Grace to you from God our Father and our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 8th
Chapter of the Gospel according to mark: Verses 27 – 38:
27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
31 And he began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the
chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he
said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on
the things of God, but on the things of man.”
34 And calling the crowd to him
with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man
to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return
for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
This reading from the Gospel
according to Mark Chapter 8 once again demonstrates in seven verses the
condensed nature of Mark’s account of events.
The parallel account of the same event is recorded over fourteen verses in
the 16th Chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.
The other thing that demonstrates
the condensation of the narrative is the number of events in today’s
reading. Normally we would hear Peter’s
confession, “You are the Christ,” one Sunday and then we would hear Jesus
teaching about His suffering, death, and resurrection on the following Sunday. With Mark, you get them both on one Sunday
and the reading still isn’t all that long.
The wonderful thing about this
condensation in Mark is that you can compare and contrast these two
events. Given that Mark wrote His Gospel
based on what he heard from Peter, it is interesting to study Peter in these
two events. At first Peter has this
marvellous insight of who Jesus really is, and suddenly he speaks in ignorance
of Jesus’ mission. You get it all in
quick succession in Mark.
The location for these events is
the area around Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi is north of Galilee in Gentile territory. This means that Jesus and His disciples are
pretty much alone. This is a time of
private teaching just for the disciples.
Jesus asked a very important
question. In fact, if you get the answer
to this question wrong, it is very doubtful that you are a Christian. Jesus
asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Most of us in the twenty-first century don’t
know this, but just about every family in first century Israel had a son named
Jesus. So, just as we hear of all the
women named Mary, there were actually a lot of men named Jesus. It is important for our salvation that we get
the right Jesus. It is important that we
know who Jesus is. It is not enough to
just say, “I believe in Jesus.” We need
to day something about Jesus so that others will know in which Jesus we
believe.
We read that according to the
disciples, most people got Jesus’ identity wrong. They
told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the
prophets.” The people’s guesses were
all honourable heroes of the Bible. In
most cases, men would be very honoured to be compared to these servants of God,
but not Jesus. The true Jesus is in a
whole different status than these great historical figures.
Many people hold the name Jesus in
high regard today, but they still have the wrong Jesus. Some people look at the example of Jesus and
figure that that is all Jesus is. Jesus
is an example, but He is much more. Some
people think that Jesus was just a good, moral teacher and nothing more. In fact, Jesus is a great teacher, but He is
so much more. There are all kinds of
opinions about Jesus that get part of the truth, but don’t get the main truth
of who Jesus is.
Then Jesus asked the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” Peter got the words exactly right. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one (NT
Greek), the Messiah (Hebrew). This is
the foundation sentence of the creeds.
When we properly confess Jesus as the Christ, we have properly confessed
our salvation.
The interesting thing about the rest
of the Gospel reading is that it goes on to show that Peter did not understand
what he said. Although Peter got the
words exactly right, He didn’t know what they meant.
Strangely, Jesus strictly charged
them to tell no one about him. You would
think that Jesus would want everyone to know His true identity. Never the less, He strictly charged the disciples not to tell anyone. He was stern.
Keep this information to yourself.
Then Jesus began to explain the
true meaning of Peter’s confession to the disciples. He
began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected
by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after
three days rise again. And he said this
plainly. This is what it means for
Jesus to be the Christ. It means
suffering, death, and resurrection. It
means dying on the cross in order to take away our sins, and it means rising
from the dead. If we are to have the
right Jesus, it must be the Jesus who died on the cross for our sins, and rose
from the dead. If your Jesus did not do
these things, then you have the wrong Jesus.
It is at this point that Peter got
it wrong. Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him. Literally, Peter embarks on a dialogue to set
Jesus straight … to put him right in regard to his destiny. Peter is ready to become Jesus’ minder. Let me remind you that Peter is a fisherman
who is only about half way through his ‘on the job’ seminary training and Jesus
is God in the flesh. Never the less,
Peter takes it upon himself to scold the Son of God.
Jesus immediately saw the danger to
Peter and He rebuked Peter right back. Turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked
Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the
things of God, but on the things of man.”
Jesus’ words teach us that not only was Peter’s understanding wrong, but
Peter was even acting as an agent of Satan.
Peter was actually tempting Jesus to abandon His mission to the cross to
abandon His mission to die for our sins.
This exchange between Jesus and
Peter should be a warning to us as well.
Peter’s master had just told him that He was to suffer and die. It is very likely that Peter not only considered
Jesus to be his master, but also a close friend. Who would want a friend to suffer and
die? Peter, in his ignorance, was
responding in the way that he thought was best.
I can empathise with Peter. I can
understand why Peter did what he did.
Never the less, Peter was wrong and Jesus scolded him severely.
How often do we make decisions
based on what seems right to us
instead of checking in the Word of God?
How often do we assume things about God without checking the words that
He Himself gave us? How often do we,
like Peter, proceed in the way that we
think is best and forget that God may have something totally different for
us? How often do we follow in Peter’s
footsteps?
How glad we can be that Jesus
didn’t listen to Peter. Jesus followed
up on His promise. He went to Jerusalem
and there the elders and the chief priests and the scribes did exactly what He
said they would do. They arrested Jesus
and held a mock trial. Then they took
Jesus to Pontius Pilate and used political pressure to have Him crucified. Jesus died just as He said He would and then
He also rose … just as He said He would.
Jesus did all this in order to take away our sin and give us His
righteousness instead. Because Jesus did
not listen to Peter, but followed through on His plan, we now have forgiveness,
life, and salvation.
When we talk about Jesus, it is
very important that we talk about the right Jesus … the Jesus who suffered many things, was rejected by the
elders and the chief priests and the scribes and died and after three days rose
again. The only Christ who can save
us for eternity is the true Christ … the Christ crucified and risen from the
dead. It is in this Christ and this
Christ alone that we have eternal life.
Amen
The peace and love of our Great
triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. Amen
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