God Forbid It, Lord

Jesus now begins to tell his disciples plainly that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed, and on the third day be raised. All of it is there, including the rising. And Peter, who has just been right about who Jesus is, takes him aside to fix him. 'God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.' His words seem to come from love and loyalty, but also from fear and a deep misunderstanding of what kind of Messiah Jesus has come to be. That's what makes this so human and so easy to do ourselves.

Jesus includes the promise of the third day, but Peter seems unable to take it in once he hears about suffering and death. The cross overwhelms his understanding, and so he shuts the whole thing down. Jesus doesn't rebuke Peter's love. He rebukes Peter's attempt to oppose the Father's saving will: 'You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.'

We can do something similar. We hear the hard part of a true thing and become so afraid that we stop listening. We insist it must never happen, talk it out of being real, and in doing so we lose sight of the hope Christ has attached to following him: that death does not have the final word. In the Gospel, the cross is not the end of the sentence. The promise of resurrection is spoken together with the announcement of suffering, and that promise is the very part Peter most desperately wants to forbid.

Jesus isn't asking Peter to enjoy the cross, and he isn't asking that of us either. He's asking us to follow him, taking up the cross in faith rather than letting fear do the talking. When a difficult truth confronts you today, resist the urge to let fear speak last. Listen prayerfully, and remember that Christ's promise of life is greater than the suffering you can presently see.