Overlooking the Physical

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

OVERLOOKING THE PHYSICAL

Matt 16:21-23

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" 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 things of God, but the things of men." 

NIV

This is certainly the truth of God for his people, which definitely includes us. It becomes all too easy to relate to God on a human level. Here we have Peter who was the man who walked on the water, defying the laws of physics, although not for too long until Jesus walked with him back to the boat. Peter was the first to proclaim that Jesus was the Son of the Living God, the Christ. Yet Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan!” How can that be? Although Peter recognized that Jesus was the Christ, he was still relating to him in his humanity, seeing the physical Jesus, but not seeing the spiritual Jesus. Peter may not have actually understood at this time Jesus had always existed as God and he was in fact the creator of all that was created. Certainly they all got it eventually. We just have to read their letters to the churches and the four gospel accounts to know they got it, who he really was, but it seems they did not while he was still with them. How does this apply to our lives? Do we bring Jesus down to our human level? Do we humanize him too much? Yes he was fully man, but also fully God. Do we just pass that off as a mystery, “mysterium Fidei” the mystery of the faith, or in some sense the mystery of God? Are we not to understand God? It would appear God desires for us to know him completely, seeing with spiritual eyes, not with human understanding. We cannot fully explain God on a human level. Jesus was here for a special purpose, to redeem all mankind to himself. He was the only one who could satisfy his own need for Justice. Yes we talk about God the Father sending his Son to pay the price for sin. But in all reality God came himself to satisfy his own need for justice. Man can never satisfy that need. Man cannot do anything which fulfills God's demand for justice. Sin had to be atoned for once and for all, so that man could be returned to his rightful fellowship with God. Even though we cannot be perfect in our flesh, we can be in our spirit. This is the argument Paul was making when he said that what he wants to do he does not and what he does not want to do he does. He cannot, nor we, be perfect in the flesh, we will always have evil right there with us, sin. But in the spiritual realm of God, in the spiritual we are already made perfect. As Peter needed to see Jesus spiritually rather than physically, we need to see Jesus the same way. Sometimes we look at him as a man who was tempted by all the human temptations, which he was, no question about that, for we were told so.

Heb 2:14-18

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted , he is able to help those who are being tempted.

NIV

Heb 4:14-16

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

NIV

But we cannot ever forget that he is also God, for in the beginning the word was with God and is God.

John 1:1-2

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

NIV

How then can we see Jesus as Peter was seeing him at this moment when he refused to accept what Jesus was telling him about being killed and then raised up in the third day?  Did Peter not understand that Jesus said in the same breath that he even though he would be killed, he would come back to life? Is it any wonder Jesus demanded that Satan get behind him? This is the plot of Satan in its fullest. He wants people to think God is dead. We know that is not true, but yet we also cannot humanize Jesus too much either. He is God and he is alive and well sitting in heaven waiting for the moment to gather his people to himself. Yes, there is the Father and the Son and now we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, not just among us, but within us. That would be easy to dismiss as a mystery as well. How can God live inside of us? How can he live in every believer at the same time? When we look with physical eyes, endeavor to understand with human minds, we fail to grasp the fullness of the truth of God. We are no better than Peter was at the moment of this exchange between him and Jesus. We ask ourselves how can we have the Holy Spirit living inside us and still sin. How is that possible? We would think that if God is living in us, we would not sin at all. How can we sin knowing the Spirit is right their within us? Are we not offending him in the midst of our sin? Yet he already paid the price for that sin, not just our past sin, but our present and future sin. However we are also told that we should not continue to sin just so his grace may abound.

Rom 6:1-4

6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

NIV

Again we would have to include all of this Romans' six to get all of the teaching, but the point is there is a difference between living in sin, and failing to be perfect, while at the same time in the spiritual realm of God, we are already made perfect. It still comes down to ridding ourselves of the physical realm and seeing in the spiritually realm. Peter was not ready or able to do that when he told Jesus, “Never, Lord, this shall never happen to you”. Peter finally got past that moment. We have to get past the physical as well. We must always think in the spiritual, for it is in this reality the Spirit leads us into all truth. Therefor we must overlook the physical.