"Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
That's from the Gospel reading yesterday. The version we read in our lectionary actually said something like "...you are judging according to man's standards and not God's standards." That was after Jesus faced him off and called him a satan. Now that wasn't very nice was it? Maybe not, but it was true and needed to be said, and so He said it. Peter just didn't want his master to be killed, he was just saying that, what's wrong with that? He was speaking, and would therefore have later acted on and lived on an idea about Jesus and life in general that wasn't true, that wasn't ultimately life-giving or life-building. It would have worked to choke his life off eventually, and the Life of God in others. The logical conclusion of Peter's emotional outburst would have been, left uncorrected, the squelching of the Kingdom of God.
It's not OK that we continue to think with the mind of our former self. All those thoughts aren't just innocent and well-intentioned. Even if we see it that way, we are likely "judging by man's standards and not God's." After this, Jesus challenges them and us to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow Him. What are we denying? This order, I think, it not an accident of speech. If we do not deny that the self we presently have is twisted and broken and unable to live Life in the way it was intended - if we don't admit that our present lives are not directed properly, we cannot go in any other direction. If we don't deny ourselves, we will never pick that cross up, and forget following Him, that's not going to happen. Why would we do that, follow Him to death, when we believe we are already alive and in no need of resurrection? The answer is, we wouldn't. You won't ultimately follow Him if you don't see a need for new Life. The life you have is fine, right? The self you have is great, God loves you, and that means you cannot deny who and what you are, right? God help you and God help us if we think that's right.
September 18, 2006
> 11:55 AM
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