“GET BEHIND ME, SATAN!” —MATTHEW 16:23
I’ve always thought that Jesus was pretty harsh with Peter. I mean, calling him Satan. Wow.
Simon Peter had been having a good day. When Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was, Peter was the only one with the right answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he declared (Matthew 16:16). Jesus complimented him in front of the others saying, “Only my Father in Heaven could have revealed this to you.”
Can you imagine how Peter felt? He must have thought, “Wow! I’ve got divine revelation from God…I must have an inside thing with Him!”
But events took a downturn when Jesus began speaking about His coming suffering and crucifixion. Probably thinking he was hearing from God again, Peter did something astonishing. He took Jesus aside and “began to rebuke Him, saying ‘Far be it from You, Lord: This shall not happen to You!’” (Matthew 16:22).
Yikes! When you feel you can pull Jesus aside to rebuke Him, you’re in trouble.
Jesus answered, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Talk about a stinger! You can’t get any stronger rebuke than that.
How did Peter go from the height of divine revelation to being a mouthpiece for Satan? He made two mistakes.
First, Peter stepped out of line and put himself in authority over Jesus. “Get behind me, Satan,” refers to the spirit operating behind Peter’s words. But it also indicates Peter had put his plans ahead of the Lord’s. That’s never going to work out well.
Second, Jesus said that Peter was thinking from a human perspective and not God’s perspective.
Peter’s insistence that Jesus would not suffer and die did not line up with Scripture, as Isaiah 53 clearly prophesies.
It’s very easy—even for lovers and followers of Jesus—to end up judging and even subtly rebuking Him. Whenever He doesn’t do what we think He should, whenever we put our plans first, whenever we step out of line and try to “lead Jesus,” we fail to think from God’s perspective.
(Martha did that when she chided Jesus for letting Lazarus die; John 11:21).
We don’t always understand where He’s leading us; we might not understand or like some of the things we find in Scripture. But Jesus leads the way. From this place of following Jesus and focusing on the things of God, we are best positioned to hear Him.
