Arguing With Jesus

The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things. . . . He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.   Luke 9:22

Having grasped who Jesus was, Peter found the idea of his suffering and dying unthinkable. Peter was outraged. He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him: “Heaven forbid, Lord. . . . This will never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22). The other disciples must have stood frozen in their tracks, wondering what would happen next.

Then Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s” (Matthew 16:23). Peter’s great confession of faith was immediately followed by an argument in which Peter acted not as Jesus’ disciple, but as his adversary (that’s the meaning of the name Satan).

Jesus went on to tell the disciples plainly that if they were serious about following him, they would also have their share of suffering: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). But Peter remained utterly opposed to the idea of Jesus’ suffering and dying.

None of us find it easy to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Like Peter, we sometimes resist when Christ’s way seems costly. There is no indication that this tense exchange was resolved. Luke skips over several days in the life of Jesus, and the other Gospel writers do the same. The text resumes with, “About eight days later . . .” (Luke 9:28).

These were probably among the saddest days in the life of Jesus. Jesus moved forward in a direction the disciples did not want to go. He was determined to go to the cross; they were equally determined that it should not be so.

Like those disciples, we experience times in the Christian life when we follow Christ without a glad heart because we don’t like the direction he is taking us. But there is no greater encouragement when you feel the cost of following Christ than to look ahead and see where your painful path will end.

For further reading, see Matthew 16