everything but the kids’ sports schedule and my Saturday mornings. The gospel affects your Tuesday, and it affects your Saturday morning too.
For some of us it’s money. “I’ll be generous once I’m stable,” and we never get around to defining stable. He owns it all, so he leads it all.
Maybe it’s comfort. I’ll follow you, Jesus, just not into a life group. They ask too many questions, and the guy’s house doesn’t even have AC.
Our culture says be true to yourself. Jesus says you find yourself by denying yourself. Who designed us is the one who defines us.
Nothing you lose for Jesus compares to what you gain
I wonder if Peter only heard half of verse 21. “I’m going to Jerusalem, and I’m going to die.” He missed the ending: “and on the third day be raised to life.”
We do that too. All we hear is deny, lose, give it up, and now life is going to be so boring. But Jesus keeps going: “Whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (16:25-26).
Verse 28 is a hard one, and as a Bible teacher, I’ll admit I don’t fully grasp it. It could point to the resurrection, the fall of Jerusalem, the second coming, or the Transfiguration in the next chapter. Probably some combination. I am confident of this much: death is never the end of the story. The cross isn’t either. The empty tomb is where it keeps going.
C.S. Lewis put it this way: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” You can get everything you want in this life and still miss the peace your soul was made for. In Jesus you gain peace you can’t explain, joy that doesn’t depend on circumstances, freedom from shame, and a Father who rewards what nobody else sees.
Try this today. Finish this sentence honestly: “Jesus, real quick, can I tell you how I think ______ should go?” Your schedule. Your money. Your next five years. That person you said you’d never forgive. Write it down. Then pray it the other way around: “Jesus, what do you have for this?” And step back behind him.
Your Father is a good Father, and he doesn’t hold back good things from you. Don’t stop reading at “deny yourself.” Keep going until you get to “raised to life.”
You can watch the full message, “Right Words, Wrong Way,” on our sermons page. And if you’re in Hawaii Kai, come sit with us Sunday at 9 AM at Kaiser High School. See you Sunday.