From the Rector
Dear Friends in Christ,
I was asked recently why Jesus is so harsh with his famous scolding of Peter, “Get behind me Satan!” I venture to say that most of us, if we had a religious leader call us Satan, would be at least a little depressed if not outright angry.
Yet, what often gets forgotten is what follows.
He adds, “For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” It is right after Peter gets upset at hearing Jesus talk of his suffering and death that he gets this lashing from him.
Peter, understandably, has no desire to see what Jesus describes. He doesn’t want to follow a messiah who is on his way to death. As Jesus lays out what will happen it sounds too human—too much of what Peter already knew. So naturally, Peter objects.
Yet, Jesus has a different course in mind for this too human experience of suffering and death.
He knows that he will transform it. He will take this thing we all share and break it—and make of what comes next a source of grace and life.
He will take the crucifixion and make of that breaking of the Body a kind of sacrament—an outward and visible sign of the grace at the heart of the resurrection hope.
Yet, the breaking must happen for it to be healed. The death must come for there to be new life. The stone must be fit in place for it to be rolled away.
When Peter hears of death he does not yet know of the life to come.
That’s the pattern of our lives. We know what we know and we fear what we don’t.
Jesus says to Peter, in some way, if you would think I’m trapped by only what you know then you are a kind of Satan. You would have me be stuck, pinned, by death but I will loosen death’s grip and walk with you toward something you cannot imagine.
Satan traps us in this world—mires us in what we’ve known—and makes us believe nothing new, nothing holy, nothing life-giving is to come. Satan is the absence of hope.
Jesus wants his disciples to see and hear and walk by faith. It is that faith that will hold them for just three short days as they wait for the undoing of death.
As they while away the dark night they scarce realize that there is an in-breaking of hope on his way.
What new hope is Jesus planting in you this Lent? How is Satan teasing you with the temptation to believe nothing can change? What has been rolled in your path this season waiting to be rolled away? What is God at work blessing in your life? What is he making whole that you thought was broken beyond repair?
May this Lent be a time of refreshed hope, renewed courage, and of fixing our minds and hearts on the Holy One.
Yours in Christ,
—Fr Robert