ROOTED - Thursday, June 11, 2026

Mark
8:31-33

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man
must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief
priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise
again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter
took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But
turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind
me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on
the things of man.”

Reflection:
Christian Life Without Suffering

Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro

We
are not told what Peter said to Jesus. One might think that it must have been
some egregious thing that Peter said to deserve such a rebuke from Jesus. Peter
rebukes Jesus and Jesus rebukes him back. We might not know what Peter said,
but we do get to read what Jesus said in his counter-rebuke. “You are not
setting your mind on things above, but on things of man.” So, whatever
Peter said was something that accounted for life here on earth more than things
transcendent… “things of God.”

It
seems clear that Peter did not like what Jesus said… he was uncomfortable with
the notion that Jesus would be murdered and die. He, seemingly, was more
concerned with Jesus’ life here on earth than the eternal plan Jesus meant to
fulfill. And for this Jesus rebukes Peter as a mouthpiece of the enemy: “get
behind me Satan!” Jesus words are strong and they make a serious point. The
words of Christ remind us of a principal that we must never forget: the
Christian life is one of suffering and sacrifice. We are not promised an
easy road… ever. The Christian life is picking up crosses and dying to self. It
may cost us everything, but that is what we sign up for: to partake in Christ’
suffering. Like Peter we can be uncomfortable with that idea, but God’s ways
are higher and more important than ours. We must, like Peter, learn to keep our
mind on the things of God… on his interests. Otherwise we become a mouthpiece
for the Enemy.

Prayer

Lord,
may we, remember that life in you will be hard… but your ways are higher than
ours.

As Pastor Jesse concludes his time on staff, our Rooted devotionals will also be taking a break for a season. Thank you for joining us on this journey through God's Word.