Peter here gives us an example of how we can be both very right and very wrong at much the same time. On the one hand, he identifies Jesus as the promised Messiah rather than just mimicking what others might have thought. As always, it is what we think of Jesus that shapes our destinies, not what others may think. On the other hand, he puts his foot in it by telling Jesus that all this talk about a Messiah dying was mistaken. Jesus’ rebuke of him may seem severe, but Jesus had been tempted to be a nonsuffering Messiah and Peter’s well-meaning words could have been used by the evil one to seduce Jesus into taking an easier road.

Peter figured Jesus to be the Messiah, but he didn’t want Jesus to be that sort of Messiah. We too can try to tame Jesus into being our sort of Saviour, a house-trained Messiah who will jump to our commands and desires. Jesus stubbornly insists on taking the hard road and thus carrying out his rescue mission for lost humankind. He won’t become our wise teacher or moral guardian or radical gadfly.

Meantime, this perceptive yet thick headed Peter is to be the human rock on which the church is founded. If we ever wonder why the church is such a mixture of the sublimely good and the embarrassingly bad, consider Peter. Spot on one minute, in the divine doghouse the next. So how come this sort of mixed-up man and the many mixed up human beings who comprise the church will defeat all that the evil one throws at it? Because behind the sometimes-flaky sandstone of Peter and his ilk, there is the solid granite mass of God who delights in using imperfect people for his perfect purposes.

Blessings,

David

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