08/28/2026
The Weekly Peace: 8.28.26 AI and the Adversary
But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Matthew 16:23
Jesus is trying to tell the disciples the truth about what is going to happen to him, but Peter can’t hear it. Jesus can’t die! He must be successful. He must lead, to fulfill their expectations of who the Messiah should be.
God’s plans are not the same as our plans. In the end, we must decide for ourselves if we want our will to be done or God’s will to be done. From the perspective of the disciples, Jesus’ cross looked like total failure, but in the fullness of time, that same cross changed the face of the earth. Today there are more Christians than of any other religion in the world. What God was doing was so much larger than the limited human perspective of the disciples. But Peter couldn’t see that, and he couldn’t trust.
When Peter refuses to accept Jesus’ future, Jesus says something harsh to him. He says, “Get behind me, Satan!” Satan means Adversary, a cosmic force that pushes against the will of God. Satan would lead us to set our minds on priorities that are human not divine.
But what is the difference between a human thing and a divine thing? How can we know which is which? How do we “set our minds” on the right stuff?
Each one of us must discover how to best discern the will of God in our own lives. The Scripture does give us some guideposts, however. Jesus talks a lot about things like love, generosity, kindness. God’s will would have to be original, joyful, honest, innovative, while things that are not of God would be worldly thoughts: repetitive, self-centered, not original but copies of other things, and greedy. Humans, if left to their own devices, seek to be right, to be popular, successful, respected, to avoid pain and struggle at all costs, to do what is easy rather than what is just. We all have these temptations. We know what they feel like, what they sound like, if we take the time to listen.
Jesus instructs the disciples to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. All who want to follow Jesu must choose who is in control, God or ourselves. Our culture has let human desire become too central. It is ok to say no to yourself sometimes, it is even good for you. To fast, to refrain, to give, to serve- these things will give you a fulfillment that is deeper than any material pleasure could possibly touch.
Bill Gates wrote a piece on AI this week. He said that AI is the new evolutionary platform. If we are to survive this next phase of human development, we will have to let go of our constant individualization and seek to serve a common good which is greater than any of our specific needs. We will have to learn to share wealth and resources and to care for this planet, to curb our material desires. We will have to take up our crosses, to give up ourselves if we are to survive. If we keep putting the individual ego above the good of the planet, we will not survive.
Surely, the Adversary would have us eat our planet alive as we feed our ravenous, endless appetites. But God would have us say when. God would have us say, it is enough. God would have us give our lives for something more, just like Jesus did.
