Peter, Peter, Peter – Last week, we heard his great confession of faith - "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." – and Jesus gave his great response - And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Peter – the first pope – he is holding the keys – and only a couple of verses later, we have another exchange between Peter and Jesus - This time considering Christ’s death – and His response to Peter this time, – “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.” – What has changed? – Did Peter lose his faith in who Christ is? What did Peter do to get such a rebuke? – … - He told Christ what he thought he should do – “Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
Peter knows who Christ is – we heard that confession last week – and that has not changed - but he also has his ideas about what that means – and about how the Messiah should save the world – And his way does not include suffering, crucifixion, or death. And here, we have a lot in common with St Peter, for we all have our ideas about how things should work – about what God should and should not do.
One thing I hear all the time is – “I can’t believe in a God that says/does x” – Usually, these are things that God does not say or “I can’t believe in a God that hates people” – but God does not – but there are times where this is far more understandable – “I can’t believe in a God that would let good people die of cancer” - “I can’t believe in a God that lets war and natural disaster’s happen” - ”I can’t believe in a God that lets Hell exists” - … - these are all evil – our hatred of them is reasonable – what is the problem with these statements? – We are judging God by our standards!
In doing this, we put ourselves over God - saying his existence is based on whether we approve – God must meet what I think he should be - yet if God is in any sense God – then our standards are not what is important – God exists whether we approve or not. Further, it is our understanding that comes up short – those things we do not understand have a reason far greater than we can understand. God is all good, all-powerful, all knowing – we are not. Judging God by our standards is not the answer – for there really are things we do not understand – why these things are allowed are reasonable questions – but saying that God does not exists or judging God is the answer.
Let us return to Peter – the remarkable rebuke against him is that he “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." – He knows very well who Christ is – the Messiah, the son of the living God – but he thinks he knows what that means and what Christ should do – He must learn to think as God does – which is not how the world does. By the world’s way of thinking – Christ should save the world by coming in to conquer on the shining horse – but instead, Christ will enter Jerusalem on a donkey – instead of conquering, he will die on the cross – only from there rising from the dead and ascending into heaven – defeating sin and death.
Here is a paradox at the heart of the Gospel, and a paradox that points to a good beyond imaging – that death leads to life- the cross to salvation – that “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Christ defeat death by going through it – we our salvation involves following – not thinking of Man – but of God.
It is this paradox that is the challenge. The disciples surely did not understand when Christ was arrested – or when he died and was in the tomb – they fled in fear – these only made sense later – yet it pointed to a glory that is beyond anything the disciples could have imaged.
“I can’t believe in a God that would let good people die of cancer” - “I can’t believe in a God that lets war and natural disasters happen” - ”I can’t believe in a God that lets Hell exist” – why does God let these things happen – the short answer – We do not know – but then Peter did not know why Christ had to die. – The disciples were confused as every – it is ok if we do not understand – but let us not in pride try to tell God if he is allowed to exist or not – let us not tell God what is good – instead, let us not think as man does – instead have the humility to say we do not know – instead of judging God by our standards, let pray that we might start to think as God thinks – hard as it might be for us to see any good in it.
For we do not always know best – what good can come from allowing evil? We do not know – Has that cancer helped pull someone closer to the cross of Christ and their salvation? We do not know – has war and natural disaster reminded someone of their weakness and called souls to repentance and salvation? We do not know – perhaps hell’s existence is a statement of God giving us freedom and our ability to love God truly; allowing the good of heaven.
Just like Peter, we tend to think as man thinks, but let us pray for humility – that we do not know. Instead of trying to judge God by our standards – put us over God – let us instead listen to the advice of St. Paul - “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”