Ideas of Men or God

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

IDEAS OF MEN OR GOD

Mark 8:31-38

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." 

NIV

Although this is one whole discourse or teaching, we might need to observe it in two parts. First, this exchange between Peter and Jesus, and second, what Jesus said to the crowd and his disciples. We are not sure if we can do both at the same time, or we need to reserve the second for next time. So let us first note that Jesus was just speaking to his twelve that he had called to be his disciples, who he was pouring all his training into so that on that day when he would be gone, they would carry on the message throughout the world. This would happen, of course, after Jesus had sent the Holy Spirit to give them the power to do what they were trained to do. So, here Jesus does not hold anything back and speaks plainly to them as to what is going to happen. He tells them the exact events that are to take place. What is a bit surprising is that even after Jesus tells them he will be killed, but that after three days he will rise again, Peter still feels the need to rebuke him. It is difficult to understand why Peter would not get the fact that Jesus would be back within just three days. So what is the big deal? Had not Peter been witness to Jesus raising other people from the dead? So why couldn’t Jesus raise himself from the dead? But Peter was not thinking about the things of God, but rather of himself, the things of men. Here is where the rubber meets the road for us. How much do we think about the things of God in comparison to the things of men? That is to say that when something happens in our lives, things that may not seem very pleasant, are we thinking how we are going to resolve it, or deal with it in our human ways, or are we thinking if this as something God is doing in our lives so we will grow more dependent upon him? Is our faith being strengthened, or stretched by some event in our lives?  What about when we become very ill, even to the point of death? Are we thinking as men or as God? What about if someone we love is extremely ill, even to the point of death. Are we thinking that we will now be alone, as men would think, or are we thinking about the things of God? Are we praying for healing so they can stay longer, or are we praying about the things of God? It is a tough call because we do live in this world and we are subject to so many of the things of men. This is our life, our routine if we will, and when it is disturbed, we cannot help but think about how that is going to affect us. This had to be what Peter was thinking. Here he was having been called from his daily life to follow this Jesus, and hear such great teaching and having seen so many miracles, people being healed of all sorts of infirmities and diseases as well as demons being cast out of people, and some being raised from the dead. Peter had been just a simple fisherman, and now he is seen as one of the special disciples of Jesus. Mark does not give us some of the details as some of the other gospel accounts, but most likely Peter had already walk on the water at that time Jesus met them in the boat amidst the storm. So, for Peter, this was going to upset his life, change everything again, and he might have to go back to being just a simple fisherman, for all this would be over, at least in the thinking of men. So he takes Jesus aside, note he does not rebuke Jesus in front of the others. Again, Mark does not give us this reason, but it is either so that the others would not hear him speaking to Jesus, so as to do this in private, not wanting to either embarrass Jesus or not wanting to make a fool of himself in front of the others. Nevertheless, Jesus makes it clear that Peter is speaking from the point of self-interest, “Get behind me Satan”. That is a very strong rebuke from Jesus right back at Peter.  It is to say that when we think like men, or about the things of men, we are being influenced by Satan rather than God? That is a hard thought to ponder. Can we really tell when we are thinking about the things of men and when we are thinking about the things of God? Are we confident of the difference enough to know how each appears in our thoughts? These next words of Jesus about taking up our cross may be of further insight as to how we are to handle the difference, but we must leave that for our next thoughts. But as for now, let us simply consider that we need to be aware of what we think about, the ideas of men, or the ideas of God.