“And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” (Matthew 16:22)
What if Peter had convinced Jesus of not going through with His heavenly Father’s plan of crucifixion, death, and resurrection? What if Jesus, in a moment of human weakness, said, “Okay” and decided to minister to the world in another way?
What if Peter, or any other disciple for that matter, was able to change the pattern of God’s salvation? What if, any modern day disciple—like you or me—was gifted with such a power, to control what God would do?
The world is going to do what the world is going to do. From Isis to Ebola to storms and floods to children shooting Uzis to threats of terrorism to police shootings—life is always challenging. People die every day from a number of diseases, or, human mistakes (such as, car accidents, shootings, etc.). Life is tough. It proves itself each day that it also is rarely fair. It’s not always “peaches and cream.” [Peaches aren’t my most favorite fruit anyway.] Lutherans tend to look at the duller, darker side of things, thanks to Luther’s Theology of the Cross. It’s just the way it is.
When something out of the ordinary threatens to happen in this life, it is easy to look to God and demand, “Do NOT allow this to happen!” I truly believe God listens and responds to our prayers, but He is in control of life, and He, more times than we can count, will not interfere when we tell Him to. Because He has control, it’s always His call to respond or not.
Things happen and we forbid God to allow it. (Think about what’s wrong with that statement.)
In this week’s approaching Gospel, Jesus has already talked with the disciples about who He really is. Peter admits that Jesus is the Christ, the one and only Son of the living God. Once this has been proclaimed, Jesus then lays out the plan of salvation: it includes His death. Peter disagrees with the plan. He says plainly, “God forbid it!” Big, bad Peter. Protect Jesus at all costs.
Jesus proved that He didn’t need Peter’s protection.
First of all, human emotion does get in the way very often. Human emotion is fickle at best. It tends to only get us into trouble. True, human emotion is what occurs when we reach out and feed the hungry and forgive the unforgiven, but still, emotion can be a dangerous thing as well.
God is in control. It seems often that He doesn’t appear to be in control of anything. That’s because we think we’re in control—that we have a say in the ultimate of things. We don’t. Again, God is in control. He’s the pilot and we are merely co-pilots relegated to coach seating. (And the people say, “God forbid!”)
As “Co-Pilots” our only task is to love God, love neighbor, and love self. I would like to strongly suggest that we keep it in that order. In our love of God, we must also respect Him, trust Him, let Him be God! He knows what is best and right. Like Peter in the story in Matthew 16, on a really good day, we’re only 50% right anyway!
We are entrusted with this creation. From the time of Adam and Eve, we have been called to care for this world. We tend to do poorly at this as well. In our loving our neighbors, let us remember that the earth is one of our closest neighbors. Care for her with all our hearts.
God forbid that we not do this. God forbid that we cease to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Follow and trust Him with all our heart, and He will see that truth and justice prevails.
In the meantime, love God, neighbor, and self—in that order!
Know that God loves you and so do we!
Pastor Jim