Kingdom Living in Action

This is long so I decided to do a new post rather than a comment.

You are on the right track.

So, how did Jesus know he was going to die? He must have had the channel open between his heart and the river of God in order to know the will of the Father.

Here is where you need to do some meditation on and visualization of the scene and what must have been going on. Do you think the Father's plan distressed him? If you have any doubt, check out Jesus in the garden the night of his arrest (or the Passion movie scene). Do you think the components of his "self" were rebelling against this idea and had plans of their own?

So he shares this very personal revelation with his disciples, preparing them for what will happen. He needs to keep them in the loop, because they will carry on his work. Do you think this news distressed the disciples? They had left everything and were following this dude who was amazing to be around. They must have known they were on the ground floor of something huge. Peter's response to hearing this news is to pull Jesus aside and strongly object. Can you blame him?

Here is where you have to imagine the scene. Jesus has probably been having an ongoing internal struggle with the plan (we can guess this from the garden scene). Peter, his lead disciple and best friend, pulls him aside and emotionally pleads with him that this should/will not happen (remember at the garden, he was prepared to fight for him). All the yellow arrows, his thoughts, feelings, bodily instinct for survival, and social influences (Peter) were aimed right at his will (heart).

What a classic battle of the will! It does not get any more intense than this. It had to be even more intense than his temptation in the desert. Do you think that may have been one of the reasons why Jesus did the 40 day fast (or perhaps why the Spirit led him there), to prepare him for this day and the night in the garden? In Day 2, we will need to unpack the role of the spiritual disciplines in kingdom living. They are important.

Remember I told you to pay attention to the first part of v 33? You have to try and visualize this and put everything in context. It is speculation, but not hard to imagine. We can assume that Jesus has been internally trying to deal with what he knows (through his relationship with the Father) is His will – that he was going to die a horrible death. Because of this connection with the Father (waving lines!), he has determined (will/heart) that he will obey (otherwise he would not be telling this to his disciples), but everything (all the yellow arrows) is screaming for another way. His best friend inadvertently, but understandably, cranks up the pressure by insisting it will not be. Imagine the internal struggle that Jesus may have been having! Perhaps Peter is right, maybe there is another way. Why not, God? What is Jesus going to do?

Remember, the will/heart/spirit is relatively weak. You know the verse: the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak? What this really means is that that the flesh (yellow arrow) is strong and can overpower the spirit. Without the resources of God (wavy lines coming from the River of God into the heart), it is no match for the flesh. But with the sufficient resources of God (2 Peter 1:3), we have all we need to win the match if we stay connected to Him and will (heart/spirit) to obey God’s will rather than the flesh.

They are a bit away from the other disciples, Peter has just finished his "rebuke." Can you sense the pause here? Jesus slowly turns his head and sees his trusted disciples (v33), the ones that will carry on his message of the kingdom. (I love the black letters!) Jesus pauses there for a moment as he centers himself (where do you think he learned to do this?), and in his heart, wills to obey. [Picture here the scene in Lord of the Rings where the fairy queen (or whatever her role was) was with Frodo and she is staring at the ring, imagining what it would be like if she were to have all the power in the ring, but then she snaps (wills) out of it.] He turns back to Peter, looks him in the eye, and says: Get behind me Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." He was not saying Peter was Satan or possessed by him. He was highlighting what was going on “behind the scenes”, that is in his heart and Peter’s role as a social influence.

Once he rebukes Peter, he stays in the moment, calls his disciples to gather around and he tells them one of the most profound teachings about what it takes to live in the kingdom.

Kingdom living in action from the Master himself.