A Turning Point – Mark 8:31-38

A text – Mark 8:31-38

8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
8:34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
8:35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
8:36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
8:37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?
8:38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

A reflection:

The 8th chapter of Mark’s gospel begins with the feeding of a crowd of 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread. The crowds have seen miracles and followed Jesus to be taught and uplifted by him. His disciples have lived in rough conditions but have been buoyed up by both miracles and their closeness to Jesus. But as I read this chapter, I hear a weariness in Jesus, a weariness that comes from carrying all by himself the burden of the knowledge of what is to come. He knows it is time to talk about the coming weeks with his disciples. He wants the disciples to realize that some of the crowds see Jesus as the Messiah and some do not. He also wants them to realize that even they themselves may not really know who he is. So then he asks them who they think he is. Peter immediately declares him to be the Son of God. And Jesus blesses him and says that only God could have revealed that truth to Peter.

Right away, he tells the disciples, his dearest friends and followers, that he is heading to Jerusalem to be repudiated by the leaders of their faith and be put to death partly by the Jewish leaders and partly by Rome, and then be raised from death by God. It is news they are NOT expecting. And they are shocked and saddened. They may not even have heard the part about being raised from the dead. What’s more, they are being closely followed by the crowd, and they don’t know what the crowds would make of this news if they heard it. Peter tries to silence Jesus. This appeal goes nowhere. For Jesus, his entire ministry has turned toward the ultimate miracle he has been sent to do: not overcoming blindness or lameness, but overcoming the permanent separation of death. He will clear a way for all God’s children to step from death into new life in heaven.

The disciples cannot conceive of the idea that Jesus is headed toward death. It is beyond them. After all, no one returns to life after death. Whatever plans they were making in their heads about life with the Messiah are threatened now. What would such a thing mean? When we are in situations that threaten our hopes and dreams for the future, humans almost always resist, push back, refuse to believe. I can’t blame Peter at all. I would have felt the same. Peter has just declared Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God. Suddenly he is rebuked for thinking like a human. The love Peter had for Jesus never wavered, but the shock of the moment must have been stunning. The huge gift of the death and resurrection of Jesus was literally unbelievable. Here is a moment of a crisis of faith. But Jesus knew that if Peter could survive this moment, Peter would indeed be the rock upon which he would build his church.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for sticking with us who, like Peter, often cannot believe what you went through and what you still walk through with us as we suffer. Thank you for your steadfastness. Help us to know that, even through our crises of faith, you are with us and helping us.  Amen.