Mark 8:31-33 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
Then he [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
One thing you’ll hear about Jesus is that he’s the Prince of Peace.
But read the stories about Jesus, and you will find that the Prince of Peace got into a lot of arguments.
He doesn’t go along to get along.
He doesn’t seem to be the calm and peaceful person we had in mind.
You see this in the way that he speaks to his number one fan, Peter.
Peter has a breakthrough moment when he blurts out the truth: You are the Messiah!
Jesus then explains what sort of Messiah he will be, a Messiah who suffers to the point of death. Peter, though, will have none of it.
Peter knows very well what a Messiah is supposed to be like and what a Messiah is supposed to do.
It most certainly does not involve humiliation, such as Jesus is talking about.
So Peter offers Jesus the benefit of his wisdom, which Jesus in turn totally rejects.
He addresses Peter in the most insulting way we can imagine, calling him Satan!
What is going on here?
Maybe Jesus really is the Prince of Peace, but he has a rather different notion of peace.
Could it be that telling Peter and the others the truth about the way that the Kingdom comes is Jesus actually acting as the Prince of Peace?
Now in those days when Jesus and Peter were rebuking each other, there was another vision of peace that had taken hold.
It’s called the Pax Romana.
This is the peace introduced to the world by the Roman emperor and his mighty empire.
It was a sort of peace. It kept everyone in their place.
It was advertised as a great improvement over anarchy.
Peter’s problem is that he’s buying into Rome’s way of keeping the peace.
Might makes right.
That has a ring to it, and the Roman version of peace is still popular in our day.
But along comes Jesus. He rejects the Roman strategy.
Tracy Daub, in her book, Holy Disruption, has this to say about Jesus’ kind of peace: “Peace is an essential aspect of Jesus’ agenda. However, Jesus radically dismantles the world’s counterfeit version of peace to offer us that which is authentic and reliable. … God’s kingdom will not be won by replicating the systems and structures of dominance. Rather, God’s realm will come through transforming this world through the supremacy of humility, sacrifice, and love. Jesus inverts the world’s notions of how to wield power and how to achieve peace.”
So Rome offers an alternative vision of peace, different from shalom, which Jesus rejects.
Jesus was arrested and crucified.
But on the third day, he was raised.
Jesus has introduced genuine peace into our world.
He grants us peace, peace with God, peace with one another,
Jesus is a true peacemaker.
Let’s join him. Let’s be followers of the true Prince of Peace.
