NO, LORD! NOT THAT WAY

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³ But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Mark 8:31-33

This whole incident at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’ question, Peter’s response and what followed is an important part of the disciples’ understanding and experience of Jesus as their Messiah. It was part of refashioning Messiah’s person and role in Israel as a nation and in their lives as individuals. Messianic expectation was very high because of the hated Roman oppression. Further, John the Baptist’s ministry had raised their hopes, topped with this man whose ability to do miracles seemed to have no limit.

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus actually acknowledged Peter’s conclusion, representing the opinion of all the disciples, as true. Then, in the very next breath He warned them to keep quiet about it. Why? Peter may have been accurate in his confession, but he was way off the mark in his understanding of Jesus’ role as Messiah. His very next response to Jesus betrayed his complete misunderstanding of what the Messiah was all about.

It was imperative that the disciples accurately represent their Messiah to their nation and to the world. Jesus did not want them to go blabbing a lot of nonsense about Him because they attached their notion of what they expected of Him to His identity as Messiah. They had to wait until the revelation was complete – until they were thoroughly instructed and convinced by the Holy Spirit of who He was and why He came.

Following His warning not to disclose His identity yet, He began to fill in the details of His mission – suffering, death and resurrection as the imperative route of victory – over a far more powerful and sinister oppressor than Rome, the power of sin and death. Sadly, His words fell on ears padded with the pre-conceived idea that the Messiah had come to conquer Rome and set up a restored kingdom like that of David’s kingdom. They could not take in His apparently failed mission. Peter vocalised their objection and received a sharp rebuke from Jesus. At that moment Satan was speaking through Peter and Jesus silenced him