Friday, August 1, 2008

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No Way, Lord!

I love the apostle Peter.  He makes me laugh.  I think that it never would have been dull with him around.  Did Jesus choose him for comic relief?  He is always the first to speak, opening his mouth and inserting his foot.  He is hot and cold.  He is an emotional roller coaster at times.  At the same time, his greatest desire was to please the one that he chose to follow, but I doubt if his abundant enthusiasm was always helpful.

On one such day when Peter was in his prime, Jesus asked his disciples a question:  Who do people say that I am?  All of the disciples gave various answers they had heard from others.  John the Baptist.  Elijah.  Jeremiah.  One of the other prophets.  And then Jesus zeroed in on them (and this is actually a very important question for everyone to answer) — "Who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15).

On this question, Peter was the first to answer.  "You are the Christ — the Messiah — the son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).  Way to go, Peter!  The exact right answer.  Ten out of ten.  In fact, Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter — which means "rock" — and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:17-18).  Wow, Peter is keeping company with the prophets and getting revelation and now he is going to be the number one guy in the church and get to hold all of the keys!  He must have felt amazing!

Whatever he enjoyed in that moment was short-lived.  Because, immediately Jesus began to teach them that while it is true that he is the Messiah, the job description included suffering and death (and later, resurrection) in the very near future.  Look at what  Peter does.  Maybe he felt another "revelation" coming on.  Not sure where this one came from.  He can't keep his mouth shut.  And Jesus responds rather strongly!

"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'." (Matthew 16:22-23).

In a few swift seconds, Peter went from the pinnacle of blessing to the bottom of the heap.  That's so like Peter (and if you read on, he does it all over again in the next chapter!).

I want to key in on Peter's statement to the Lord here, which occasions one of the sharpest rebukes we ever hear on the lips of Jesus.  It is a logical incongruity, a contradiction, two words put together that simply can't co-exist, like a round square.  Do you not see that you simply cannot say, "No, Lord."  For either he is Lord of all or he is not Lord at all!  If we claim him as our Lord, all that we can ever say to him is "Yes, Lord."  The moment that we say no to anything that he requests of us or leads us into, he ceases at that point to be Lord.  At that instant, we proclaim ourselves as lord and that is a sure recipe for trouble.

When my wife was a little girl and was misbehaving, especially if there was some attitude involved, her father would often ask her a simple question, "Mary Jane, who is on the throne?"  So, I ask today, who is on the throne?  Who is on the throne of our lives?  Is it the Lord Jesus Christ who is seated in his rightful place?  Or is it some lesser lord? a usurper? like me?

Let the Lord Jesus Christ have his rightful place in my life and your life today.  He is the Lord and I am not.  He is the first and the last and the beginning and the end and everything else in between.  I am not.  What shall we do today, Jesus?  Yes, Lord!

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