Matthew 16:23

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

From Background Notes [BN] for August 24^th & 25^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

That is, Peter is weighing the gains and losses involved in the prospect that Jesus would end up dead. We might even translate this text as, “You are looking at your bottom line, but not God’s bottom line by opposing my decision to die.”

By telling Peter to “get behind me,” Jesus is saying, “after me, Peter, not in front of me!” The Greek word for “behind” is the same as “after” in the wording of Matthew 16:24. By refusing Jesus’ road to the cross, Peter was getting ahead of Jesus, trying to show Jesus the way, rather than getting behind Jesus and following his example. By being ahead of Jesus, Peter was Satan, a word commonly associated with the Devil, God’s arch-enemy, but which essentially means, “one who stands opposed; the adversary.” For Peter, priorities are backwards from the economics of the Kingdom that Jesus was announcing. [BN,3]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm