Love and Anger

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on March 26, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Mark 8:31-38.

            While Jesus was on earth, he was fully divine, but also fully human.  We say that, and we believe it, but I think sometimes we don’t think about all the implications of it.

            What I mean is that a lot of times, we seem to have this image of Jesus as this nice, calm, peaceful, easy-going guy.  Nothing ever got Him upset, nothing ever got Him angry.  He just accepted whatever happened and went about His business, healing people and spreading peace and love.

            But if we think about it, we know that image is not true.  After all, this is the guy who called the Pharisees “vipers” and “fools” and “blind guides”.  This is the guy who ran around the temple courts chasing the moneychangers with a whip.  The fully human Jesus had all the emotions that other humans have.  He could get upset.  He could get angry.  And we have another example of that in our Bible reading for today.

            Jesus is talking to the disciples.  He’s telling them what the future holds for Him on earth, what His fate is going to be.  Mark tells us Jesus “spoke plainly” about this.  In other words, this was not one of those times where Jesus was telling parables or using figures of speech.  Jesus was not being mysterious or enigmatic here.  Jesus was telling them right out.  I’m going to suffer, I’m going to be killed, and in three days I will rise again.

            The disciples did not want to hear that, of course.  And Peter, the leader of the disciples, challenges Jesus over it.  And Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan!”

            When you think about it, “Satan” would be about the worst name Jesus could possibly call you, right?  I mean, Satan is the biggest enemy Jesus has.  Satan is the one Jesus has to defeat.  You’d rather have Jesus call you just about anything than to have Him call you “Satan”.  You’d rather have Jesus call you a stupid idiot.  You’d rather have Jesus call you a moron.  You’d rather have Jesus start calling you four-letter names!  Anything but to call you Satan.

            And the way this is written, Jesus did not say this in a nice way.  This was not something Jesus said in a kindly tone of voice.  This was said with an exclamation point.  Jesus was not happy with Peter.  He was angry with Peter, and He let Peter know it.

            Now, you can understand why.  These things Jesus is telling the disciples cannot have been easy things for Him to say.  Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him, and He knew it had to happen, but that does not mean He was looking forward to it.  Nobody would, would they?  Would you?  Jesus was going to be betrayed by one of His closest friends.  He was going to be tortured.  He was going to be humiliated.  And then He was going to die in an incredibly painful way.  Yes, He knew He would be resurrected, but He still had to go through all that other stuff first.

            Jesus was going to go through all this, but He knew it was not going to be easy.  He would need the support of His friends.  And instead of support, here’s one of His closest friends, the leader of all His friends, arguing with Him about it.  Telling Him no, it’s not going to happen this way.  As if Peter knew more about what was going to happen than He, Jesus, the divine Son of God, knew.  You can understand why Jesus got upset with Peter here.

            But at the same time, think of it from Peter’s point of view.  Again, he’s the leader of the disciples.  Jesus was the one who had made him the leader, really.  Jesus was the one who had changed his name from Simon to Peter.  Jesus was the one who had told him that he, Peter, would be the rock on which Jesus was going to build his church.

            And from Peter’s perspective, he was only trying to help Jesus.  He was trying to tell Jesus he did not have to be killed, that Peter and the other disciples would be there for him and protect him and help him.  He was trying to tell Jesus that he was on Jesus’ side.  And for his trouble, Jesus calls him the worst name Jesus can call him.  Jesus calls him “Satan”.

            Peter must have felt about this big when that happened.  He must have been really hurt by it.  And of course, this happened in the presence of all the other disciples.  How do you think they reacted?  I would think they’d have been shocked.  They all respected Peter.  They probably all agreed with Peter on this.  And then to hear Jesus call him “Satan”?  They must have been stunned.

            But here’s the thing.  Jesus may have been upset with Peter at that moment.  He may even have been mad at Peter at that moment.  But despite that, Jesus never stopped loving Peter.

            Does that sound strange to you?  That Jesus could be mad at Peter and still love him?  It should not.  Think about it.  Think about the people in your life whom you love the most.  Have you ever been mad at them?  I think you probably have.  And they’ve probably been mad at you, too.  Again, anger is a human emotion.  As human beings, we feel it sometimes.  But that does not mean we don’t still feel love for them.

            Eventually, the anger fades.  Maybe we apologize.  Maybe they apologize.  Maybe we both apologize.  Maybe we just don’t say anything about it, we just move past it and pretend it never happened.  But somehow, in some way, we find a way to resolve the situation and keep loving each other.  Because the love we feel is greater than the momentary anger we felt.

            We don’t know how Jesus and Peter resolved this.  Mark drops the story there.  Maybe Peter apologized.  Maybe Jesus apologized, or at least explained things to Peter.  Maybe they never talked about it again.  But somehow, they resolved it, and Jesus kept loving Peter.  We know Jesus kept loving Peter because the next thing Mark tells us is that six days later, Jesus took Peter, along with James and John, up to the mountain for the transfiguration.  He allowed Peter to see Him in His glory, along with Moses and Elijah, returned to earth.  Out of all the people Jesus knew, even out of all the twelve disciples, Jesus chose Peter to be one of the three to see that.  Clearly, Jesus did not truly believe Peter to be Satan, or he would not have given Peter that honor.

            But while Jesus did not believe Peter was Satan, he was trying to teach him some things.  And one of the things he was trying to teach Peter is that God was in control and Peter was not.  Peter might not have wanted these things to happen.  Jesus, himself, may have wished these things did not have to happen.  But he knew this was the way God had determined that these things had to happen.  God’s way was best, even if Peter did not understand why, and it was not for Peter to say otherwise.  God was in control, not Peter.

            So why have I gone through all this?  Well, have you ever had a time when it felt like God was mad at you?  I think a lot of people feel that way, at one time or another.  Maybe you have no idea why.  Maybe you feel like you’ve done the best you can to serve God, and it still feels like God must be mad at you.  Or, maybe you feel like God has every right to be mad at you.  Maybe you think of things you’ve said or done that you think would give God every right to be mad at you.

            If you’ve ever felt that, know this:  God loves you.  No matter how it may feel, God loves you.  God will never stop loving you.  Whatever you may have said, whatever you may have done, God still loves you.  Completely, totally, and unconditionally.

            Now, it may be that you’ve said or done some things you need to ask for forgiveness for.  We all have.  That’s part of being human, too.  You may need to repent of your sins and ask for God’s mercy.  We all do.  And I’d encourage all of us, including myself, to do that.

            And it also may be, as with Jesus and Peter, that God is trying to teach you some things.  And it may be, just as it was with Peter, that one of those things is that God is in control and we are not.  There may be things happening that we wish would not happen.  But sometimes, those things are out of our control.  We need to turn them over to God, and trust that God will take care of them.  We need to trust that, when we do that, things will go the way God wants them to go, even if that’s not the way we want them to go.  God’s way is best, even if we don’t understand why, and it’s not for us to say otherwise.  God is in control, not us.

            But through all of that, God still loves you.  And God will stay with you.  God will not abandon you.  And if we stay with God, God will show us His glory.  Maybe not the way Peter saw it, but in some way.  And if it does not happen on earth, it will surely happen in heaven.

            No matter what may happen at the moment, God loves you.  God will always love you.  No matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God will always love you.  Completely, totally, and unconditionally.