While I Was Reading Sunday- Matthew 16

      In Matthew 16 there is a multifaceted discussion between Jesus and his apostles. This is the chapter where Jesus verifies to Peter that his testimony of the divinity of his Lord came from a heavenly source not man made reason. We call this divine revelation and every man, woman, and child is invited to seek out this source of information. Peter could have come to the conclusion that Jesus was divine, he had evidence that what he did and the effects he had on others were super-normal, but to have revealed to him through the Holy Ghost that Jesus was the Son Of The Living God was as powerful as it could possibly get. This kind of revelation goes through to your very soul. 

   Then comes disclosure that Jesus warns his disciples not to share. 

    Mark 8:30 "And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."

  This information outrages Peter who has just been glorying in his testimony. This is a man who should not be killed. This brings to mind the plot of a movie called "Stranger Than Fiction". Briefly, a writer is telling the story of a common man who in an effort to redeem himself changes so drastically that he by the end of the story, allows his own life to be taken to save the life of a young boy. The twist is that the character is actually alive. When the writer meets him she cannot bring herself to kill him off in her book, as everything she writes, happens to him. She says that he is a good man who should not be killed but be allowed to live. Certainly her view is focused on this mortal life and  the movie is trying to moralize about the value of our lives.

  Movie aside, Peter sees in the moment only the mortal view. Jesus does not deserve to die, he being perfect is the last man to deserve that fate. Yet, at that moment Peter is an anti-Christ. He mistakenly, denies the most important mission He has in mortality. One can understand the words of Jesus.

   Matthew 16: 23 "But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."
   Those words seem harsh but the atonement and resurrection affects every child of God in this world and in others. To create and save is more important than justifying his mortal life. For Peter these lessons in discipleship will long have an impact on his own mission.