"Satan doesn't mind working overtime."

I have always been intrigued by that exchange between Peter and Jesus recorded in all three synoptic gospels (Matt. 16:13f, Mark 8:27f, Luke 9:18f), where Peter first acknowledges Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God and then later is rebuked by Jesus for “lobbying” against the intention of Christ to go to the cross. (Yes, Jesus INTENDED to go to the cross-that was his ultimate mission. All his exalted teaching and wondrous works would have been to no avail without his atoning sacrifice for our sins). But what has always grabbed my attention whenever I read about this, is how Jesus rebuked Peter and this after our Lord had just got done blessing Peter for his historic confession of faith. Jesus tells Peter: “Get behind me SATAN! (My caps for emphasis) You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Peter had just climbed the celestial heights only to be consigned to the very depths of hell as it were.

I have read commentaries where Peter reminded Jesus of Satan who had tried to derail Jesus from the cross by offering the world on a silver platter (see Matt. 4:8,9); and that’s why Jesus rebuked him by calling him satan. But I think there was more going on between Peter and Jesus than Peter merely reminding Jesus of satan. I think that the tempter was up to his usual treachery and somehow was using Peter in a very real way to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross. So while others may have seen just two people in serious discourse, there really was a third party weighing in with his agenda even if unseen. Indeed that’s our trouble today, we often fail to discern or effectively address what is really going on in our affairs especially when things begin to get out of hand or we find ourselves in situations or predicaments that strike at the very foundations of our community, family and our own personal well being. As I have often said, we are being conditioned by living in a pagan, secular minded social environment that glamorizes the demonic through various entertainment venues, but actually denies the presence of alien, malignant beings that meddle in the affairs of mostly unsuspecting human beings.

Families are disintegrating before our very eyes, marriages are breaking up, children and teens are dabbling in the occult and experimenting with sex and drugs and I am appalled how this is beginning to become a trend even in the church itself. If we do not take hold of the whole armor of God (see Ephesians 6:10ff) and fight satan with the weapons of a Spirit-filled life we will stand by with no real defense while many lives go down the tubes because we have no power to enter into hand-to-hand combat with mankind’s perennial enemy. First we need discernment, then we need to be armed and bold in our resistance and finally we need to be committed to victory. This is not a trivial matter; our survival is at stake and doesn’t mind working overtime to do us in.