And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

I’ve noticed in football games that players have begun doing their end zone dance after a 6 yard  gain to their own 34. Not a good idea because they could fumble the next handoff. Their “glory” would have lasted about 2 minutes. Peter must have felt like a superstar after Jesus himself proclaimed him “The Rock” and lifted him up as a leader. Three short verses later, all the glory evaporated in shame as he fumbled the very next play. He was doing so well but he overreached because, while he recognized who Jesus was, the Christ, he was still unaware of the mission Jesus was to complete. Now was not the time for the end zone dance, but for the cross.

No matter how far along we are in our walk with the Lord, we sometimes lose sight of his mission with disastrous results. The comfort to be taken here is that Peter was not immune. The second comfort was that Peter was not disqualified. He was discipled. And then he would mess up time and time again, tapping the neverending mercy and grace of his Master Jesus Christ. That means that we too are susceptible to the loss of vision for what Jesus calls us to do, making disciples and loving our neighbor. It also means that we are never beyond the reach of his merciful hands of grace…

He placed on the cross.

Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church