Interesting. Right before this passage, Peter declares to Jesus that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and Jesus tells Peter “on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (see Matthew 16:16-18). At this point, Peter must have been feeling pretty good about himself: “Sounds like these many months of following Jesus are going to pay off. With Jesus’ flair for words, and my skill in management and crowd control, we can launch our plan for world domination, by announcing that Jesus is the Messiah—maybe even later this week!”
Well, Peter—having seen Jesus at work—might have predicted that things wouldn’t turn out quite as he hoped. And true to form, they wouldn’t be turning out that way this time either. After giving Peter nothing less than “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus “strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ” (Matthews 16:19a, 20). So, even before Peter steps into the limelight, Jesus pivots.
Rather than riding high on His fame and glory, Jesus shows His disciples that He will suffer miserably at the hands of the elders, chiefs priests, and scribes. And not just that—if that wasn’t bad enough—He will be killed. But just as quickly as He took the wind out of Peter’s sails with this grim news, Jesus fills them again: on the third day He will be raised.
This is the message for us today, too. Jesus came not to set up an earthly kingdom, but to save us from “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2b). By His death and resurrection, He has freed us from our bondage to sin and the works of darkness and called us “into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9b).
How well Peter learned these truths over time! By God’s abundant grace, may we do the same.
THE PRAYER: Heavenly Father, increase our faith in Jesus’ wonderful love for us. Thank You. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Paul Schreiber.
Reflection Questions:
1. Which characters in the Bible most inspire you? Make you angry? Confuse you?
2. How do you think you would have handled hearing that Jesus was going to have to suffer and even be killed?
3. Peter was a bold character all the way around (faithful declaration, bitter denial); how do you think God used this quality in Peter’s ministry?