Christ Rebuking Saint Peter, Flemish School, artist unknown, National Trust: Kingston Lacy, Dorset, UK.

Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as humans do.”     Matthew 16:21-23.

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This scene in the gospels is probably unique. Literally minutes after Jesus had entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to the leader of the apostles than he called him “Satan”! And, recalling last Sunday’s gospel, he had even changed Simon’s name to Peter, a name which means “Rock” suggesting that he was rock steady! Clearly something had been horribly mistaken for Jesus to employ such an extreme name to his most trusted disciple! What had Peter done to deserve such a rebuke? Well, look at what Jesus had just predicted: he said he was on the way to Jerusalem where, shockingly, he would suffer greatly at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the scribes (who controlled all of Jewish society) and be killed. Peter’s rejection of that prediction was what precipitated Jesus’ extreme response (though he clearly missed the crucial final words Jesus uttered: “…and on the third day be raised”). Not really surprising though, as those other predictions were so dire. Here was the man all his followers were convinced was the Messiah, the Promised of God – yet was saying he was doomed! I might well think any one of us would be tempted to do exactly what Peter did! It was unthinkable that the Messiah would suffer, he who was to restore the very Kingdom of David and expel all pagans, the Roman occupying force, and recreate God’s kingdom. Well, no: Jesus was to suffer and be killed!

Throughout the previous 500 or so years, the Hebrew people had lived under an almost unyielding pagan nations the messianic prophecies that it would all end: when kings would bow down before the Jewish Messiah and all would at last be right in the world. All the Jewish population was reared on such biblical prophecy but as there was no date on when this would occur, everyone was ready for the call at any time! And note well that there were indeed three uprisings against the Romans about then, in AD 66, then AD 115 and a third in AD 132. All were disastrous, and the third one resulted in all Jews being expelled from Jerusalem, which was even renamed Aelia Capitolina. But it certainly points to the conviction that almost all the Jewish population clung to the belief that an uprising would come to restore David’s kingdom. It didn’t. But it does explain Peter’s explosive rejection of Jesus’ prediction of disaster and death, especially when he and all his followers supported the popular expectation of an uprising against the pagan Romans, led by Jesus! And there is a thought for us today, an armor-clad Messiah charging into battle against a feeble Roman resistance resulting in – what?

And that might be an entrée into today’s first reading. The word “duped” is ugly, not poetic in the slightest degree and not worthy of a place in the Bible, but there it is. Jeremiah is complaining that God’s calling for him – a prophet – was not the cosy, life-affirming career he had hoped for. “Deceived” is the normal word for this passage in the other translations, and carries greater weight (in my opinion). But that actually tied in with Jesus’ predicament in today’s gospel, though he did not complain like Jeremiah. But he eventually did ask for that cup of suffering to be taken back in Gethsemane: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39). And Paul, in today’s second reading, reassures us that obedience to God’s will, whatever it might be, is the road which is good and pleasing and perfect. In other words, whatever life may throw at us, sometimes pleasant, other times catastrophic, obedience to God’s will is what will keep us rooted in the good and pleasing and perfect. Jesus trod that route, in his case, to the bitter end. And it is to him that our eyes should be set at all times, for there is life eternal and the promise of everlasting happiness.

The Agony in the Garden, El Greco and workshop 1590s, The National Gallery, London, UK.