Sin
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Matthew 16:21-23
STORY
In the 1970s, Karl Menninger wrote a book that was widely read, studied, and discussed in churches. Menninger is a Harvard educated psychiatrist who established the Menninger Sanitarium in Topeka, Kansas. As a psychiatrist he believed that mental health is dependent upon physical, social, cultural, moral, and spiritual health. A significant aspect of spiritual health is to be unencumbered by the ramifications of sin. Therefore, his book, published in October 1973, was titled Whatever Became of Sin? The following paragraph is the one that is most often quoted:
The very word “sin,” which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and life style. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared – the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?
As we contemplate our sin we must realize the reality of Satan. Satan is not some mythical figure, but he is a fallen angel whose egotism and vanity drives him to attempt to take the place of God.
On Christmas Day 2005, Larry King interviewed Billy Graham, the world renown evangelist of the twentieth century. During the interview Graham said, “There are two great forces, God’s force of good and the devil’s force of evil, and I believe Satan is alive and he is working, and he is working harder than ever.”
This view has been affirmed by Pope Francis during his weekly audience on May 1, 2019, when he reminded those who think that the belief in the devil is antiquated or outdated. The Pope affirmed that Satan really does exists and that Jesus himself experienced his temptations and overcame the demonic. The Pope said, “So began the public life of Jesus, with the temptation that comes from Satan. Satan was present. Many people say, ‘But why talk about the devil, which is an ancient thing? The devil does not exist.’ But look at what the Gospel teaches you. Jesus confronted the devil. He was tempted by Satan. But Jesus rejects every temptation and comes out victorious.” Francis advised people to remember in their own moments of temptation that “Jesus has already fought this temptation for us.”
DEVOTION
Satan is a mystery, though his sway over us is no mystery at all. Satan places temptation before us, and like Adam and Eve we can’t resist taking a bite out of the forbidden fruit. We must never forget that the word sin is a “strong word, an ominous and serious word.”
We must protect ourselves from Satan by practicing the spiritual disciplines outlined in the Bible, which are also incorporated into the teachings of the church. We know what these principles are, though are we willing to invest the time and energy to study them and practice them? Worship. Private devotions. Small group membership. Attendance at Sunday school. Devotional reading. Private and public confession. Submission to the will of God. Repeating to ourselves what Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” It is a part of our calling to teach others how to say, “Get behind me, Satan!”
Prior to our lesson this morning, Jesus began to tell his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be executed, and then on the third day he will be raised. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Satan understood; Peter didn’t. When Satan tempted Jesus for forty days in the wilderness he was challenging Jesus’ pride and self-sufficiency. Satan was saying that Jesus could do it on his own and that he did not need God. Peter could not accept that Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross, so then Peter thought that Jesus could do it on his own absent of suffering. Thinking that we can do it on our own is our sin this day. Doing it on our own absent of the need for the scriptures as our moral compass is the message that Satan imposes upon us.
William Barclay was born in 1907. He was a Church of Scotland minister and professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow. He wrote a popular set of Bible commentaries on the New Testament titled the Daily Bible Study. In his commentary on Mattthew16 he wrote:
Satan literally means “the Adversary.” That is why Peter’s ideas were not God’s but all too human. Satan is the very force which seeks to deflect us from the way of God; Satan is any influence which seeks to make us turn back from the hard way of God has set before us; Satan is any poser which seeks to make human desire take the place of divine imperative… What really wounded Jesus’ heart, and what really made him speak as he did, was that the temper spoke to him that day through the fond and mistaken love of Peter’s burning and impetuous heart.
We love Jesus, but how often are we the voice of Satan? We renounce Satan, yet we give into a pride that we can be self-sufficient with no need for God in our lives. We know the dictates of God, though we still have a pick-and-chose Christianity.
This has not changed since the conception of Christianity, as it is still today so much a part of the challenge to living as a follower of Christ.
Origen was one of the first recognized church theologians. Origen was a third century religious devote who gave up his job, slept on the floor, ate no meat, drank no wine, fasted twice a week, owned no shoes, and castrated himself for the faith to avoid sexual temptation. He was the most prolific scholar of his age with over 2,000 treatises to his credit. He was a first-rate Christian theologian and a profound student of the Bible. Regarding the words spoken to Peter by Jesus, Origen suggested that Jesus was saying to Peter, “Peter your place is behind me, not in front of me. It is your place to follow me in the way that I choose, not to try to lead me in the way that you would like me to go.”
And so, it is, as Satan enters our lives sin befalls us as we try to interpret the scriptures the way that we want, rather than the way that Jesus taught them. Instead of pacing Satan behind us we allow self-righteousness and self-indulgence and self-sufficiency and self-desires to guide us. It is time that we recognize the hold that Satan has on our lives. It is time that we recognize that sin is a “a strong word, an ominous and serious word.” It is time that we say, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”