The Pebbles in our shoes

Matthew 16:21-23 (ESV)
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. [22] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." [23] But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

Here’s your rock. I mean I get a kick out of it. one minute Jesus is praising Peter, and the next minute Peter is rebuking Jesus, and then being rebuked by Jesus. And this is the rock Roman Catholics think the church is built on? This won’t be the last time Peter is in need of correction, there is a famous episode in Antioch with a certain upstart named Paul.
But all that aside. What was it that Peter expected of the Christ if not suffering and death and resurrection. The same thing most people want who are in love with this world, someone to just clean it up a bit and make it a bit more live able. Death and resurrection? How does that solve the problem of the pebble in my shoe? Yeah we awre worried about the pebbles in our shoe, we want an honest government, equity, egality and all that nonsense. We think those things are all this world needs to be perfect. This is why so many wait for the millennium and hope for raptures, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth in the form of an earthly government, and we are content if this is only for a thousand years. This is what peter wanted, something to sort out the problems of the world.
Jesus knows better, he knows that this world must first be put to death before it can be recreated. He will die and be raised, so that we can die and be raised in him. These are the things of the mind of God. But us men, we want someone to take pebbles from our shoes. We are way too short sighted. Thankfully Jesus isn’t.