The devil's ultimate temptation

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:21-26)

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus says something to Peter that seems shocking to us. Jesus almost yells at Peter, saying "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." It is shocking to hear Jesus address one of his own disciples this way; it is even more shocking when you remember that just a short time earlier, Peter had been the first of them to identify Jesus as the Christ and had been declared blessed by our Savior for the faith in his heart.

What was so bad about what Peter said? How were his words a "stumbling block" to Jesus? The actual word that Jesus used was skandalon, which means "a thing that causes a person to stumble, a thing that gives the opportunity to sin." From this Greek word, we get the modern word "scandal". Jesus was accusing Peter of tempting Him to commit a sin! No wonder Jesus addressed Peter as Satan—at that moment, the devil was speaking to Jesus through Peter.

But what sin was Satan tempting Jesus to commit? Look back at what Jesus had just been saying—Matthew tells us, From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. The key word is must. Jesus must go to Jerusalem and suffer. Jesus must be killed. Jesus must be raised again on the third day.

Why did Jesus say that He must do these things? Two reasons. First, Jesus is the perfect Son of God. In Him there is no sin at all (1 John 3:5). And part of Jesus’ perfection as God’s Son is that He is perfectly obedient. Jesus’ Father is perfect; there has never been a decision that the Father made which Jesus would have any reason to question. And Jesus is perfect; He has never acted selfishly, never thought of rebelling against His Father’s wishes. For these reasons, Jesus was perfect in His obedience to His Father. Whatever the Father has wanted Jesus to do, Jesus has done willingly because He has complete trust and faith in His Father’s wisdom and love. So when the Father told Jesus that mankind would be saved from the curse of eternal death only if Jesus laid down His own life to pay for our rebelliousness, Jesus trusted the wisdom of His Father’s plan. Jesus obediently went to the cross because His Father told Him to. He must obey His Father.

The other reason that Jesus said He must do these things is because He loves us perfectly. Jesus has never put His own comfort or desires before the needs of anyone else. Jesus knew that none of us could live sinless lives; He knew that we rebel against God’s leadership every day. And because we are rebellious, God rightly calls us sinners and promises eternal torment in hell to those who refuse to give Him first place in their hearts. But God also loves those He has created, and He had promised that if the penalty for our sins of death and hell was paid, we could be forgiven and accepted into heaven. Since none of us could pay the supreme price for our sins, Jesus was willing to suffer hell on the cross and die to free us from the curse that our sins bring upon us. Jesus did not look forward to that terrible Good Friday—in the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39). Jesus knew that the agonies of hell that we have earned would be a terrible experience for Him to go through, nor was He anxious to embrace the curse of mortal death. But Jesus loves us, and our eternal happiness was more important to Him than His own momentary discomfort. Jesus asked His Father if salvation for man could be achieved in any other way, but if His suffering and death were the only option Jesus would do his Father’s will without complaint. Jesus loves His Father perfectly, and He loves us perfectly.

The Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would save mankind through His own suffering, and Jesus was that Messiah. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said these words about the Savior to come: "See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted…He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering…Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all… After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities…he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)

This view of the Messiah was a very different one than the disciples wanted to think about. Peter and the others wanted Jesus to establish an earthly kingdom of glory, and they hoped for places of power and influence in that kingdom. This is not the way of the Messiah, or of those who follow Him. On the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, Jesus said, "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:26) Our world believes in a theology of glory—that people who are rich or powerful or influential are obviously pleasing God, otherwise He wouldn’t bless them as He has. People who believe this satanic lie have forgotten that Jesus said of his Father, "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). Jesus never taught a theology of glory—rather, He taught a theology of the cross. Jesus taught that love is the fulfillment of God’s Law. Through Paul God tells us that "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). The love that comes from God is perfect; it is never self-serving, never limited. God’s love gives everything in order to benefit others. Such love may require suffering. Such love requires that suffering be accepted if it is the only way to help others. Such a love was Jesus’ love. Jesus held nothing back when He made the ultimate sacrifice for us out of perfect love.

And Jesus’ suffering was not without effect. Jesus went willingly to the cross because He knew that He must, and because He trusted in His Father. Jesus knew that His Father had promised to raise Him from the dead on the third day. It was this promise of rescue from the grave that gave Jesus the courage to face death without fear, just as Jesus’ promise of rescue from the grave allows us to face death without fear. Jesus was obedient all the way to death, even the horrible death of crucifixion for mankind’s sins (Philippians 2:8). And because of Jesus’ ultimate expression of perfect love for His Father and for us, God raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).

What blessings have come from Jesus’ obedience! We are given the privilege to confess our sins and be forgiven, and Jesus has become our loving leader and protector. Jesus’ obedience means peace in our hearts in life, and the security of heavenly citizenship when we die. Nothing Jesus has ever done compares in importance with His dying so that we might live eternally. It is no wonder that Satan did not want Jesus going to the cross. Satan desires us for his own, not because he cares about anyone, but only to spite God. Since Satan cannot rule in heaven, he seeks to strip God’s realm of future citizens. Satan tries to lure each of us into rebellion against God, but He was most interested in tempting our Savior. If Satan could have gotten Jesus to turn away from the cross, Satan would have won his greatest victory. Without Jesus’ death for our sins, we would all be unforgivable and destined to eternity in the devil’s "tender" care. But even worse, if Satan had convinced Jesus to abandon the cross, Jesus Himself would have become a disobedient Son—Jesus would have become a sinner, and God’s own Son would have been condemned to hell!

No wonder, then, that Jesus became so angry. To hear the ultimate temptation from the lips of one of His own disciples! "Don’t go to the cross, Jesus. You don’t want to suffer Your Father’s punishment for all human sin. You don’t want to endure all the hell that every human being has earned. You don’t need to go through all that. Be the king that You are entitled to be. You don’t need to serve Your people; by rights, they should serve You. You are great and they are mere worms—it would not be right to trade Your life for theirs. You want Your name—God’s name—to be respected. If You die as a criminal, who will respect Your name? And do You seriously believe that people will want to follow You, if part of the deal involves suffering for those whom they don’t even like? Offer them power and money and popularity--then You’ll fill Your kingdom."

This is the temptation that Jesus overcame when He said, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." In overcoming temptations like these, Jesus was preserving Himself as sinless, and He was keeping alive the hope that mankind could be bought back from the curse of sin and death. Of course Satan did not give up; even while Jesus hung on the cross, Satan prompted some priests to say "He saved others, but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe" (Matthew 27:42). Right up to the very end, Satan tried to get Jesus to forsake the suffering love of the cross—but our Savior loved His Father perfectly, and He loved us perfectly--and in His death, His perfection became our salvation.

Jesus did all this in order that He could forgive us. He forgave Peter for letting Satan use his lips. He forgives us for letting Satan use our lips, our hands, our imagination. Jesus suffered to give you this gift of forgiveness. Now He asks you to deny your own comfort and preferences and willingly love others, even when that love brings you some measure of discomfort or suffering. May the Holy Spirit give you the compassion and the courage every day to be an imitator of Christ, so that you can deny yourself and take up your own, much smaller cross, and follow Him.