Editing Blog:"Get behind me, Satan!" (section)

== So how does God think? ==

The passage follows Simon's appointment as head of the Church, the rock, "Peter," to which Jesus appoints him following Peter's declaration that Jesus is "the Messiah, the son of the living God." Peter said it, believed it, but through God's grace, as Jesus told him, and without grasping what that means to be the "son of the living God" -- that Jesus is also God.<ref>The Trinity is not made apparent yet. The OT, nevertheless, gave a few glimpses, such as [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/110?1 Ps 110:1], "he L<small>ORD</small> says to my lord", and [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/7?13 Dan 7:13], "One like a son of man. When he reached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him", both indicating two divine entities.</ref> 

The Evangelist John, as usual, gives us some additional passages to clarify that Jesus is God, including the seven "I am" statements, with the most direct one coming in Jesus' challenge to the Pharisees:<blockquote>So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.”<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/8:57 Jn 8:57-8:x]</ref> </blockquote>His listeners react violently to the claim and try to stone him. But the Messiah will be "lifted up" not knocked down, so Jesus miraculously escapes.
[[File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Woe_unto_You,_Scribes_and_Pharisees_(Malheur_à_vous,_scribes_et_pharisiens)_-_James_Tissot.jpg|thumb|292x292px|<small>Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees by James Tissot (wikipedia)</small>]]
Even if they understood him to be the Messiah, as did Peter<ref>Albeit by divine inspiration; see [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?17 Mt 16:17]</ref>, none of them had any notion of the Messiah's actual mission much less his actual nature as God. 

And that's where men don't think like God. Instead they understood that the Son of David was a man who would free Israel from foreign enslavement, as did Moses for them out of Egypt, and then restore the kingdom. Hindsight tells us this is why Jesus (and John the Baptist) says, repeatedly, "The Kingdom of God is at hand" -- to clarify that the "kingdom" is not of a man (a "son of David") and thereby not of this world.<ref>The phrase "Kingdom of God" appears but once in the Old Testament, coming in [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/wisdom/10:10 WI 10:10] in reference to staying faithful to God.  </ref>   

Not only do they all not comprehend the role of the Messiah, their bias is so strong that they completely mistake Jesus' miracles for demonstrations of power, not mercy, and his teachings of repentance for expiation of Israel and not for personal salvation. Exasperated, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of acting through Satan<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/12:25 Mt 12:25]</ref>, and when he slaps down that accusation, they still demand "a sign"<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/12?25 Mt 12:38]</ref> -- only, the sign they want is Caesar's head, not a healed and repentant former leper. They are simply enraged by it all, and their frustration grows palpable in the constant questioning of Jesus about it: ''if you're the Messiah, save us already!''      

Jesus instead confounds them with references to their own Scripture and gives them a mini-lesson in typology,<ref>See [[Typology]] page</ref>   <blockquote>   

He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.       

Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/12?39 Mt 12:39]</ref>   </blockquote>   

Then he doubles down on they way God thinks, pointing out what Jonah's mission was, a prefigurement of the mission of the Christ, which they entirely misunderstand: salvation for all mankind, not just Israel -- and, by the way, you'd better get on board:   <blockquote>   

At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here.       

At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/12?41 Mt.12:41-42]</ref>   </blockquote>   

Whatever they make of the repentance of Nineveh and the judgement of the pagan queen, they mistake the Scriptural references for glory for Israel and not for God. Thinking like men, they refused to understand.       

Similarly in Luke 17, Jesus responds to the pharisetical bullying,   <blockquote>Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he said in reply, “The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.”<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/17?20 Lk 17:20]</ref>  </blockquote>
It's a sublime response that, thinking like humans and not God, they cannot accept, and in not accepting it their contempt grows, even to mock him as he is dying on the Cross:<blockquote>
Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.<ref>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/15?32 Mt 15:32]  There is an interesting parallel here to Jesus' own reference to the old proverb, which he states as, "Physician, heal thyself". He uses it to make his point that 

''Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place'' ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/4?24 Lk 4:24]). That acceptance becomes larger to Israel on the Cross.</ref></blockquote>