Saint or Satan?
This Sunday we observe a day in remembrance of Peter and Paul, both, according to tradition, were put to death as martyrs, as witnesses to Jesus Christ, on June 29, in or around the year 67 AD. This is one of the oldest of such days in the history of the New Testament church, dating back to 258 AD. Peter and Paul are called saints. And, rightly understanding the term, that is what they are. Yet calling them saints does not mean they were perfect by any stretch of the imagination. A saint is someone, anyone, made holy by the forgiveness that Jesus gives us through His death on the cross for us, followed by His resurrection. Sainthood, as I’m describing it here, is a free gift from Jesus that is received through faith as we are led to trust in him.
As we look at heroes like Peter and Paul, we see everything about them. They have their bad points and their good points. We can identify with them, because they are just like us in this regard. One thing that draws people to reality TV is that it shows us the good side of people as well as the bad side. This is a nice break from the typical good guy vs. bad guy thing. Yet even on reality TV the people are sometimes little more than cardboard characters coached by network executives. The Bible is more real than reality TV.
From its very first pages, the Bible tells you and me all about the good and the bad of its heroes with unflinching honesty. Adam and Eve were perfect, yet they disobeyed God. Nevertheless, they still believed in the promise that their descendant would crush the serpent’s head in the very act of being bitten in the heel by the serpent. Noah built the ark that saved the human race from the flood, but he also was known to get drunk and fall asleep naked. Abraham was a man of faith and the father of all who believe, but he had the habit of passing his wife, Sarah, off as his sister, for fear that he would be killed. Jacob was a hard worker and smart, he wrestled with God and prevailed, but he stooped so low as to trick his blind father, Isaac, into giving him the birthright, and he acted cowardly in his reunion with Esau. Moses was the great leader of Israel, who led his people out of slavery in Egypt. He was the giver of the Law, but he himself was shy and a murderer and could not enter the Promised Land because he overstepped God’s instructions. Gideon defeated the Midianites, but he made a gold Ephod, which Israel idolatrously worshipped. Samson had amazing strength, but was undone by Delilah, his wife. David was the greatest king Israel ever had, but he was guilty of adultery and murder to cover up his adultery. Solomon, David’s son, was the wisest man alive, but his wisdom was no match for 700 wives and 300 concubines, who led him astray and turned his heart after their false gods. Even the best of the remaining kings in David’s line (until Jesus!), Asa and Jehoshaphat and Joash and Amaziah and Azariah and Jotham, all have something negative described about their reigns. They did not destroy all the high places where people worshipped false gods. Not even the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah could save Judah from its idolatry. Elijah was a great prophet, who defeated all the prophets of Baal, but he soon became afraid and depressed. With a simple message, Jonah led the whole wicked city of Ninevah to repent, but he was uncaring and judgmental.
Paul was like all that. He, of course, wrote many New Testament books, including those called the Pastoral Epistles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But his history of persecuting the church before he became a Christian, and even some of the things he said and did would make most congregations think twice about calling him as their pastor. In fact, he spent a great deal of time in jail. He called himself the chief of sinners. He spoke frankly about the inner battle that took place inside him between the new, God-created person within him and the person who he used to be. He said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
We encounter Peter in our text for today: very human, very flawed, an instrument of Satan, yet still a saint. Jesus asked the disciples what people were saying about him. Then Jesus asked them what they thought. Peter said, “You are the Christ.” Peter understood (since it was revealed to him by God) that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Savior, the One anointed and chosen by God the Father to serve Him and accomplish His mission with divine power, the ideal and ultimate King sent by God to deliver His people and establish His kingdom.
Peter understood who Jesus was, but he didn’t understand how Jesus would accomplish His mission. Jesus clearly understood and even would refer to himself as the Christ, yet he preferred, at that time, to call Himself the Son of Man, since people tended to think that the Messiah was all about establishing a purely political, earthly kingdom. The name, “Son of Man,” comes from Daniel, where it talks about God’s Son, coming in the last days, to establish a heavenly kingdom. Jesus, when he talked about Himself as the Son of Man, talked about the suffering that He would undergo to usher in this heavenly kingdom. He honestly and clearly told his disciples about how He would suffer many things and be rejected by the highest earthly authorities, how he would be killed by them, and how he would be raised to life on the third day. This was how he would do that which, as the Christ, He had to do, if we were to be saved.
When Jesus told Peter and the disciples about His suffering, Peter couldn’t bear it. With the best of intentions, Peter took Jesus aside and began to correct Him for saying these things. Peter was all about glory and power. He was not ready to hear about suffering. He, without realizing it, became like Satan, tempting Jesus in the wilderness, trying to sidetrack Him from His mission to save us. He, without trying, became like Satan, described in the parable of the Sower, who plucked up the seed of the Word of God as soon as it was planted. Temptation now came to Jesus in the form of his best friend trying to give him some good advice. How often hasn’t true friendship been described as telling someone something they need to hear even when they don’t want to hear it?
But it was Peter who was wrong. Jesus spoke strong words to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” That is, “Get out of my way! I’m not going to let you stop me.” As strong as those words are, they are not words of rejection for Peter. There is an interesting twist in our text. After telling Peter/Satan to get behind Him, Jesus talks to the crowd and the disciples about following after Him.
The road would be long. Peter would waver in faith and sink in the sea. Peter would lash out and cut off an ear, as if Jesus needed that. Peter would deny Jesus, three times, even though Jesus warned him about that very thing. Peter would be two-faced and prejudiced, acting one way in front of Gentile Christians and another way in front of Jewish Christians. Yet there would be a day when Peter would realize all that it means to deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. There would be a day when Peter would lose his life for Jesus and for the sake of the Good News about Jesus. There would be a day, when Peter would gain the fullness of eternal life for the sake of Jesus.
So what is it with Peter? Is he Satan or saint? And what about us as we look at all the times even our good intentions only seem to result in evil? Who are you and who am I--Satan or saint? For the answer, we must look to the cross on which Jesus suffered and died, rejected by men, rejected by God in our place. There at the cross we see that, even though we have been used by the devil—perhaps unwittingly—we are forgiven and loved by God, for Jesus has made us holy. He has made us saints. This is what our faith clings to, not to how good we are, not to how bad we are, but to how Jesus accomplished His mission as the Christ.
R. L. Wheeler is right when he says, “If I had the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of John, the meekness of Moses, the strength of Samson, the obedience of Abraham, the compassion of Joseph, the tears of Jeremiah, the poetic skill of David, the prophetic voice of Elijah, the courage of Daniel, the greatness of John the Baptist, the endurance and love of Paul, I would still need redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of sin.” (Edythe Draper, Draper’s Book of Quotations for the Christian World [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992])
Thanks be to God, for his freely given love and forgiveness! As Copernicus, the great astronomer, was dying, a copy of his great book, The Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies, was placed in his hands. But it was not his brilliant work that was on his mind. Instead he directed that the following epitaph be placed on his grave at Frauenburg: “O Lord, the faith thou didst give to St. Paul, I cannot ask; the mercy thou didst show to St. Peter, I dare not ask; but, Lord, the grace thou didst show unto the dying robber, that, Lord, show to me.” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988], p. 346.) Our risen Lord Jesus loves us with the same love that led him the cross and the same love that freely welcomes us to be His saints, His followers, now and forevermore! Amen
