PRESUMPTION REBUKED
‘From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples … those that be of men.’
Christ now commenced to unveil the future more distinctly. (1) Because their faith had been fortified. (2) To guard against the growth of carnal views of His kingdom. (3) To secure voluntary and spiritually-minded disciples. God always gives faith before severe discipline, and seldom imparts faith without testing it. Notice here:
I. Peter’s conduct.—It was characterised by—
(a) Arrogant presumption. Had just been commended and rewarded by Christ. Exaltation proved too strong for his incipient faith. This always more dangerous than adversity. He interrupted the Saviour’s discourse, and assumed the position of censor; took Him aside and presumed to counsel his Divine Master. All need to pray, ‘Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins.’
(b) Ignorance of the end of Christ’s sufferings. He would dissuade the Saviour from the very work which he had come to accomplish.
(c) Mistimed sympathy. His heart right, his judgment at fault. This sympathy was of the nature of temptation, suggesting personal ease before painful duty, therefore rejected by Christ.
II. Christ’s rebuke.—‘Get thee behind Me, Satan.’
(a) It was prompt. Without a moment’s delay He arrests Peter’s remonstrance. This one secret of success in dealing with temptation.
(b) It was severe. Not too severe. He recognises the work of Satan behind the word of Peter, and addresses the fiend through his instrument.
(c) It was instructive, first to His disciples, never to interpose a stumbling-stone in the way of His mediatorial purpose; and then to us, teaching that every stumbling-block is a ‘Satan’ (an adversary) to be cast behind us, and that those whose love is human merely and not spiritual are dangerous friends.
Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
Illustration
‘ An offence unto Me.’ The word signifies a snare or stumbling-block in the path. The use of this expressive term in many places is very interesting (see St. Matthew 5:29; Matthew 11:6; Matthew 13:21; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 18:6-7; Matthew 26:31; Matthew 26:33; St. John 6:61; Romans 9:32-33; Romans 11:9; Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 8:13; Galatians 5:11; and the passages parallel to these). Our Lord’s application of the word to St. Peter shows that his fitness to be a “foundation-stone” was not natural, but of grace; left to himself, he would become a stumbling-stone. It is remarkable that St. Peter in his 1st Epistle (Matthew 2:6-8) applies both these terms to Christ Himself. He is the chosen foundation-stone (Isaiah 28:16), made the “head of the corner,” although “rejected” by the “builders”; and yet He is a “stumbling-stone” (Isaiah 8:14) to those who believe not.’