Thinking of

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

THINKING OF

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

From what Matthew records for us, Jesus could not be any clearer as to what must happen to him. He was not telling his disciples to frighten them, but to inform them that all this must take place, but not to worry, because he will be raised to life. Certainly, they have witnessed Jesus bringing a little girl back to life. Although Matthew does not record the account that John does about Jesus calling Lazarus from the grave, it must have already happened. However, Peter, who we can identify with at times, could not understand with his spirit, but only with his earthly thinking. We would think that if Jesus can raise people from the dead, that he could rise from the dead whenever he wanted to, although to fulfill that which was spoken about him by the prophets, he would stay in the grave three days. It is interesting that Jesus told Peter that upon this rock he would build his church, and this is the same Peter who walked with Jesus on the water, that now Jesus calls him Satan, at least it looks like that is what he is calling him. We doubt that Jesus is calling Peter Satan, but the words, the thoughts, of Peter stem from the influence of Satan. We say that as long as we have the Spirit dwelling within us, Satan cannot dwell within us, as in we cannot serve two masters. However, we are still subject to his tempting us to think the things of men, rather than the things of God. We should remember that Peter had yet been baptized with the Spirit and thus it would be easy for him to think like men. When Peter made that statement about Jesus being the Son of the Living God, he was not thinking like a man, but had been revealed that truth by the Spirit, so why now is Peter not being revealed the truth, but rather thinking the things of men rather than God? Does that mean, there could be times when we are being revealed a great truth by the Spirit and turn around sometime later and think about the things of men? Is our fate being this fragile, mortal human being? Can we not always remain pure at heart? We would hate to think that at times we can be so close to God, and then turn and look at the world with wanting in our heart, but that seems to happen at times. It is just because we are human, that we have this duplicity that exists within. Certainly, Peter was not Satan, nor are we, but it is our human thinking that is not in line with the thinking of Jesus. We know that Peter does eventually get it, as did we, however, none of us is spot on all the time and have moments of weakness, as Peter did, as well as all men. That is not an excuse, but we do need to face the reality of the condition of our hearts. Sometimes we think about the things of God and sometimes we think the things of men. Someday that will change forever, but for now, let us pray the things of God are our most dominant thoughts.