Peter gets it wrong and Jesus gets angry

Jesus was angry with Peter. He spoke his anger aloud, denouncing Peter, calling him a stumbling block and accusing him of working on behalf of Satan. Some people are surprised by this, because they think that anger is a sin. It can't be sinful because God himself is described as being angry. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel describe him as being furious with the sins of certain nations.

Jesus knew why he was angry. Some of us when we get angry are rather confused, we know what made us angry but cannot explain why it did so. Jesus explains what has angered him in three short sentences. Peter is not following Jesus, Peter is trying to interfere with the decision Jesus has made, Peter has got his mind fixed in the wrong direction.

Jesus is redemptive in his anger because he expresses both his anger and the reason for it, showing Peter what Peter has to change. If Peter changes those things, then Jesus is no longer angry. Peter has been restored to divine acceptance. He has been made aware of the mistakes he was making and rescued from the consequence of them. So even the anger of God
serves his good purposes towards us.

Parents, pastors and conscientious people get angry when something other than good is being practiced or contemplated. We speak up and speak out, denouncing the destructive actions. The result is that children, congregations and society are surprised, even offended. They had believed that our duties were limited to acceptance and affirmation. We can continue to speak up or we can become silent but silence in the face of danger is not redemptive. Jesus preached that God is willing to accept us and invites us to share in all the goodness of God. However Jesus also warned people and denounced certain kinds of conduct. He was angry when people were callous towards human suffering and he clearly demonstrated his anger towards religious people who corrupted religion for their personal profit and power.

It is interesting that people are willing to read all the warnings about health risks, and will spend hours investigating financial risks but the same people will raise their voice in anger if someone warns them about the risk of offending God.

Jesus needs to speak firmly because he has chosen martyrdom and it is essential that he concentrate all his thoughts on his purpose and plan. Any distraction will make it harder for him to carry out his intention. Peter cannot understand that; because he does not know what will happen in Jerusalem in a few weeks. His other offence is almost as hard for him to understand: Jesus tells him that he has got his mind fixed in the wrong direction, he is thinking about earthly things instead of divine things. At first sight this seems a bit like telling fish hatched and living in a small gold-fish tank that they must think about the ocean.

Matthew 16:21-28[21] From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. [22] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." [23] But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Keeping God Alive

Man-made gods die once a year. On the darkest day of the year, when the sun shines for the shortest time, it becomes necessary to save the earth from death, and the sun-god's people must find some way to encourage the sun to shine again and to call back their departed god.

Other man-made gods die as their maker's ability to sustain them dwindles. Their territory invaded by people who worship other god's, their temples destroyed and their oracles spurned they fade into history. Only their memory and the stories devised by their makers remain.

The Jewish God never dies. Not needing the support of man's imagination, he is free to be hidden, or inaccessible. He never goes away.

Would Jesus die? The Jewish God did not die, the other gods died often, what would happen if God-made-visible-in-Jesus died?

If he were to die, thought Peter, then all his power to reveal God and heal humanity would also die. Peter would have left his fishing industry and devoted years of his life to nothing. That must never be; Peter must prevent it. He, Peter, had been pronounced blessed by Jesus. Peter's strong statement of faith when he declared that Jesus was the son of living God, had placed him at the head of the band of disciples, therefore he could begin to act as chief counsellor to Jesus. He would be advised by and advise Jesus as they both began their God-empowered drive to impose God's law on Peter's nation and all other nations.

Under the rule of Jesus and Peter, (and perhaps some of the others) all people would live moral lives and God would be pleased and peace would prevail, and prosperity would follow.

Peter spoke urgently to Jesus, explaining that God himself would not be served if Jesus gave up the fight at this point. "This must not happen!" he cried. Jesus replied, and Peter stood gasping, amazed and frightened by what he began to say. .

Matthew 16:21-28[21] From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. [22] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." [23] But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

An Audacious Thing To Say

Peter, one of the twelve men who constantly accompanied Jesus, must have often wondered why Jesus had announced that his name would change. Peter had a good name to begin with, it was Simon, a Greek version of the name given to one of Abraham's grandsons. The new name was not particularly well-known, he was to be called 'Rock.'

Peter was perhaps more concerned with the real name of Jesus. John the Baptist had called Jesus 'The lamb of God'. Peter's brother Andrew had called him 'The Messiah' who did Peter think Jesus was?

Jesus sprang that question on the whole group one day. "Who do people say that I am?" and the answers were easy because the disciples listened to the people in the crowds around Jesus. "They say you are one of our great prophets come back from the dead." But who do you say I am?" Jesus asked the group and it was Peter who answered. You are the Christ, the son of the living God.
It was then that Jesus reminded Peter of his own name change. "You are Rock," Jesus said, "you have received this knowledge by revelation of God"

We have no idea of Peter's reaction at this time, but it cannot have been casual because he had just separated himself from all his relatives and neighbors. They would consider he had committed blasphemy because there is only one God and no other God besides him. God did not have a son in the sense that people would understand Peter's words.

Jesus immediately announced that the church he was building would be a group of people whose lives were founded on the truth that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. Since that time people have used many words to explain that God is tri-une, one God known to us as Creator, Companion and Redeemer. None of the words were sufficient, often the words tried to simplify something which cannot be simplified and caused misunderstandings. It took many words to say what the foundational truth of Christianity was; eventually the church spelt it out. Church leaders came from all over the known world and sat down together, they decided how to say who Jesus is and were challenged, and had to meet again and be even stronger in their use of words. What they said was that "Jesus is born of God, born before all worlds, not created, but of the same divine substance as God." Saying that he is born did not mean that there was a time when the son did not exist, but that he is eternally born of God in the same way that the Spirit is eternally preceding from God.

Peter was long dead when the leaders of many national churches made this statement, before then people accepted that because Jesus forgave sins, accepted worship, and referred to himself using the name for God, (I am) he was God come down from heaven for us and for our sake. Just as we do to day.

Peter never lost his national identity, he remained a Jew, a Jew who believed that God is tri-une. He took all the rich truths of his religion and aligned them with the revelation he had received. He was not alone, beginning in Jerusalem, then in Samaria, then in the farthest parts of the known world people believed in their hearts and declared with their mouths that Jesus is the Son of God. Because their sincere faith and public declaration made them partakers of the nature of Jesus, by an act of God, they became a family, they are not 'The Son of God.' but are called children of God.

Matthew 16:13-20[13] Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" [14] And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." [15] He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" [16] Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." [17] And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. [18] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. [19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." [20] Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Looking for a sign

There is a little wooden church building standing beside the main road on the way to Hemet in California. The large notice board outside is easy to read while driving past. One Sunday it read 'Are you looking for a sign? - This is it!'

'Give me a sign and I'll believe.' is what some people still say today. They have signs; a great outpouring of signs, because all the acts of Jesus during his public ministry were signs. Every act pointed to God and God's divine intentions. The men who challenged Jesus to prove himself, had not seen those signs, and would not have recognised them if they had. Signs have to be read. Actually these men hoped that Jesus wouldn't do anything that convinced them about the truthfulness of his statements.

Well, they got what they wanted, the opposite to the thing they asked for. Jesus refused to do signs for them, but told them to look for the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah, you remember, was the man who was three days in the belly of a great fish and who was eventually heaved out of the fish onto the beach. How could that story be a sign? I can only imagine the triumph and the self-congratulation of those men who would report the encounter and say that Jesus had not been able to convince them.

The coming to life of Jesus three days after his death and burial is the greatest sign that all humanity could ask for. The resurrection is a sign to all people that what Jesus said was true. God himself gave the confirmation. Jesus worked no magic, he was truly dead, even the Romans confirmed it He died as dependent upon the goodness of God as we shall die. It was God who reached down to the dead body and made it alive. This act of God was God's great sign that Jesus spoke the truth. It is also a sign to all humanity that we too shall live. God will raise us up to encounter him.

So the men who challenged Jesus got more than a sign, they got the great sign. But they probably weren't looking. They were part of the group that paid the grave-side guard to say that someone stole the body of Jesus away. The men who challenged Jesus weren't in the right place to see the sign. They were not sitting in a locked room with 11 other people when Jesus stood in the midst of them. They were not in Galilee with five hundred other people when Jesus showed himself to them. They didn't hear Jesus call out Mary's name in the cemetery. They didn't want to believe and they took care to keep company only with others who didn't want to believe. Too much was at stake.

It is still so; so much is at stake when a person receives the sign that confirms the truthfulness of Jesus. If those men had believed, it would have cost them their position in the religious society they lived in. They were already praying people, God respecting people, diligent about keeping their religious laws, but they had shaped faith to their own convenience. God frequently challenges mistaken faith and only the brave can face the challenge. For the rest there is too much at stake.

Matthew 16:1- 4 Revised Standard Version. The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2He answered them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' 3And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah." Then he left them and went away.

Refusing rejection and rejecting refusal.

She wasn't a Jew, and Jesus was a Jewish preacher, come up north to find and teach Jewish expatriates. Such things didn't matter to her, she was convinced that Jesus could make her sick daughter well, and she followed him in the street, shouting to him to heal her daughter. Jesus didn't answer her. He, the savior of the world, the man come to give life to who ever wanted it, didn't answer her a word, and the disciples weary after a day of assisting him to teach, wanted Jesus to tell her to go away. Eventually he explained, he was a Jewish preacher and his message was only for the Jews. She took no notice, but knelt before him obstructing his path, and begging him to heal her daughter. Jesus must step round her or attend to her. Strongly now he explains that he is there for the Jews and for them only. His answer would have snubbed anyone but this woman. She refuses to be snubbed or silenced, she argues with this teacher come from God and takes his own arguments against, and turns them into reasons for, the healing of her child.

I interpret this story in a new way now, because the world I live in is sick. Anger has turned into hate and hatred is truly the torment of a demon. Fear and greed have turned into violence and violence is demonic. Like this woman long ago I pray continually for the healing of this broken world. I know it is impossible, hatred has been nurtured and fears fed. Nevertheless I call out for the healing of our world. Others may have heard an answer, but I have only heard silence. Our world is bleeding, our youths are broken, their futures ruined. Children are being killed. God stop the madness! Stop the madness of people who profess to trust and serve you. This woman from long ago, called Jesus, 'Son of David' she knew some of the sacred history. In the Bible I find answers. God is the king of kings, he establishes thrones and casts down evil doers. So I cry with faith. I cry to him, and I cry to myself, because of what has happened to the beauty we were cultivating in our world. Like the woman long ago, we must continue asking for the impossible, never accepting reasons why it cannot be, and never allowing the difficulties of the situation to silence us. God can heal, he can heal miraculously, he can heal quickly. Let us continue kneeling before him.

Matthew 15:21-28[21] Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. [22] Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." [23] But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." [24] He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." [25] But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." [26] He answered, "It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs." [27] She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." [28] Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instant

Getting into trouble with her Mum

They sat outside the ice-cream shop, two girls and a boy, wearing the blue plaid skirts and tie that denoted the local Catholic private school. They looked about 12 years old, waiting for their respective parents to come and pick them up. I barged into their conversation, understand I am overweight, gray haired and very plain, here I was talking to these diminutive not yet adult people and they didn't even look shocked. Thing was, I couldn't stand the understatement that came from one of the girls, I just had to update the conversation a little. "..and besides," she was saying, "how did they know Mary was a virgin?" Mm, I'd never heard it put that way before. I waited to hear how her friends answered her. "Maybe," said the other girl, "she just got pregnant and went home and told her Mom that God did it, because she was afraid she would get into trouble." It was the 'getting into trouble' bit that did it. Mary, growing up in a strict Jewish community in the pre common era, getting into trouble with her Mum was such culture confusion, that I couldn't resist butting in. I stopped in the doorway of the ice-cream shop and went back to their table. "It wouldn't have just been getting into trouble with her Mum, I said." and was relieved to see that the three faces looked as though they were interested, in those days if a girl got pregnant without being married, they took her into the street and threw stones at her till she died, they still do it today in some countries."
Then I grinned and left, but I was surprised and delighted to hear one of the three call out after me. "Thank you." I don't think I helped convince them about the virginity of Mary, but at least they were just a little bit more aware of what it cost a teen-age girl long ago to say to the angel Gabriel, "Let it happen as you say, I am the maid-servant of the Lord."

Luke chapter 1 verses 26 - 38

FAITH: God was here and I didn't know

God was here and I didn't know said young Jacob. Third generation from Abraham he knew about God but he had a big choice of gods and hadn't yet chosen to unite with the true God.

God is not unavailable, he is not in hiding. Our task is not to find God but to be able to recognise him and his activity.

Jacob had a dream which he called a vision, he could just as easily have dismissed it, but the dream spoke to him so strongly that he knew that God had visited him in his sleep. That's a little unexpected because Jacob had done nothing to deserve a visit from God, in fact he had done a lot that we would expect to put him out of favor with God. He had deliberately and meticulously deceived his father and twice taken harmful advantage of his brother. His brother was so angry with him that he wanted to kill him. Jacob was making a long journey to get away from his brother.

Our life's task is not to find God because God is already present. The time comes in some lives when circumstances help us open our eyes to the presence of God.

God has purpose and intention to unite with his absentee children and to involve them in his plans for the restoration of all things. That intention is directly focused on you, the reader. Only one person can frustrate his intention - you.

Genesis 28: 16-21

FAITH: It's all around

Circumstances make a difference. The gift of faith in Jesus is scattered all around but that doesn't mean everyone receives it. Some people never notice it; it's a language they haven't learned. Some people have the beginnings of faith but loose it easily, they want a god made after their own imagination and when that doesn't happen they give up believing. Then there are the people (lots of them) who receive faith eagerly and are proud to have faith and even think of trying to develop it, but life is too complicated, too demanding, too crowded; faith gets pushed away; it is true that they value faith and wish they could attend to their faith needs but before then they have to work and play and earn and spend. There is another group, the people who believe. For them the opportunity to believe is something to be grasped eagerly. They start and continue to believe, finding answers to their questions as they continue to trust God. The harder their circumstances the more they nurture their faith with times of fasting and praying and meeting together to understand the scripture.

Faith is a gift from God, he makes it available to all people. Who receives faith depends partly on a person's attitude to faith. Whether they keep faith partly depends on how carefully they nurture their faith.


Matthew 13:18 (NRSV)
18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”