22nd Sunday 2026
Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27
Poor Peter: no sooner has he been given the Keys of the Kingdom than he finds himself in lumber. He is doing his best. He has been put in charge of the Church, so like any good leader, any good steward, he is keen to take responsibility; and like any good friend, he is keen to help.
Thus, when Jesus, his Lord and friend, talks about suffering and dying, Peter springs into action. He doesn’t make a public song and dance. Instead, he takes the Lord aside, and advises Him confidentially. “No Lord. You don’t need to worry about things like that. You’ve got me now to take care of things.”
And what happens? Far from being thanked for his concern, he receives both barrels: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance (literally, a ‘stumbling block’) to me.” How must Peter have felt at that moment? He is Jesus’ right hand man, and he is being called the devil.
Actually, he isn’t. Remember that Satan’s first role is as the Tempter,
and he is using Peter here to tempt Jesus. And Jesus is genuinely tempted: hence the force of His response, His reaction.
Jesus “turned” we are told. And Mark reports that in turning, “He saw His disciples”. It is almost as if He is turning at bay, and the sight of His disciples gives Him the strength to resist the temptation, and to address Satan whom He recognises as using Peter, His friend and lieutenant, to tempt Him. He is not so much calling Peter “Satan” as addressing Satan, the Tempter, whom He recognises as lurking within Peter. He is calling Satan out, showing that He realises what Satan is doing, and denouncing the temptation.
After the three Temptations in the wilderness, Satan, we are told, left Jesus “to return at the appointed time”. This is one of the appointed times: indeed, a more dangerous time. In the wilderness, Satan showed his hand very clearly: there was no doubt that these were temptations, and that Satan was responsible.
This time, Satan is more subtle, hiding within Peter, who believes that he is acting for the best. Who presents the greater temptation? the enemy, who makes his presence clear? Or the enemy who uses a friend to present an option which must have been attractive, offering a way out which will avoid the suffering which always loomed large in Our Lord’s self-understanding?
That Jesus felt the temptation keenly is evident from the violence of His reaction: that he recognised the source of the temptation is equally clear. That Peter was sincere, and possibly offering a genuine way out, would have enhanced the temptation’s strength. If there is something which you would prefer to avoid, and a friend tells you that you needn’t go through with it, how powerful is that? And if you are the friend, don’t you want to offer a loophole if you can? There is danger here for both parties.
How do we square Peter’s blunder with his leadership of the Church, his power of the Keys? When he proclaimed the true nature of Jesus, the Father was speaking through him, and he was infallible. When he attempts something on his own initiative, he is relying on his own insight and strength, and not on God’s power and inspiration. That gives Satan a loophole. Not only the Pope, but every Christian, must trust in God, rather than on our own supposed wisdom, and each of us must recognise that following Christ inevitably entails the Cross; there isn’t always an easy way out. Our Lord makes that clear in his ensuing remarks. We must take up our Cross and follow, leaving everything, including our lives, in the hands of God.
Jeremiah has already reached a similar conclusion. He complains bitterly to God that the latter has deceived him, or as the American Lectionary used to express it, has duped him (pronounced “dooped”). For Jeremiah, there was no avoiding God’s call, and that call was like a fire burning within him.
The call of Christ will bring difficulties to us as well, and we need to recognise these difficulties as a sharing in the Cross of Christ. That will transform them into something positive, and in refusing to attempt to avoid them, we, like Jesus, will overcome the temptations of Satan, even when he tempts us through the voice of a friend.
