“BEHIND HIM OR A LITTLE BEHIND ON GETTING BEHIND
HIM?”
MATTHEW 16:21-28
21 From that time on, Jesus began
to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests
and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
22 And Peter took him aside and began
to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you."
23 But he turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
24 Then Jesus told his disciples,
"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
25 For those who want to save their
life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
26 For what will it profit them if
they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 "For the Son of Man is to come
with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
28 Truly I tell you, there are some
standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
He’s
had many names since the dawn of time and you’ve probably heard them all. Lucifer, Beelzebub Mephistopheles, the Prince
of Darkness, Satan and the devil are just a few of them. Some people will tell you that they don’t believe in this nefarious
nemesis no matter what you call him. Take the conversation that two boys had
one day on their way home from Sunday School. “Do you believe all that
stuff about the devil?” the first boy asked. “I mean do you think
there really is a devil?” “Nah,” the other boy said with a
grin. “They just tell you that stuff so you’ll be good. The devil’s just like Santa Claus…it’s really just your dad.”
Some
people today don’t believe in the devil or Satan if you will. As far as Jesus was concerned though, he was real; very
real. Jesus certainly felt that he was real at the beginning of his ministry
when Satan was out there tempting him in the wilderness. Jesus certainly felt that he was real at the end of his ministry
in the Garden
of Gethsemane when Satan tried to talk him out of going to the Cross. Jesus also felt that Satan was real that day when he and Peter had their little confrontation just outside
Caesarea Philippi.
The
thing that makes this confrontation so surprising is that it comes just minutes after Jesus praises Peter for being the first
one to proclaim that he is the messiah. The problem though is that Jesus and Peter had very different ideas about what it
meant for him to be the messiah. Jesus told the disciples that it meant he had
to go to Jerusalem and be nailed to the Cross.
Peter didn’t want any part of that messiah. He wanted the messiah
that everyone else wanted. He wanted the messiah who was going to lead the people
of Israel to victory against the Romans. So, when Peter heard all that talk about sacrifice and suffering he shouted, “God forbid it Lord!
This must never happen to you.” That’s when Jesus lost his cool and put Peter in his place. Jesus said very sternly, “Get behind me Satan…for you are not on the side of God but of men.” (RSV)
As far as
Jesus was concerned something very sinister was at work that day in Peter.
Now
I don’t believe that there’s a diabolical demon with a pointy red tail and a pitchfork out there who’s doing
everything he can to unleash all kinds of mayhem, misery and mischief. However,
I do believe that there is an evil power or presence, if you will, at work in the world.
I believe that it can take the hatred and the greed and the fear that we put out there and use it to bring about all
kinds of pain and suffering.
Now
we’re not talking about the everyday sins that people commit even if they do insist that the devil made them do it. Consider if you will the boy who decided to raise some money by collecting old bottles.
He went door to door and eventually came to the home of an elderly woman who greeted him with a stern scowl. “Do you have any coke bottles?” he asked. “No,”
the elderly woman snapped. “Do you have any old whiskey bottles?”
he asked. “Young man,” the elderly woman snarled. “Do I look
the kind of person who would have a few old whiskey bottles?” “Oh,”
the boy replied. “Well then, do you have any old vinegar bottles?”
That’s not what we’re talking about here.
You see there’s a big difference between sin and evil. Sin is when you do something wrong and in your heart of hearts
you feel bad that you did it. Evil is when you do something wrong and in your heart of hearts you’re glad you did it.
Evil doesn’t think twice about sewing death and disease, destruction and despair in the lives of people here there and
everywhere. You can see that evil in a lot of different places. It was right
there on September 11th when those terrorists joyfully took the lives of all those innocent people. It’s right there in corporate America
when CEO’s play games with the books and because of that people who’ve worked hard all their lives are left with
nothing. That evil can also be seen in the video game Grand Theft Auto. Maybe you’re familiar with the controversy that’s been swirling around
that game. The premise of the video game is you steal a car and then get points
for each cop that you kill as you make your escape.
That
evil is right there in the hearts of the dealers who dangle the demon of drugs in front of innocent children. It’s also found a home in a Hollywood that pushes profanity,
promiscuity and profound violence. You know sometimes I think that these Hollywood
producers actually think that a sentence is grammatically incomplete if it doesn’t have a four letter word in it. You know the old rule. Every sentence
has to have noun, a verb and a four letter word.
You
know what? Sometimes even people who think they’re following Jesus end up doing Satan’s work. That’s what got Peter into all that trouble. Peter thought
he was being faithful when he said that there was no way he was going to let the messiah be crucified. You didn’t have to look very far this past week to see a couple of so called Christian men following
in Peter’s footsteps. First there was Pat Robertson, the founder of the 700 Club and self-professed man of God. All he did was suggest that we should assassinate the president of Venezuela. Forgive me, but I didn’t realize that political assassination was one of the
fundamental principles of Christianity as taught by Jesus, the Prince of Peace. It
sounds like Pat Robertson went to the Eric Rudolph School of Theology. There’s
another man full of evil who masquerades as a man of faith. He bombs an abortion
clinic that kills a police officer and then pats himself on the back for doing God’s work.
Jesus
knew that evil is very real. So, what do you do in the face of all of this evil? You do what Jesus told Peter to do. You
get behind him. You get behind him and follow him. You don’t get out in front of him and tell him what to do which is what Peter tried to do. You let him tell you what to do and accept the fact the he’s a lot wiser than you or I can ever hope
to be.
So, you get behind him and use his truth to stand up to
the evil that’s out there. You get behind him and use his love to face
down the evil that’s out there. That’s what a ten-year-old boy had
to do when evil came knocking on his door back in 1974. It was just a few days
before Christmas. Chris Carrier of Coral Gables, Florida
was on his way home when he was attacked by a man who had a grudge against his father. The man stabbed Chris in the chest
with an ice pick. Then he drove Chris out into the Florida Everglades and shot
him in the head. Six days later, when Chris regained consciousness he crawled
to the side of the road where a man stopped to help him. Unfortunately, the trauma prevented Chris from identifying the man
who attacked him and there wasn’t enough evidence to give the police any solid leads. So, after he recovered Chris went
back to school and did his best to continue on with his life. For the next three
years though he suffered from tremendous anxiety and often woke up in the middle of the night terrified that someone was trying
to attack him. Then when he was 13, all changed.
It happened during a Bible Study at his church. Chris realized that it
was a miracle that he was alive and that miracles come from God. Suddenly he
felt surrounded by God’s grace and love. That conviction made it possible for him to start living his life without fear
or anger. It also made it possible for him to eventually go to seminary and earn
his divinity degree. He got married and he and his wife had two beautiful daughters. Then in 1996 Chris received a phone call from the Coral Gables Police Department. They informed him that a 77-year-old man had finally confessed to the crime. He was blind and in poor health and living in a North Miami Beach
nursing home. Well, Chris went to visit him.
The man apologized and not only did Chris forgive him, but because the man had no friends or family, he continued to
visit him. As time went by Chris even introduced his wife and daughters to the elderly man and their visits eased his loneliness
in his final days. Looking back on all of that Chris Carrier writes, “I
know the world might view me as the victim of a horrible tragedy, but I consider myself the “victim” of many miracles. The fact that I’m alive and have no mental deficiencies defies the odds. I’ve got a loving wife and a beautiful family…I’ve been blessed
in a lot of ways. And while many people can’t understand how I could forgive
him, from my point of view I couldn’t not forgive him. If I’d chosen to hate him all these years, or spent my
life looking for revenge, then I wouldn’t be the man I am today – the man my wife and children love.” (Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul, pp.270-272)
Evil
is very real. Sometimes it hits you with a glancing blow and sometimes it hits you hard. When that happens the best thing
you can do is what Jesus told Peter to do that day. You get behind him. You get
behind him and you use the power of his truth and his love to overcome evil with good.
Amen.
Rev.
Dr. Richard A. Hughes
August 28, 2005
