“Get outta my face! You’re nothin’ but trouble!”
Have you ever had someone say that to you? Have you ever felt the urge to say it to anyone?
Surprisingly Jesus said as much to a Friend. It was about this time of year. He was explaining to all of His Friends that He was going to Jerusalem and would die there. But, He said, “on the third day He would be raised from the dead.” Matthew tells us that Peter took exception to Jesus explanation of the upcoming events. He, Matthew said, “took him aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things. ‘Heaven forbid, Lord,’ he said. ‘This will never happen to you!’” It was then that Jesus “turned to Peter and said, ‘Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.’”
What, pray tell, was so serious that Jesus would talk this way to His Friend? Could anything justify such harsh words?
Jesus answers. “You are seeing things from a human point of view, not God’s.” His Friend was being dangerously misguided and Jesus saw his acquiescence as an alliance with the devil. Peter had succumbed to the long held Jewish notion that Messiah would establish a powerful Kingdom. His dying was anathema to all who believed that. Jesus knew this and called it what it is. The devil’s notion. From before a word of Creation was ever spoken Satan believed God was wrong to create free creatures. Power and absolute power alone can maintain order and give a ruler control. Jesus had embraced the Father’s way. And He explains it to Peter and his fellows. “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (This conversation is recorded, by Matthew, in Chapter 16: 21 – 25)
The way of “sacrificial love,” is the “way of the Cross;” the “way of Christ.” Christ’s unswerving adherence to it lead through a most ugly, shameful death to a life that brings “forever” existence to all who trust Him. The “way of the cross” is paradox. It is a life tragically given at all cost so that triumphant life can be freely given.
Sacrificial Love is a costly way of doing things. But it is, surprisingly, the only way to live. More importantly, it is the only way to effectively influence the nature of our world and give life to those we affect. Jesus is living proof that the Father was right when He created a magnificent world and free creatures to rule it. We are, by faith in Christ, and unrelenting determination to follow Him through the Cross, those “free creatures.” His Royal Children; we are destined to “reign with Him forever” by the power of His love.
Nothing is more powerful than “Sacrificial Love”! Any suggestion that there is must be dismissed as the devilishly dangerous notion that it is!
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