Get behind me, Satan!

Peter is confused. Moments before he had given his bold and correct confession, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29) Now he is being pulled aside and admonished by the Christ.

Although Peters knows the right answer, he doesn’t know how he got there. It’s like a student who got the right answer on his math problem, but didn’t show his calculations, so he doesn’t know how he got there.

Jesus then starts describing what being the Christ entails. He begins to teach the disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the religions leaders, be killed, and then rise from the grave on the third day.

Peter objects. His calculations and Jesus’ calculations about the Christ aren’t the same. Worse than objecting, Peter pulls the Son of Man aside and rebukes Him for talking like that. The student tries correcting the math teacher on the right answer.

For his efforts, the student receives a harsh rebuke in return. “Get behind me, Satan” (Mark 8:33)!

It seems that no matter where Jesus goes in the Gospel of Mark, there is the devil or one of his heinous henchmen tempting, taunting or terrorizing. Jesus meets the devil in the wilderness among the wild animals and defeats him (Mark 1:13). Jesus confronts him in the Capernaum synagogue and casts him out with authority (Mark 1:23-26). Jesus encounters him in the tombs of the Gerasenes and casts out the Legion into a herd of pigs who cliff dive into the Galilean Sea (Mark 5:13).

Every time they meet, the Woman’s Seed steps onto the neck of the Ancient Serpent (Genesis 3:15). The Son of God drives away the demonic angel.

This time, Satan is heard in the voice of Jesus’ lead disciple – Peter.

Russian realist painter, Ilya Yefimovich Repin, was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19^th century. It is said that Repin’s position in the art world was comparable to that of Leo Tolstoy in literature. Repin played a leading role in brining Russian art into the mainstream of European culture.

Repin was praised for his ability to reproduce human life with powerful and vivid force. Leo Tolstoy later stated that Repin “depicts the life of the people much better than any other Russian artist.”

In his 1895 painting, Get Behind Me, Satan, Repin truly portrays Satan behind Jesus. The realism seen in the majority of Repin’s other paintings isn’t in this painting. The realism isn’t needed. The faint outline of Christ and the devil is perhaps even more potent without the usual realism.

Many other artists portray Peter walking behind Jesus or Jesus strongly rebuking Peter away from the rest of the disciples. Repin, though, portrays Peter as he really was at that moment – the devil himself.

Get Behind Me, Satan, 1895 by Ilya Repin (1844-1930)

On a hill in Caesarea Philippi, Satan tries once again to lead Jesus away from the cross.

That is the way of Satan – to lead people away from the cross. He tried it with Jesus in the wilderness, tempting Jesus to receive back all the kingdoms of this world, if only He would not go to the cross. To forget about this atoning sacrifice business. Satan wants Jesus to believe that suffering, crucifixion, and dying for sin is not necessary.

Since the removal of the cross did not work on Jesus, Satan tries the same temptation on us. He is a one-trick pony. He doesn’t want us going to the cross. He either tempts us by minimizing our sin or he tempts us by reminding us of our sin.

Although Jesus was more than a match for Satan, we are much more malleable.

God sent His Son into this world because He knew that sin is not only damaging, it is damning. God knows our sin. But, by the glorious grace of our God, He has forgotten our sins. He has washed it our of His memory with the waters of our baptism. He has covered our sins with Jesus’ divinely human blood. He has eliminated our sins from His memory. He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. God knows our sins, but because of Jesus Christ, He isn’t keeping track.

The devil, on the other hand, is keeping track. He knows every one of your sins. His first trick, though, is to get you to forget about your sins. To get you to believe that your sins aren’t that big of a deal; they aren’t all that damaging; and they certainly aren’t damning. He even tempts you to believe they aren’t really sins at all. Merely inconsequential transgressions.

We don’t want to believe that we are transgressors. We’re pretty good people who can’t help making occasional mistakes. Supposedly, genetics tell us that we are born with certain dispositions. Science claims that we’re not responsible for our sad situations. Psychology removes all guilt from our consciences.
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We, as Christians, have bought into this line of thinking. When our children mess up, we blame the teachers instead of the student. When we gossip, it’s merely telling stories. When we lust, it’s because we’re not getting enough love from our spouse. When we cheat, it’s because we need to get ahead. When we get angry, it’s because the other person made us that way. When we fail to worship, its’ because we can be a Christian without regularly hearing Christ’s words of forgiveness.

Our human brains cannot comprehend the depth of our corruption. Because we are born sinners into a sinful world, all we know is sin. Sin looks normal. Sin looks the way things are. We cannot understand the desperate brokenness of our world because we’re broken, too. We look at our brokenness and think that’s what wholeness looks like. We go after things that cause death thinking they will give us life. Satan keeps us in this confused state so that we are satisfied; so that we do not yearn for something better; that we don’t desire what Christ is offering.

So, rather than dwell on our sins and the damage and damnation they cause, Satan urges us to forget about them all together.

The second trick of the devil is to constantly remind us of our sins. Though God forgets our sins for the sake of Jesus, the Christ, Satan is certainly keeping track. He remembers what you did as a kid that was so awful that you got the paddle on the behind. He remembers when you were a teenager and bullied those who were different from you. He remembers your college years when you fell deep into sin. He enjoyed how easy you made everything for him. You hardly put up a fight. You indulged in every sin your pastor warned you about in Confirmation Class. You didn’t go to church. You didn’t confront your sins with God’s Law or receive absolution through God’s Gospel. You weren’t eating and drinking the true body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith.

The devil’s knowledge of our sins is extensive. That is why he so easily tempts and teases us with past, present, and even future sins. The devil knows sin – both how to minimize it and how to emphasize it.

The devil only has one trick. It is getting us to look away from the cross. Because it is there on the cross that Jesus deals with sin. The devil puts before our eyes the things of men. Jesus puts before us the things of God.

These are the things of God: “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:34,35).

Satan’s way is to enjoy a life of ease and comfort, secure in your sin. Jesus’ way is to follow Him to the cross. It is to deny yourself the sinful pleasures of this world. It is to constantly pray that your heavenly Father leads you away from temptation. It is to pray every evening and morning that the wicked foe have no power over you. It is to confess your sins of nature, thoughts, words, and actions. Verbalize your wickedness to those whom you’ve hurt. Express your corruption to the God whom you’ve offended. Repent and turn away from your many and varied sins.

That’s what it means to deny yourself and follow Jesus to the cross.

You need to kill your sinful nature. Drown your Old Adam in the waters of baptism at the font. Nail your sinful nature to Christ’s cross. Bury your Old Self in Christ’s tomb. That’s how you receive true life – by dying to your old way of life.

We know sin. That’s all we’ve ever known. But then, the One who knew no sin, stepped into this world that only knows sin. Into this world stepped the One who had no sin, but knew the mind of God. Into this world stepped the Author of Life, to teach us how to crucify and kill our sinful nature so that we might have true life in Him. Life, not as we imagine it, but as He created it.

Jesus came to suffer and die for our sins. He came because He knows your sins. He is the Christ. To be the Christ means He comes to save sinners. To save sinners means that Jesus takes your sin seriously. Your sin deserves punishment. Your sin deserves death. But, Jesus doesn’t want you to suffer, be punished or die eternally. That’s why He came as the Christ – to take your sins.

Jesus takes your sins to His cross. He loves our lives so much, He loses His life. He forfeits this world to give us His heavenly Father’s world. He exchanges His divine life for our eternal souls. He is not ashamed to make this adulterous and sinful generation His chosen people (Mark 8:36,37).

Because of what Jesus accomplished at the scourging pole, on the Roman cross, and in the borrowed tomb, now God has forgotten your sins. He doesn’t keep track of them anymore.

Only the devil does that.

St. Paul teaches us that “God demonstrates his own love us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While we were still sinners, the Son of God took on human flesh to also become known as the Son of Man. He did this so that He could take our sins upon Himself. That’s how seriously He takes every one of our sins – the sins we forget, the sins we ignore, and the sins that haunt us. He takes our sins to the cross. He dies for those sins so that we might have a new life in Him.

But, the Christ did not take our sins to give us our old life back again. It isn’t the old, patched-up, repaired life – but a brand-new life. A better life. A life not set on things of men, but a life set on the things of God.

That life comes only through Christ placed on the cross and the cross Christ places on us.

The only thing Satan fears in this world is the cross. He doesn’t fear you and me – he toys with you and me. He knows that Christ finished His redemptive work on the cross. He knows that Christ silences the accuser’s voice on the cross. He knows that Christ crushes the Ancient Serpent’s head on the cross. He knows that Christ pays for the world’s sins on the cross. He knows that Christ gives His broken body and shed blood to sinners on the cross.

Satan hates it when you follow Christ to the cross. He hates it when you deny yourself, bow your head, confess your sins, hear Christ’s absolution, make the sign of the cross over yourself, hear God’s Words for the strengthening of your faith, offer your prayers, sing God’s praises, and open your mouth to receive the body and blood of Jesus. Because, when you are doing those things, you are silencing the demonic voice whispering in your ear. Then, you are rebuking the devil. You’re not his. You belong to the Christ. You are yelling at the devil, “Get behind me, Satan!”