I attended a small Christian high school. Each year, we had a theme that we focused on throughout our chapel services and in our Bible classes. One year, the theme was Radical.
Dictionary.com defines Radical this way:
adjective
1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference.
2. thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms: a radical change in the policy of a company.
3. favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms: radical ideas; radical and anarchistic ideologues.
I've been thinking about this a lot, recently. Mostly, I've been thinking about how radical Jesus was. It's easy to learn Bible stories and view Jesus as a chill, happy-go-lucky guy. But that wasn't the case at all. We're talking about a man who had enough righteous anger to fashion a whip out of cords and drive people out of the temple courts, flipping tables as he went.
We're talking about a man who, not long after one of his followers (Peter) said the truest possible sentence (Matthew 16:16, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.") turned around and said, "Get behind me, Satan."
That interaction has been stuck in my mind for a while now. In part because I was curious what Peter had said to provoke such a response, but also because I wondered what would happen if I had the guts to speak truth in the same way.
Let's look a little closer at Matthew 16:21-28.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
"Get behind me, Satan" is not the full quote. It's what we tend to quote most often when we think of this passage, but it's not the whole story. Jesus finishes the rebuke with something more important: "You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."
Ouch. I hope similar words are never spoken to me or you. I pray that we may never be a stumbling block to God, that we have in mind the concerns of God, and not merely human concerns.
Imagine this with me for a moment: what would our lives look like if we weren't concerned with human affairs? What could we accomplish in the name of truth and love if, for once in our lives, we didn't care what our family members would say or think, if we didn't care if our friends would reject us, if we didn't care about anything other than what God cared about? Who would we spend time with? How would we spend our days? How would we rest? How would we worship? How would we give of ourselves and our resources?
As we move into 2019, I urge you to meditate on these questions. Apply them to you. Write down your answers. Make plans and goals and set people in place to help hold you accountable as you strive toward becoming more like God, caring more about what God cares about and less about how the world will react.
In the end, it is God's opinions that matter.
In the end, do you have the guts to pursue God above all else?
J. J. Hanna is a writer and reader who loves God and wants to help encourage others with what she knows and what she's learning. Answer her questions with a quick note and connect with her on social media. She's excited to hear from you!
Do you have a biblical reflection you'd like to share? Want to see your work published on Coffee Date? Submit your work here.