Blessed, Scolded, Humbled - Jesus And Peter

As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Mark 8:32-33

Any good football coach knows the importance of balancing words of praise with words of criticism. He knows that if he doesn’t regularly build up his players, they will lose confidence. He also knows that if he doesn’t humble them once in a while, they will become overconfident and start accepting their errors.

In a matter of just a few moments, Peter experienced both ends of the continuum.

Peter must have felt great when Jesus publicly blessed him for his God-given insight into the Master’s true identity. In the next second, Peter showed that he needed to be knocked down a peg.

Jesus stunned the disciples when he told them that he was going to Jerusalem to suffer and die and then be raised from the dead three days later. None of them expected to hear such a thing, especially Peter. He took Jesus aside and privately scolded him for suggesting it.

Jesus could not let Peter stray so far out of line. He wouldn’t allow him or any of the disciples to act as roadblocks in the path God had set before him. So he gave Peter a strong and stinging reprimand: “Get away from me, Satan!”

He didn’t mean it as a compliment.

Jesus knew that Peter had failed to see things from an eternal perspective. He hadn’t yet grasped the idea that though Jesus was the conquering King, he was also the suffering Servant. To fulfill Scripture, he had to endure the awful things he had just described.

Jesus had called Peter to play a big part of his mission, but before the burly fisherman could play that part, he needed to humbly trust and obey his Lord. That meant remembering that the Master knew better than anyone what he was doing.

When God has to reprimand you for some misstep, his words of discipline aren’t meant to tear you down but to remind you why you’re here. You are his representative on earth; he is not your servant in heaven.