What did you call me?! Why building the church sometimes requires a harsh word

“What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered. “You’re the Messiah,” he said. “You’re the son of the living God!” God’s blessings on you, Simon, son of John!” answered Jesus. “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you; it was my father in heaven. And I’ve got something to tell you, too: you are Peter, the rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell won’t overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you tie up on earth will have been tied up in heaven, and whatever you untie on earth will have been untied in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From then on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he would have to go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. Peter took him and began to tell him off. “That’s the last thing that God would want, Master!” he said. “That’s never, ever going to happen to you!” Jesus turned on Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You’re trying to trip me up! You’re not looking at things like God does! You’re looking at things like a mere mortal!” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, they must give themselves up, and pick up their cross, and follow me.”

Matthew 16:15-24 (KNT)

I recently purchased a new English translation of the New Testament called the Kingdom New Testament.  I’ve been delighted with how its translator, N.T. Wright, executes some of my favorite passages from the gospels. In fact, Wright’s rendering of the text in Matthew 16 is easily the clearest and most effective rendition of this story I’ve found in any version of the Bible. The NIV, ESV, NASB, NKJV, or NRSV can’t even touch it. Well done Dr. Wright!

Reading Matthew 16 in this brand new edition has helped me gain something fresh from this well known story.  Jesus’ founding of the church under the headship of Peter and Peter’s subsequent rejection of Jesus’ bloody mission is back to back in Matthew’s narrative. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. The Lord is teaching us something here about the way he builds his church, the power his church is supposed to have, the way of suffering that is necessary for his church, and the failure the church experiences when it forgets to look at things like God does.

Peter’s pronouncement that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God, puts Peter in a very good light doesn’t it? He “gets it” we assume, deducing that Jesus is handing over the management of the kingdom to him because of this praiseworthy revelation. If I were Peter I would have been overwhelmed with what Jesus was saying. What encouragement! The Lord was affirming that he would be the stable and sturdy leader of the unconquerable, hell-proof, “new thing” God was bringing about. But to build this “new thing” and to see that it truly had the power he was speaking of, Jesus would need to teach Peter and the rest an important lesson. In truth, they didn’t “get it.”

It is frighteningly easy for the church to be the opposite of what it truly wants to be when it forgets what Jesus was all about. It doesn’t take long when one reads the gospels to see that Jesus’ primary mission was to delight his father by doing his will. And as we come to find out, the father’s will means great sorrow and intense pain for his son.  Peter simply didn’t understand yet what Jesus was here for.

Peter assumes that God would never want his beloved Messiah to suffer, much less die! He also didn’t understand that in order for the church to stand firm against the gates of hell (like Jesus said it would) it would need to be made up of men and women who imitate the way Jesus lived and therefore learn to give themselves up.  Jesus would need to show that God’s will for overpowering hell was exhibited in weakness, not strength; in losing, not winning; in suffering, not pleasure-seeking; in dying, not living.

It’s always been bewildering to me that Jesus would be exalting Peter as the leader of his people one minute, and calling him the adversary of God and man a few sentences later. A bit harsh aren’t we Jesus? A tad paradoxical to say the least. Peter had no intention, after all, of trying to trip Jesus up. I’m now beginning to see, however, that these sort of unsympathetic rebukes from our Lord are every bit as necessary for the church and its leaders as his encouragement. When we don’t yet understand, we need our Lord to do this for us. When we get off track, we need him to do this for us. It’s what will make his church powerful. We need to know when the enemy has wormed his way in.

As God’s church, we simply don’t get to do whatever we want to with our lives. Peter thought he knew what shape Christ’s life should take. If we are truly proclaiming that we want to come after him, we are going to have to let Christ show us all that he is so that we will know what shape and direction our lives should take. For Peter it meant letting go of a misunderstanding of the nature of the Messiah and what victory over evil looks like. We need to think about what that means for us. Jesus has pioneered a path for us that brings delight to the father. Thankfully, he will let us know when we’re inadvertently tripping each other up.