Here’s a sentence you probably never expected me to type: I want you to think about Satan for a minute.
What are some images you get when you think about Satan? What ideas come to mind?
I’m sure most of us are aware that the “red-faced, pitchfork-poking devil” isn’t a realistic depiction of Satan, but that’s the cultural image most of us get when we think about him. And if you weren’t aware, yeah. Satan probably doesn’t look like that.
Admittedly, the physical descriptions of Satan are pretty lacking in the Bible. If you really want to picture the cartoon devil as your preferred image of Satan, who am I to stop you?
I bet there’s one image of Satan you never had, though, and that’s the face looking back at you in the mirror. I’m not proposing some horror movie trope here, either. This isn’t about a jump scare or a Kafka-esque transformation into a being of pure evil. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Brian Regan, one of my absolute favorite comedians, has a bit where he talks about Albert Einstein. He says, “If Einstein was so smart, how come any time somebody calls you Einstein it’s because you did something dumb? I don’t think we’re honoring that man’s name properly.”
It’s not just Einstein. Pretty much any time we use a celebrity’s name or a famous character as a nickname for someone, it’s as an insult. My wife was criticizing my cooking style recently and I just turned to her and said, “Yes, Chef Ramsay.”
It is exceedingly rare that a nickname is used out of the kindness of our hearts.
There was a time when Jesus, of all people, used a nickname to express a quite significant point.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”
Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Matthew 13:13-20 (NLT)
Well that’s not so bad. That’s actually pretty cool. Jesus looks at Simon and changes his name to Peter, saying that he will be the rock of the church. That’s a very, very high compliment from Jesus.
And yet…Jesus isn’t done quite yet.
From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.
But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
Matthew 13:21-23 (NLT)
There it is.
In the realm of insulting names to be called, I feel like Jesus looking at you and literally calling you Satan is pretty much the most crushing blow you can take.
There is an interesting debate about what Jesus is saying here, so let’s quickly look at the options.
“Nice job burning the pasta, General Sherman!” (Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash)
Some people believe that Satan has literally possessed Peter in this instance and Jesus is rebuking Satan to get out of him. Some people say that Satan is whispering in Peter’s ear and influencing him, and that Jesus is rebuking Satan to stop doing that.
Personally, I don’t buy any of that and I can’t see any evidence in Scripture for these interpretations. For starters, if Jesus was rebuking Satan, why would He tell Peter that he was only seeing things from a human point of view? Wouldn’t he say that Peter was looking at things from a Satanic point of view?
Also, when we see demonic possession in the Bible, people are acting violently and dramatically because it is traumatic to be possessed by a demon. Let alone Satan, the “Father of Lies” as he is often called.
I can somewhat get behind the idea that Satan is “whispering” to Peter, but no moreso than any of us are regularly influenced by our sinful natures.
Especially because the point Jesus is making here is much more powerful when we realize that Peter is the one acting of his own volition and not the literal Satan making him act this way.
The other point people make in this debate has to do with the literal meaning of the word “satan,” because this is not the first time a human is described as “satan” in Scripture. In 1 Samuel 29:4, David is called an adversary of the Philistines, but the word used here is “satan.” Even the angel of the Lord is called a “satan” in Numbers 22:22 when he stands as an adversary to Balaam and his donkey.
The reason we call the Devil/Lucifer/Beelzebub by the name Satan is because it is the Hebrew word for adversary. And what better name to refer to the one who opposes the Lord directly than the Adversary?
If you want to get into the weeds of the linguistics here, there is a longstanding debate about which incidents of “satan” are references to the individual and which ones are just garden variety adversaries, even though the distinction is pretty clear.
When Jesus calls Peter Satan, He isn’t generically calling Peter “an adversary.” Jesus is genuinely calling him Satan.
And now that you know what the name Satan means, I think you can understand more clearly why Jesus might say this. See, Peter was directly opposing God’s plan for Jesus in this moment.
“Are you really gonna call me Satan every time I take one of your pieces?” (Photo by Michal Vrba on Unsplash)
If you look ahead to the end of the story, you know that Jesus had to die and face the cross head-on in order to purchase the forgiveness for our sins. If Jesus side-stepped that moment, if He had avoided the cross and the resurrection, then we would still have no hope and would be dead in our sins.
What Peter suggests here is, for all intents and purposes, truly Satanic.
Ignore the fact that Peter is bold enough to rebuke Jesus and tell Him what to do. Ignore the fact that Peter is using his new authority to “forbid in Heaven,” granted by Jesus just a few verses prior.
What makes Peter’s actions worthy of the name Satan is that he is choosing to directly oppose the Lord’s will in someone else’s life.
When we look at someone else’s life and choose to give them our thoughts and opinions, we need to be careful that we are not arguing against God’s will. That’s not to say that you can’t offer people your advice and your counsel, but it’s best to make sure we take heed the words of Jesus to Peter: Do not look at things only from a human perspective.
If we must give people our thoughts on the matter, we would do well to seek God’s wisdom and provide a Godly point of view.
This is especially true when it comes to changes in the church. Change hurts. I’ll admit that I’m the person who hates change the most. But just disliking change doesn’t make change evil. When people want to make changes in the church, we can’t let ourselves get ruffled just because we don’t like the new changes people propose.
So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Ephesians 4:25-27 (NLT)
See there? That anger that overcomes us when we deal with a change we don’t like is what can open us up to acting as an adversary to the Lord’s will and can allow Satan to disrupt what the church is trying to do to honor and serve God.
Like Jesus says (shocker), we have to approach these changes in the church from God’s perspective. Admittedly, not every change is good. That’s why you’ll never hear me saying, “Embrace change wholeheartedly!” But you will hear me say to embrace change prayerfully and openly.
You might be saying to yourself, “Well if God wants the church to change, God will change the church!” Yes. That is true. God will ultimately have His way. However, God does let us choose which side of things we wish to be on.
I go back to the story of the Sanhedrin opposing Jesus’s Disciples after His death and resurrection, when one of the wiser members of their order offered his colleagues a stern warning.
When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered.
“So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”
Acts 5:33-39 (NLT)
And normally that’s not a cute, little Satan, either. (Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash)
You are welcome to disagree with God’s will for someone’s life. You are welcome to disagree with God’s will for the church. You are welcome to disagree with God’s will all you want! But, in doing so, understand that you are putting yourself in an unenviable position of opposing God Himself.
So keep this in mind. If we oppose the church and the Lord’s will just for the heck of it, we might find ourselves filling the role of Satan.