“The Spank and The Promise”

September 15, 2024

Mark 8:27–38

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?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

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. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 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.”

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. 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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 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.” *****

Good writers know that grabbing readers’ attention and engaging them is necessary to make a book successful. The start of a story is important, but the reality is that how the story ends is often what reader remember most.

There are many ways readers expect stories to end. “Happily ever after” is the surest way to leave readers satisfied.

How the story ends is a dimension to what Jesus is asking his disciples in this reading from Mark 8. “Who do people say that I am?” Answers came forth quicky and abundantly. “People say you are John the Baptist. Other people say you are Elijah! Actually, a lot of folks think you are one of the prophets.”

In Jesus’ day people had heard stories for years about what a Messiah would do to give them triumph over the empires which had oppressed them for centuries. For a downtrodden people, the ending of the story about a Messiah needed to tell about that One being powerful so as to satisfy people’s desire for freedom.

Next, Jesus makes his inquiry personal asking “Who do you say that I am?” This was not an easy answer as it required the disciples to put aside other people’s visions of a messiah and articulate their own.

Peter is the only one to answer. He boldly tells Jesus “You are the Messiah.” Spot on. Peter puts the whole gospel story in a nutshell.

But what comes next is weird. Jesus does not commend Peter for his prophetic answer, He spanks him, telling his to shut up. Then he launches into a grim description of what the Messiah faces which includes suffering and death. No wonder none of the other disciples ventured an answer!

The picture is so bleak, upsetting, and counter-intuitive that Peter pulls him aside and tells him to knock it off. This rebuke hits a nerve and Jesus turns and rebukes Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Poor Peter. Where did he go wrong? He gets the “answer” right about title and identity. But he has no idea about the Messiah or what the following entails. Peter must have cringed, thinking “I didn’t know I signed up for following a Messiah who will suffer, be rejected and put to death. This isn’t the kind of Messiah that the stories of old have told. The Messiah I want doesn’t give up. Yet, you want me to associate myself with you, and lose everything?” Poor Peter.

I imagine Jesus explaining “You want me to be the ending of the stories you have heard for years. The stories of a militarily powerful Messiah or one who saves only ‘great’ people like you. You want a messiah aligned with your definitions of power and greatness. Peter, there is so much more for you to learn.”

This makes me wonder how I would answer “Who do you say that I am? How would you answer?

Who we think Jesus is determines how far we will go in lining up our lives with his values, attitudes, behaviors and openness to others. Who we believe Jesus to be and how we enact our faithfulness to his ways are tightly connected. There is a reason Mark narrates this scene about Jesus’ identity and then quickly reminds that to follow him is gong to require the entirety of one’s life.

It matters what kind of Messiah we have faith in. There are many ways Christians today define Messiah. But the only way to is to behold Jesus for who he is, a Messiah who suffered, was rejected, killed, and then rose to new life. Having faith in that Messiah — a self-giving, non-discriminating one must shape what our faith must look like if our lives are to reflect his life.

Jesus lays out starkly who he is and what believing in him entails. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 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.”

Believing in Jesus and following in his ways does not bring us into a story of comfort or ease. It is a serious story with costly marks first revealed in crucifixion and resurrection.

Life is best when take up our cross and follow Jesus each day. Including days when we grieve, rejoice, walk through dark valleys; when we know loss or gain, division and disagreement; as we are burdened and as we help others carry burdens.

While you carry the cross and follow through all the experiences of your life, there is promise. It is not a promise people can always sense or appreciate at first glance. But the promise is still there. It is a promise that the ending of your story, our ending, the world’s ending is a beautiful one.

And it began with the Messiah, who took up a cross, suffered and died a horrible death through which God triumphed and wrote the best story ending humanity will ever know.

God, the Messiah we know most clearly in Jesus, has come with saving love, delivering us and proclaiming the promise to every particle of creation, as Julian of Norwich[1] phrased it: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” Through Jesus, of course.

[1] A prayer of Julian of Norwich, an English Christian theologian and mystic at the turn of the 14th century:
“In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss. In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving. You are our mother, brother, and savior. In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit, is marvelous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us. You are our maker, our lover, our keeper. Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Amen.”