That Peter!

When I was in nursing school, there was a student who had to speak up at least twice in ev-er-y class, often to ask a question where the answer was completely obvious, or had just been explained by the instructor.  His name was Mark, and we privately called him Question Mark.  It seems that he liked to hear the sound of his own voice.

Amongst Jesus' disciples, it seems to me Peter was that person.  I did a quick check in my concordance, and the instances where I found "Peter said", "Peter answered", "Simon Peter said", or "he said" when it referred to Peter came to at least 30 times in the 4 gospels.  That's more than the total of quotes from all the other disciples put together.   

One amusing incident that shows up in 3 of the gospels was when he and James and John accompanied Jesus onto a mountain.  There they were privileged to see Jesus transfigured before them, and Moses and Elijah appeared as well.  The disciples were stunned and afraid.  But only Peter felt the urge to speak up.  He said (so brilliantly!), "Lord, it is good for us to be here.  If You wish, let us make three tabernacles here; one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"  (Matthew 17:4).  Mark's gospel records that he spoke up "for he did not know what to say" (9:5).  I find that amusing, and also the fact that nobody answered him or acknowledged what he said.  In fact, he was interrupted:  "while he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.  Listen to Him'" (Matthew 17:5), indicating that the time had come to listen to Jesus, not Moses (representing the Law) or Elijah (representing the prophets), and certainly not to Peter.

Another account we read has Peter speaking out of turn again.  Jesus has begun to emphasize that it was going to be His lot to "be killed, and be raised on the third day" (Matthew 16:21) and Peter is bold enough to begin "rebuking Him, saying, 'Far be it from You, Lord!  This shall not happen to You.'"  Jesus turns and says to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!  You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things that are of God, but those that are of men."  That is a really sharp response! 

I believe Jesus called this suggestion as being from Satan because the natural, physical, human component of Jesus' being would have really preferred to avoid the suffering that was ahead of Him, and it was a temptation to give in to that.  It was one of the things He was tempted with in His 40 days in the wilderness, when Satan came to Him and suggested a shortcut:  "the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur, and said to Him, 'All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me'" (Matthew 4:8, 9).  In other words, "let me give You what You came for but in an easy way."  

When He was being arrested, He said, "Do you think that I cannot now pray to My father, and He will at once give Me more than twelve legions of angels (and He must have been tempted to do just that), but how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?" (Matthew26:53, 54).  In the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39), He came face to face with the same temptation again ("O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.")  But how thankful we all are that He was able to resist that temptation ("Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will")!

It seems a little surprising that this rebuke for Peter comes right after he actually got something exactly right.  The first 3 gospels all record this instance, but let's see it in Matthew 16:15-19.  When Jesus asks, "...who do you (disciples) say I am?" Peter (who else?) speaks up:  "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus' answer to that is, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  (You are not, of yourself, smart or sharp or educated enough to have figured that out on your own, but you got that strictly by revelation from God Himself.) And I tell you (the Father had something to say to you first, and now I'm telling you something too) that you are Peter (Greek: petros which is a detached stone or boulder, or a stone that might be thrown or easily moved, according to Vine's Expository Dictionary) and on this rock (Greek: petra which can be defined as a sure foundation, again according to Vine's; i.e., something immovable) I will build My church."  He was not saying the church would be built on Peter, but rather on Peter's declaration that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God".  That is the solid, sure, immovable foundation.

Peter's name was originally Simon, and, as we just read, it was Jesus who gave him the name Peter (see Mark 3:16 and John 1:40-42).  When we come to the same realization that Peter came to that day, we get a new identity too.  Romans 10:10 tells us that "with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."  Believing and confessing what?  The previous verse tells us the answer:  "if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  Saved from what?  Our old identity:  none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10) changed to our new identity "the righteousness of God in (Christ)" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

James 1:19 instructs us to be "swift to hear, slow to speak..."  Peter was swift to speak, maybe slow to hear, but we can still learn from his example (by not following it), and be reminded (1) to hear Jesus; take time to listen to Him, to the Shepherd who is always talking to His sheep, (2) to be so very thankful that Jesus resisted the temptation to call for a legion of angels and escape from the agony He was facing for us, and (3) that we have a new name, like Peter, a new identity in Jesus when we believe in Him as our Saviour, forever.  So, those are things for us to meditate on because we've looked at Peter's tendency to be "the big mouth" in his group.