(Taken and adapted from a Your Daily Bible Verse podcast episode.)
Have you ever “rebuked” God, or felt tempted to do so? What about when you’re certain you know how something should play out, tell Him this, through a prayer request, of course, and He doesn’t respond to your prayers as you hoped?
Are you tempted to correct Him?
I doubt we’d do this intentionally. We’d never say, “Hm, God’s really messing up today. I need to educate Him on the best course of action.” But a lot of times our actions make the same statements, or at least, mine do.
Far too often, I’m tempted to act like the disciple Peter, when the Lord told him something he didn’t want to hear.
In Matthew 16:16, Peter declared, to Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
The Lord commended Him for this. But then, a short time later, what seems like mere moments, Peter rebukes the “Son of the living God.”
Does that shock you? It does me, until I consider some of the fits I’ve thrown during challenging or frightening situations. This had to have been a highly anxious moment for Peter.
He’d left everything, had devoted his life, to follow Jesus for two and a half years. Plus, from a human perspective, this was at the height of their ministry. Crowds were following Jesus from village to village and town to town. He fed thousands and healed even more, demonstrating clearly, vibrantly, and consistently His power and the coming of God’s kingdom.
But then came His prediction of something Peter absolutely did NOT want to hear. Jesus, his master, the Messiah, said that He’d be killed.
This was not what Peter, or anyone else expected. Like so many others, he probably hoped Jesus would over throw the Romans and the crippling taxation the government’s crippling taxation. He likely envisioned a restoration of Israel, a return to the nation’s golden years under the authority of King David. And perhaps for his people experience some of the dominance like during the days of Joshua, the courageous military leader who God direction, with the help of his soldiers, to take possession of the Promised Land.
No doubt Peter had read the passages in Isaiah that foretold the coming of a suffering servant, One who would be despised and rejected by the very people He came to save. Someone considered stricken and cursed by God and who would bear our pain and experience wounding for our sins. I’m certain, as a Jew raised on the Jewish Scriptures, that Peter had heard or read this passage at least once. But the truth it revealed didn’t seem to stick.
According to Craig S. Keener, author of the Intervarsity Press Bible Background commentary, “The New Testament writers interpreted some Old Testament texts as referring to the Messiah’s suffering, but most Jewish People in the first century did not recognize these texts as referring to the Messiah, who was to reign as king. Most Jewish people believed in the resurrection of all the righteous dead at the end of the age, and the inauguration of a kingdom under God’s appointed ruler afterward. Jesus’ explanation of his mission in 8:31 thus seems to Peter to contradict his confession of Jesus’ messiahship in 8:29”
Because that Messiah, the humble, meek, and slaughtered Anointed One didn’t match what he’d envisioned. Nor did Jesus’ words regarding His death.
And so, when Christ’s words contradicted Peter’s expectations, instead of setting his expectations aside, instead of questioning his perception, he questioned the Son of God. But if you follow his story through the resurrection and beyond, you’ll notice Peter eventually developed supernatural, rock solid faith. A faith that became his filter for everything else he experienced, rather than the other way around.
This demonstrates the reality and power of grace.
God wants us all to reach that place where we question our perception before we question our God. He wants us to doubt our perceived reality before we doubt God’s truth, lovingly preserved for us in Scripture.
He longs for us to know Him deeply and to experience ever-deepening peace, healing and freedom through His loving embrace.
