How many times do we open our mouths and start talking before we even start thinking? Peter seemed to have that problem. In today’s reading, he demonstrated it. Once he got it right and once he was totally wrong. The third time, well he didn’t know what to say so he just started talking.
The first and most important thing he said was in Matthew 16:16 when he announced that he believed Jesus to be the Messiah. Wow! After all the confusion over loaves of bread and uncertainty about how to feed the crowds, Peter got it right. But we also have to note that it was because God revealed it to him.
Within a few minutes, Peter completely blows it. When Jesus explains that the Messiah must suffer, die, and be resurrected, he looks at it strictly from a worldly viewpoint. He has the audacity to tell Jesus it won’t happen. Excuse me, Peter, here is the Messiah, the anointed one of God explaining what must take place and you are going to tell him what is right and wrong regarding prophecy?
The third time is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter is so far out of his element that he starts making plans for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. He hasn’t put the suffering Messiah in context with what he is seeing so he just runs ahead of God suggesting his own plan. It doesn’t interrupt God at all. God covers them with a cloud and tells Peter, John, and James the most important thing that they need to do. They need to listen to Jesus.
Our problem isn’t usually much different that Peter’s. We may be inspired by God on occasion and really understand what is going on. That is glorious. It is marvelous and we should always be in God’s word looking for these “Ah-ha” moments. But we need to do more than feel good about them, we need to apply them to our lives. Just as Jesus then informed the disciples what it meant to be the Messiah, we need to apply these inspirations to our lives or we will simply be looking at them from a human perspective. That is no better than listening to Satan because the human perspective most often opposes God’s purpose for our lives.
Then there is the other problem of running ahead of God. We are impatient beings, but God wants us to be patient. Peter couldn’t wait to find out what was going on. He had to jump into the middle of a divine moment and open his mouth. The lesson here is that it didn’t faze God. He kept right on schedule and taught us an important lesson. Our plans don’t stop what God wants to happen. When we see the glory of Jesus, we can’t let the excitement of the moment distract us into doing some works from our own imagination. Instead, we need to make sure we are listening to Jesus.
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