As I sat in Mass this morning and listened to today’s Gospel reading, it settled into my soul pretty much the same as it always has in the past. When I returned home, however; God lead me back to this reading:

Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” [Mark 8:27-33]

To my surprise, this time it hit different than ever before. This part in particular, resonated in a new way:

Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Ok, excuse me!? Imagine being so headstrong as to rebuke Jesus! It’s actually quite laughable to think that any one of us would have the guts to straight up rebuke Jesus to His face, but that’s what Peter did in today’s Gospel reading. Even crazier, Peter rebukes Jesus immediately after verbalizing to His face that Jesus is THE Christ.

I invite you to imagine yourself as Peter. You are in the company of Jesus and He asks you, “Who do you say that I am?” Your response is, “You are the Christ.” Keep in mind that at this point in time you’ve already given up your former life in order to physically follow Jesus, so undoubtedly you believe in the depths of your soul that Jesus is the Christ, the One and Only, the Alpha and Omega. STILL when He begins to tell you about the future, what He knows is coming, and what He will endure, you actually have the audacity to rebuke Jesus and suggest that He doesn’t know what He’s talking about?!?! I mean…

How often do we do this in our own lives? Sure we might not be standing next to Jesus in the flesh, telling Him, “no, that’s not how the future is going to look,” but we say it and believe it in our minds. In our simple-minded, worrisome minds, we tell Jesus how our future will or won’t work out and we tell Jesus why our future could or couldn’t be a certain way. It’s simply ludicrous. We are Peter. We are soooo Peter.

We don’t have the vision of Jesus so we operate from the tiny scope of view that we do have and we wrap that little vision up in one arm, holding it tightly to ourselves, while at the same time swatting Jesus back with the other arm, rebuking Him saying, “No. Nope. It can’t be. It’s not possible. YOU have it wrong. Surely I know better.” We tell our literal Creator what can and can’t be and we choose to live in smallness. It’s a smallness the evil one strives to hold us in. But Jesus, He just says, ummm…. excuse me, I’m actually Jesus, you know… GOD, your Creator. The Creator. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. You can just chill out now and get behind me. He even says to Peter, one of His closest companions, these dreadful words, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Boom! That’s it! How often do we think not as God does, but as human beings do, AND THEN we try to control everything from that incredibly inferior place. That, my friends, is a tactic of the evil one. Quit living small. Quit confining your life to the smallness you’ve constructed.

Embrace God’s plan for your life and all that is still concealed, yet to be revealed. Jump into the adventure of your life in full trust of the one that is guiding you. Jump in without knowledge of the outcome and without tediously planning each step along the way. Jump in faith and trust, allowing God to lead your life. He has already planned your future, and all that is in store for you. It’s time for you to stop telling God how your life is going to go, and instead embrace the journey with God.

So what will you choose? Will you rebuke Jesus too, or will you saddle up beside Him and hold on for the ride?