Get thee behind me, satan

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We have discussed this odd statement of Jesus ("Get thee behind me, Satan!") before. There is no good or solid evidence that this was ever addressed to any particular disciple.

In context, Jesus was foretelling some of the disastrous difficulties he was about to encounter. Out of a no-doubt genuine Love, Peter tried to comfort him. But this Peter did by contradicting the revelations just given to Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

In a perhaps unguarded moment of anguish and agony, the lower nature of Jesus (his human side; fear or "satan") manifested itself. It said that perhaps he could avoid all the suffering and pain of his assignment, so he rebuked it.

Although it seems odd to us, most Biblical commentators agree that Jesus was speaking to this part of himself-- his human nature, and its dangerous fear-component. Since he knew that this story would be repeated, he also said these words as a teaching for his followers, such as you and me, still to be born in the future.

Jesus was not a cruel man, and did not set an example of speaking harshly to others. But he was often quite strict with his own weaknesses, and, often, what we might think of as an overly strict disciplinarian with himself. He had to be ultracautious lest the "satan" (fear-factor) within his human heartmind tried to take over and run, and ruin, his life.
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"Get Behind Me, Satan!"

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Jesus once used the phrase, "Get behind me, Satan!" when his disciple suggested that he would not suffer as he prophesied that he would.

There is no evidence that he directed this remark to any of his disciples. That would have been a terribly rude and crude insult to any of them, and there is evidence that Jesus was a more courteous and polite person than that.

Instead, odds are very good that he was muttering to himself. He was part human, and part Spirit, like we all are, deep down in the mind. And, among the writers and thinkers of the Enlightenment Tradition, "Satan" is the name given to the fear-nature. [Fear is the conceptual opposite of Love, but Love has no real opposite. This is recognized by early Christian writers. (1 Jn. 4:18, for example.] So, fear, or the interior fear-nature, is the "devil" for mystics and enlightened people generally.

So, Jesus Christ, or at least, his human side [called "Jesus," while "Christ" was the "name" or title of his spiritual (divine) side] was rebuking the lower side of his human nature. This was the fear-nature, called, "Satan."

The human part of a person, plus her lower animal-nature, and, lowest of all, her fear-nature, altogether are collectively called the "lower nature."

Since Jesus was both "true God and true man," his human side did indeed have a fear-nature, and it was his job-- the same assignment we all possess-- to get it into subjection by, and under the control of, his higher nature (spiritual nature or Love-nature). And he had, at times, to wrestle with this fear-nature-- especially when contemplating his manner of voluntary death by the nightmarish, ghastly, horribly painful crucifixion.
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