Matthew 16:22 Commentary and Bible Study

But Peter immediately proves the point. His mind cannot accept what he has just been told. His view of the Messiah does not fit with this. The evident contradiction in these words is glaringly obvious: he calls Christ his Lord, and yet presumes to correct him. ‘It can't be like this. You can't be heading for suffering and death.’ He could not understand this. The Lord had just told him, ‘I am going to suffer and die.’ No, says Peter. He loves the Lord; he is devoted to him; he has given up everything for him, but you see there are still things not in position in his mind, and the Lord says to him, ‘You savour not the things of God’ – God's plan and my way of salvation and the price I shall pay – ‘but you savour the things that be of men’ – an earthly Saviour who will just get rid of the Romans and make the land prosperous, and give some righteousness and blessing on the way, almost as an incidental. One day, though he not wearing a sword, though he is not rich and splendid, one day he will be our national deliverer. So they came to the wrong conclusion, even though they got part of it right. Peter reacted and rebuked the Lord, the one he believed was God. Whatever possessed him to say such a thing? Maybe he thought that the Christ who had never spoken in this way before, was like a man, failing and depressed and crushed and was giving up. What was in Peter's mind? You later find out that there was much discussion among the disciples as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Who would as it were be the Chancellor of the Exchequer; who would be the Justice Secretary? That is what they had in their minds. ‘There is something here for us. We are going to be great ones in this new kingdom.’