From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. 22 Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” 23 He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. 28 Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
The words “from that time on” mark an important turning point in Matthew’s Gospel. Peter has just confessed that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Now Jesus begins to teach His disciples what being the Messiah will mean. He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised (v. 21). The word “must” is important. Jesus’ Passion is not an accident that unexpectedly interrupts His mission. His suffering, death, and Resurrection belong to God’s saving plan. Jesus knows what awaits Him and freely continues toward Jerusalem. Nor does His announcement end with death. He tells the disciples from the beginning that He will be raised on the third day. The Cross and the Resurrection belong together.
Peter cannot accept this. Only moments earlier, he had correctly confessed Jesus as the Messiah. Yet his understanding of the Messiah is still incomplete. A suffering and rejected Messiah does not fit what Peter expects. He therefore takes Jesus aside and protests, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you” (v. 22).
Jesus’ words, “Get behind me, Satan!” carry several related meanings (v. 23). In the immediate sense, Jesus is telling Peter to get out of His path. Peter is trying to prevent Him from following the road appointed by the Father—the road that leads through suffering and death to the Resurrection. The words “get behind me” also restore Peter to the proper place of a disciple. A disciple does not stand before Christ and tell Him which path He should follow; the disciple belongs behind Christ, following where He leads. Jesus’ command therefore prepares for what He says immediately afterward: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (v. 24). Finally, the rebuke has a deeper theological meaning. By urging Jesus to reject the Cross, Peter has unknowingly repeated the kind of temptation previously presented by Satan: to pursue messianic glory without the obedient suffering that belongs to the Father’s saving plan (Matthew 4:1–11). Jesus is not saying that Peter has become Satan; rather, Peter has momentarily taken the position of an adversary by opposing the path God has appointed.
Jesus also tells Peter, “You are an obstacle to me.” The word conveys the idea of a stumbling stone—something placed in another person’s path that can cause him to fall. The contrast is striking. Shortly before this, Jesus called Peter the rock on which He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18). When Peter speaks according to what the Father has revealed, he stands as the rock; when he allows ordinary human expectations to determine what Jesus ought to do, he becomes a stumbling stone.
Jesus identifies Peter’s fundamental mistake: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (v. 23). Peter has correctly recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but he still expects God’s saving plan to conform to human ideas of success, power, and victory. Jesus now teaches that God’s way leads through the Cross to the Resurrection. He then extends that teaching from His own mission to the life of every disciple: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (v. 24).
To deny oneself does not mean despising oneself. It means refusing to make oneself the center of one’s existence and submitting one’s will to God’s will. In this passage, Peter’s reaction shows the opposite impulse: he wants God’s saving plan to conform to his own expectations. Jesus calls the disciple to surrender that self-directed way of thinking and to entrust his life to God.
To take up one’s cross would have been a disturbing expression to Jesus’ first hearers. Crucifixion was a brutal Roman form of execution. The image therefore carried far more weight than the ordinary inconveniences that we sometimes call our “crosses.” Jesus is telling His followers that discipleship can involve real sacrifice, suffering, rejection, and even the loss of earthly life. Fidelity to Him must come before self-preservation.
Then comes one of Jesus’ great paradoxes: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (v. 25). Two kinds of life are brought together here. There is our present earthly life, which eventually ends in death, and there is the eternal life with God that Christ offers. A person could preserve earthly security by abandoning Christ and still lose what is infinitely more valuable. Conversely, someone may surrender everything for Christ—even earthly life itself—and receive the life that cannot be taken away. Jesus therefore asks, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (v. 26). Wealth, possessions, success, comfort, and power are temporary. Even possession of the entire world could not compensate for the loss of eternal life. Nothing we possess can be exchanged for it once it has been lost.
The reason becomes clear in the next verse. Jesus says that “the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct” (v. 27). The suffering Messiah whom Peter cannot imagine will ultimately come in glory as judge. Matthew will return to this truth when Jesus describes the Son of Man coming in glory and judging the nations (Matthew 25:31–46). Our conduct therefore matters. Following Christ is not merely confessing who He is. Peter has already made the correct confession. A disciple must also live according to that confession. Faith in Jesus calls for a life shaped by obedience to Him, love of God and neighbor, forgiveness, mercy, and perseverance when following Him becomes costly.
Jesus concludes, “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (v. 28). This saying points to the manifestation of Christ’s royal authority following His Resurrection rather than to the final judgment occurring during the lifetime of those disciples. The glory of that Kingdom is already anticipated in the very next event in Matthew’s Gospel, when Peter, James, and John see Jesus transfigured before them (Matthew 17:1–8).
Peter wanted Jesus to avoid the Cross. Jesus instead teaches Peter—and us—that the Cross cannot be separated from faithful discipleship. Christ goes before us, and the proper place of the disciple is behind Him. To follow Jesus is therefore to allow Him to determine the direction of our lives. We deny ourselves when we surrender the desire to make ourselves the final measure of what is good. We take up our cross when we remain faithful to God even when faithfulness costs us something. And we follow Christ because we trust His promise that what appears to be loss in this world can lead to the life that never ends.
Lord Jesus, teach us to think as God does and not merely as human beings do. Give us the grace to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow You faithfully. Strengthen us when discipleship is difficult, and keep our hearts fixed upon the eternal life You promise to those who remain with You. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Notes on Matthew 16:21–28 and 10:38–39.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. 37.
- Casciaro, Jose Maria, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. 105–106.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. 660, §106.
- Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010. 211–213.
- Aguilar Chiu, Jose Enrique, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. 942–943.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, OP, and Donald Senior, CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. 3rd fully rev. ed. London: T&T Clark, 2022. 1206–1207.
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