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From Heaven With Love
that hid the future to be withdrawn: “From that time forth began
Jesus to show unto His disciples, how He must go unto Jerusalem,
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
Speechless with grief and amazement, the disciples listened.
Christ had accepted Peter’s acknowledgment of Him as the Son of
God, and now His words pointing to His suffering and death seemed
incomprehensible. Peter could not keep silent. He laid hold on his
Master, as if to draw Him back from His impending doom: “Be it
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far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.”
Peter loved his Lord; but Jesus did not commend him for the
desire to shield Him from suffering. Peter’s words were not a help
and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in
harmony with God’s purpose of grace toward a lost world, nor with
the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own
example. The impression which his words would make was directly
opposed to that which Christ desired to make on the minds of His
followers, and the Saviour was moved to utter one of the sternest
rebukes that ever fell from His lips: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are
a hindrance to Me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.”
RSV.
Satan Was Trying to Get at Christ
Satan was trying to discourage Jesus and turn Him from His
mission, and Peter was giving voice to the temptation. The prince
of evil, the author of the thought, was behind that impulsive appeal.
Satan had offered Christ the dominion of the world on condition of
forsaking the path of humiliation and sacrifice. Now he was seeking
to fix Peter’s gaze on earthly glory, that he might not behold the
cross. Through Peter, he was again pressing the temptation on Jesus.
But the Saviour heeded it not; His thought was for His disciple.
Satan had interposed between Peter and his Master. The words
of Christ were spoken to the one trying to separate him from his
Redeemer: “Get behind Me, Satan.” Let Me come face to face with
Peter, that I may reveal to him the mystery of My love.
It was a bitter lesson, which Peter learned but slowly: the path
of Christ lay through agony and humiliation. But in the heat of the