The crown without the cross

In Matthew 16, after Peter’s confession of Christ, Jesus speaks of how He must be delivered up, suffer many things, die, and be raised the third day (Matthew 16:21). In vs. 22 Peter rebukes Jesus and says, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” Jesus follows by saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." What a shocking thing this must have been to Peter who was only trying to be a friend to Jesus and show his love for Him. Of course, Peter had did not fully understand what Jesus had to do.

In a way, Peter was trying to get Jesus to accept the same as Satan in Matthew 4:8-10. Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and told Jesus He could rule over it if He worshiped him. Jesus told Satan the same thing He told Peter: “Get behind me Satan!” The similarity between Satan and Peter is that they both wanted Jesus to have the crown without the cross. Peter had different reasons than Satan, but was still in error even though he had good intentions.

Imagine for a moment if Jesus did have the crown without the cross. What would be our condition? Hopelessly lost without a way of redemption! This is why Satan wanted Jesus to have the crown without the cross: so that all creation would be condemned! Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Why are we able to have redemption in Christ? Because He went to the cross! And since we can have redemption if we obey Christ (Hebrews 5:9), we have the opportunity to go to heaven and be with our King, who took the crown with the cross!

Jonathan Glaesemann