Get Behind Me, Satan

Passage: Mark 8:31-38

The film The Matrix takes place in a world within a world.  As the film progresses, the world the main characters inhabit – a slightly futuristic version of our world – turns out to be an illusion.  The illusion has been generated by super-intelligent computers who have enslaved humanity and projected a false reality into their minds.  These computers control reality as people know it; and it’s only through the intervention of a handful of liberated human beings that people are unplugged from the machine and introduced to the real world.  Within the false reality – or “Matrix” – any person, no matter how familiar, may be an enemy agent in disguise.  As such, those engaged in the resistance are reminded that, when they’re operating with the Matrix, no one can be trusted.

In Mark 8, Jesus treats his closest friend as an enemy agent.  Jesus has just disclosed to his disciples that his mission must end at the cross.  Peter, who has been endlessly loyal to Jesus, takes him aside and insists that Jesus stop talking such nonsense.  Jesus looks Peter in the eye and says,

Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

How is this fair?  Surely Peter only has his friend’s best interests at heart.

Jesus knows better.  What Peter has in mind is his own security.  Peter has gotten accustomed to life with Jesus, and doesn’t want it to change.  He doesn’t want to face the possibility of losing his friend, and losing the comfortable rhythm of their life together.  Peter has so allowed this comfort and security to take precedence that he’s willing to sacrifice Jesus’ mission – the very reason Jesus came into the world – so his own life can be better. 

This is what every follower of Jesus is tempted to do.  To invite Jesus in and bask in the comfort and security of his presence.  And then, when the time comes to pursue the mission, to rebuke Jesus for disrupting our lives.  Each of us becomes an adversary of God when we choose stability over sacrifice, and say no when the way of Jesus leads to the cross.  Life with Jesus means death right now – death to comfort; death to pride and ambition; death to self.  Jesus is always moving; and if we want him, we move with him – wherever he intends to go.