Mark 8:27-33:
27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" 28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31He 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. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But 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."
Matthew 16:13-17:
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
We now come to the significant occasion when Peter for the first time made an explicit confession of Jesus as Messiah and then came to grasp – after protest – the necessity of the cross. This was the turning point in Jesus’ ministry. Prior to this point, Jesus always had a fierce command to people to keep them silent about the miracles they had seen. It is what is called the “messianic secret.” Jesus did not want people to know the fact of his messiahship until they were ready to grasp its nature. I am not even sure we are ready to grasp the true nature of the messiahship.
Before we come to the confrontation between Jesus and Peter, it may be helpful to fill in some of the hisotrical background. For more than 700 years Israel had been oprressed by the sucessive empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome – except for a brief intoxication period under the Maccabees. At the turn of the first century, a number of apocalyptic movements arose, whose leaders made wild promises. Yahweh was about to intervene through the Messiah, they said; Israel’s enemies would be destoyed in a violent and bloody conflict, and the messianic age of peace and freedom would dawn.
Galilee itself was a hotbed of such expectations, and some were focusing their hope on Jesus of Nazareth. Thus John records that “Jesus, kowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (John 6:15). But Jesus had not come to be some kind of military Messiah. Hence the command to silence.
But now, once Peter had confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the disciples should be ready to learn about the sufferings of the Messiah. So Jesus “began to teach them [it was a new instruction] that the Son of Man must suffer many things and…..be killed” (Mark 8:31). Moreover, he spoke this plainly and openly; there was no need for silence. Peter listened and the exploded. “Never, Lord!...This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22). Peter would have been familiar with the figure of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7, who was given “authority, glory and sovereign power” (Daniel 7:14) so that all nations would worship him. How then could the Son of Man suffer? It was a contradiction in terms. So Peter was brash enough to rebuke Jesus, and Jesus now rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said (Matthew 16:23). The same Peter who had received a divine revelation had now become an object of Satanic deception.
Still today the voice of Peter sometimes drowns the voice of Christ. For like Peter many people deny the necessity of the cross. The cross is still a stumbling block to human pride. It is the most offensive thing to an arrogant humanity. (adapted from John Stott)
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