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This week’s Gospel reminds me of the letters of St. Paul to the Corinthians where he is addressing the different factions. Jesus realized that when two or more people get together there will be disagreements and in some cases conflict. Misunderstandings and different perspectives will impact all communities regardless of how unified or religious they are. Despite his frequent calls for peace, Jesus knew his followers would need to know how to deal with conflict.

So many of the teachings of Jesus speak about how the expression of our faith is impacted by how we treat people. One of my favorite examples of this is the teaching from Matthew 25:40, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” We basically relate to God through our interactions with others.

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The most significant line in this Gospel is Jesus saying, “Get behind me, Satan”. In the past when I have preached on this Gospel, I’ve always understood this passage as Jesus directing this comment to Peter, thus indicating that while Peter recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he did not fully understand the mission. I am now wondering if Jesus was making this comment to himself. I wonder if Jesus had a brief moment of wanting to believe Peter and not have to suffer the fate he knew would be his. Let me share with you why I think this.

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It must have been frustrating for Jesus when people failed to recognize who he was. Some thought he was a prophet who had returned from the dead.

Jesus was making a very direct point: people in the past had responded more positively to the prophets than his own generation was responding to him. Even John the Baptist had to make clear that he was not the Messiah, but that someone greater than himself was to come.

Images of God are important to our spiritual lives, but every image has its limitations. No single image can fully contain the mystery of God. So I invite you to reflect on your own image of God.

What do you expect God to be like? How do you expect God to act? Is there room for growth in your understanding?

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