the Tempter

Thursday March 16th, Mark 8: 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Satan is seen not as the harbinger of evil as we see Satan today, but as the tester. After his baptism, Jesus was tested by Satan out in the desert for 40 days. Here Satan comes as a tester in the form of Peter’s desire for the easy way out. For Jesus however, the path ahead leads not to the easy way and to his own personal salvation, but to the salvation for the whole world. When we seek only our own satisfaction, we tend to short circuit what God has in mind for our mission.