Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Get behind me, Satan!” This is not the first time we hear these words in Matthew’s Gospel. During Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the wilderness, Satan puts him through three temptations. In one of them, Satan shows him all the kingdoms of the world. He offers Jesus kingship without suffering, without the cross: all he has to do is bow down and worship. Jesus answers, “Get away, Satan!“ Matt 4:1–11, esp. vv. 8–10.

The word Jesus uses for “Get away” is the exact same word he uses today when he rebukes Peter. Matt 4:10 and Matt 16:23 use the same Greek imperative, ὕπαγε (hypage), “go” or “depart.” But to Peter he adds two more words: “behind me.“ ὀπίσω μου (opisō mou), “behind/after me.”

Those two words make all the difference. They are the same words Jesus uses when he calls his disciples to follow him. Matt 4:19 reads δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου (deute opisō mou), “Come after me”; Matt 16:24 reads εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν … ἀκολουθείτω μοι (ei tis thelei opisō mou elthein … akoloutheitō moi), “Whoever wishes to come after me … must follow me.” In rebuking Peter, then, Jesus brings together the words he spoke to the tempter and the words he speaks to his followers. To Satan: “Get away.” To Peter: “Get behind me.”

Peter has placed before Jesus a similar temptation. The Lord has told the disciples that he must go to the cross, that the cross is necessary. Matt 16:21, NA28: δεῖ (dei), “it is necessary” or “he must,” governs Jesus’ going to Jerusalem, suffering, death, and resurrection. Peter steps forward and says, in effect, “No, it isn’t. There must be a way without suffering.”

Jesus rejects that temptation in Peter, but he does not reject Peter. Even though Peter has failed and taken on the role of tempter, Jesus calls him back to the place of a disciple: behind the Lord.

A disciple is one who follows. And now it is unmistakably clear where the Lord is going: to the cross. To stand behind Jesus is to follow him on the way of the cross. To be his disciple is to take up our cross and follow the Lord.

This is the heart of discipleship, and we do not want to hear it. Saint Peter did not want to hear it. We want to imagine that salvation—that life in Christ—might be possible without suffering. But the Lord offers us no path around the cross. We must go to the cross, and we must go willingly.

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

The more tightly we grasp this world—our own will, our own desires, our longing for perfect comfort and security—the more wickedness we will do to secure it. The more hatred will grow in our hearts toward those who inconvenience us or threaten to take it away.

Only when we loosen our grip, accept the sufferings that come our way, and acknowledge that we are above neither suffering nor anyone else—only when we follow the Lord to the cross as servants, even as slaves—will we find our lives. Only there will we find true freedom.

In authentic Christianity, the cross is not an option. It is the very source of salvation, and it is our destination. If we truly want happiness, peace, justice, and life, we will find them only at the cross.