Biblion Bible Commentary
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Get Behind Me, Satan
Matthew 16:21-28
21 From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. · WEB
The first plain announcement of the cross, the sharpest rebuke Peter ever receives, and the terms of following.
From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up Matthew 16:21.
From that time is one of the hinges of the book; the same phrase opened the Galilean preaching Matthew 4:17. The confession has been made, and only now does the teaching turn. Nothing is veiled: the city, the parties, the death, and the third day. The resurrection is in the first announcement and will be in every one that follows, and it is never the part they hear.
The exchange is in the earlier account Mark 8:27–38. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you" Matthew 16:22. Taking him aside is a kindness — this is not done in front of the others — and the sentiment is affection. The man who has just been told he was shown something by the Father now corrects the Father's plan on the basis of what he thinks a Christ is for.
"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men" Matthew 16:23.
The severity is startling and the reason for it is in the wording. The last voice that offered him the kingdoms without the cross was the one in the wilderness Matthew 4:8–10, and it was answered with the same two words. What Peter is saying is the wilderness offer arriving in a friendly voice, out of genuine love, and that is what makes it dangerous enough to be named.
The diagnosis is the merciful part: you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men. It is not an accusation of malice. It is a description of whose interests are being consulted, and it is the ordinary condition of everyone who has ever wanted God to arrange things a different way.
"If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" Matthew 16:24. The terms are given to the whole group, immediately, as the correction to what Peter wanted. A man carrying a crossbeam through a street was going one place and everyone who saw him knew it; there is no version of this in which the image is a mild inconvenience.
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it" Matthew 16:25. The saying is a piece of arithmetic, not a demand for misery. Both men in it are trying to keep their life; one holds on and it runs out anyway, and the other lets go and gets it back.
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?" Matthew 16:26. The second question is the one that closes the argument. Once it is gone there is nothing left to trade with, because the thing you would have paid with is the thing you spent.
"For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will give to everyone according to his deeds" Matthew 16:27. The accounting is dated. Everything in the paragraph depends on there being a settlement, and it is set at his coming rather than in this life, which is why the arithmetic looks so bad from where they are standing.
"There are some standing here who will in no way taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom" Matthew 16:28. The saying has puzzled readers, and the Gospel answers it in the next sentence: six days later three of them are taken up a mountain and see him transfigured. One of those three later described that day in exactly these terms, as having been an eyewitness of his majesty 2 Peter 1:16–18.
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