The disciples still expected Christ to reign as a temporal prince. They believed that He would not always remain in obscurity and that the time was near when He would establish His kingdom. That Christ would be rejected by His own nation, condemned as a deceiver, and crucified as a malefactor—such a thought the disciples had never entertained. Jesus must open to His disciples the conflict before them. He was sad as He anticipated the trial. HLv 280.2
Hitherto He had refrained from making known to them anything relative to His sufferings and death. In His conversation with Nicodemus He had said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:14, 15. But the disciples did not hear this. Now the time had come for the veil that hid the future to be withdrawn: “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” HLv 280.3
Speechless with grief and amazement, the disciples listened. Christ had accepted Peter's acknowledgment of Him as the Son of God, and now His words pointing to His suffering and death seemed incomprehensible. Peter could not keep silent. He laid hold on his Master, as if to draw Him back from His impending doom: “Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.” HLv 280.4
Peter loved his Lord; but Jesus did not commend him for the desire to shield Him from suffering. Peter's words were not a help and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in harmony with God's purpose of grace toward a lost world, nor with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example. The impression which his words would make was directly opposed to that which Christ desired to make on the minds of His followers, and the Saviour was moved to utter one of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” RSV. HLv 281.1