Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

the Rev. Dr. Mark Richardson The sermon continues the previous week’s Gospel lesson, in which Peter boldly identified Jesus as the Messiah. The preacher approaches Peter sympathetically, seeing him as a stand-in for all of us: sincere in his faith, courageous enough to make a great declaration, yet not fully aware of what that declaration will demand. Like Peter stepping onto the water, he understands enough to take the first step, but fear and incomplete understanding soon reveal his limits. Immediately after Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus begins explaining what his messiahship actually means. He will go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the authorities, and ultimately be killed. Peter cannot accept this. His response is not a gentle disagreement; he rebukes Jesus, insisting that this must never happen. Jesus responds with equal force: “Get behind me, Satan.” The preacher emphasizes the extraordinary intensity of this confrontation. Peter is presenting precisely the temptation Jesus has already rejected—the possibility of exercising power according to the world's familiar systems rather than following God's radically different way. The argument therefore represents much more than a disagreement about what will happen to Jesus. Peter is confronting a choice that will eventually confront every disciple: whether to seek security within established institutions and systems of power or follow Jesus into a radically different understanding of life, power, suffering, and selfhood. Had Peter understood from the beginning where following Jesus might lead, the preacher wonders whether he would have followed at all. Jesus' path threatens not simply Peter's safety but his entire understanding of himself and the life he expected to live.