Monday
It is why cult leaders can be so effective.
They infiltrate a person’s emotions and thought process to offer false hope, and false doctrine. They say they care about you, but in actually they only care about themselves and their egos. They can make the whole group follow them even to committing suicide.
The false teachers Jesus is talking about are doing the same thing. Their interest is not about teaching the people about God, but serving their own interests. They don’t want Jesus telling people the truth and so they find ways to discredit Jesus. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t have any problems debating or dealing with the religious leaders.
In our reading today, Peter is also struggling with his own understanding of what Jesus is talking about. He gets that Jesus is God, but he doesn’t understand that Jesus needs to die in order to save us. How hard it must have been to be there with Jesus every day, but still struggle to understand. Although you need to remember Peter doesn’t have the benefit of the Holy Spirit yet. When he does receive the Holy Spirit what a change it will make.
I find it so comforting to know that even though Peter struggles and doesn’t always understand (as I often do) Jesus still loves him and continues to teach him the truth.
As I said, I find that I too, have days when I don’t understand why things happen the way they do, but I only need to look past where I am to where Jesus wants me to be and know that through my doubts or fears or misunderstandings, Jesus loves me and will guide me to where I need to be.
Shalom.
Pastor Kathy