THINE IS THE POWER AND THE GLORY - Church of the Virgin ...

answered, "You are Christ, the Son of the Living God" and theLord answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, forflesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Fatherwho is in heaven." (Matt. 16:17).The devil heard this clear, unquestionable confession andsaid to himself, 'No doubt it is He.'The devil's confusion started again when he heard the Lord tellHis disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer, die and onthe third day rise. And the devil could not understand howwould the Son of God suffer and die. It must be His way ofsaving Man, then He should be stopped. So the devil put wordson Peter's mouth to say to his Lord "God forbid, Lord! Thisshall never happen to You!" But turning around, the Lord saidto Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me, foryou are not mindful of the things of God, but the things ofmen." (Matt. 16:22)✥ The devil then thought it might be He when the Lord left toJerusalem where He was received as a great king, the awaitedMessiah and even the children praised Him in fulfilment of thePsalm. "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants Youhave ordained strength..." (Ps. 8:2), and in His respectfulnesscleansed the temple. But his doubts returned when the Lordretired to Bethany...✥ The Lord started to destroy the devil's kingdom, revealing tothe people the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees saying,"Woe to you, scribes and, Pharisees. hypocrites... " (Matt.23:1-3). He did away also with the Levitical priesthood by40