TEXT TO REFLECT ON
MARK 8:27-33
27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
REFLECT
What Jesus taught His disciples about His fate, was hard to receive. He had just revealed to them that He was the Messiah, God’s chosen instrument to save the people of Israel from slavery. To have Him then say that He would be killed by the leaders of His own people simply did not make sense. Worse, it implied that there would not even be hope of salvation at all. If the chosen deliverer was to die at the hands of His own people, what hope would they have?
So Peter pulled Jesus aside and started telling Him to stop spewing such frightening nonsense. It did nothing to boost their morale. How could one claim to be God’s chosen one and then say, “Oh and God’s chosen one will be killed by His own leaders.”? Then the coming of the Messiah would be a non-starter. Before He could even start to fight the Romans, He would already be killed by His own leaders. How can God be so perverse as to have such a non-plan? It seemed like such a blasphemous thought. Could Jesus have been joking? If He was, it wasn’t funny. How can anyone even joke about such things?
But Jesus rebuked Peter instead for not thinking the way God would think. Peter’s logic was human, not God’s. And he was wrong.
RELATE
It is hard to conceive that victory can come through defeat and humiliation. It defies logic. We are used to seeing progression – every step getting better and bringing us closer to the envisioned victory. That’s how life work. That’s how victories are planned. We will see the enemy and our opposition vanquished one step at a time. The path to victory gives an ever-increasing sense of satisfaction. We will Make Christianity Great Again. There may be setbacks along the way, but the general direction must always be forward. That is how our minds work.
But that is not how God works. The Messiah (and those who follow Him subsequently) will lose His life. But before that, He will be stripped of everything, He will be humiliated, He will be a loser. In front of the watching world, He will physically lose the fight, because He will not fight back. And in His defeat, God will draw every allegiance, every adoration, every obeisance to Him.
This spiritual reality is not only hard to wrap our minds around; it is close to impossible to accept even if we could understand its wisdom. Because our pride stands in the way. Our pride does not allow us to surrender to the gloating stare of the bully or the arrogant unrighteous opponent. We are accustomed to winning, and we cannot bear to be the loser.
Yet the call to discipleship is a call to die: to die to our pride, to die to our wilfulness, to die to our self-created vision of what victory looks like. It is a heart-wrenchingly difficult call to respond to; and possible only by the grace of God.
REST
To the old rugged cross
I will еver be true
Its shame and reproach gladly bear
Then He'll call me some day to my home far away
Where His glory forever I'll share.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
'Til my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchangе it some day for a crown.
From the Hymn The Old Rugged Cross by George Bennard 1912
Chiu Ming Li
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