The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost — with food for thought on the link between what we will die for and how we live. Gnaw away!

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus and the disciples set out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, Jesus asked the disciples this question: “Who do people say that I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptizer; others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.” “And you,” he went on to ask, “who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah!”

But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone. Then Jesus began to teach the disciples that the Chosen One 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 Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, Jesus 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 Chosen One will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of God with the holy angels.”

The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?

We skip over a few stories to get here (Jesus feeding the 4,000 and healing a blind person most notably), but they really don’t add much to the picture of Jesus we already have. The Jesus of the first part of Mark’s Gospel (everything to this point) teaches the crowds and tangles with the Pharisees. He teaches a lot in parables and his ministry is mostly in Galilee. Jesus is known by his actions, which demonstrate his power, but he continually tries to keep his profile low telling people to “tell nobody of this.”

With this passage, everything changes. Jesus turns his attention to the disciples and away from the crowds and he asks the key question of the whole Gospel “Who do you say that I am?” But what is more key than Peter’s correct answer is Jesus’ explanation of it. For the people, the Messiah was a political and military figure who would in a temporal sense deliver them from their oppressors. Jesus is saying, “Yes, I am the Messiah,” but then says that his destiny is to suffer and die.

From this point on, everything Jesus does is to help his disciples understand this, to prepare himself to enter Jerusalem and go to the cross, and to prepare his disciples to take up that cross and join him.

A few things to chew on:

*Why the secret? Throughout Mark we have heard what scholars call “The Messianic Secret” … Jesus telling people not to say who he is. Even here, when Peter answers the question correctly, Jesus does the same thing: “He sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.” That’s because “the crowd” has their own designs on what a Messiah should be. If they get it in their heads that Jesus is the Messiah, all they are going to do is project that image on him … particularly because the Messiah Jesus really is — one who has to suffer and die and bids them to do likewise — is one that is hard to wrap their heads around and harder still to follow.

*The exchange between Peter and Jesus is brutally honest … the kind of exchange you either have to have a deeply close relationship for it to be able to bear or no relationship of consequence. Peter rebukes Jesus — that’s harsh — and, even more harshly, Jesus calls Peter “Satan!” It is a conversation between two people who care deeply about one another and are
willing to get in each other’s face to help them realize what they believe is the truth. Imagine how hard it must have been for Peter to hear Jesus call him “Satan.” He had left everything to follow him. It is a shame we remember Peter so much for his denial of Jesus. And yet here, we see Peter is so devoted to Jesus that he lets Jesus put him in his place so brutally and he continues to follow him. Peter is letting himself be “discipled” by Jesus here. He is letting Jesus point out a painful truth about himself — that he is being tempted by an image of the Messiah rather than what the Messiah truly has to be — and instead of running away and denying, he is by his actions pledging his faith.

Try This:

“Who do you say Jesus is?” is a huge question for us to wrestle with. How we answer will determine what role Jesus has in our life. It will determine what kind of church community we will be. The example of Peter is instructive to us. It’s not just about our answer, it’s about listening to Jesus explain what that answer means.

This week, take a risk and have a conversation with someone you know is trying to follow Jesus. Mention this week’s Gospel and ask them “who do you say Jesus is?” and then share your answer — honestly (that means your answer can be anything including, “honestly, I don’t know!”) Then talk about it. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Is there a difference between following Jesus as a sage whose teachings we respect or as someone who says “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” What about the Gospel gives us the most joy and most fear? What role do we let Jesus play in our lives? Just talk about it. Think about it. Pray about it.

Losing our Lives
One Moment at a Time

This summer, as the Trouveres and their adult chaperones were riding in a bus the 51 miles between Montgomery and Selma, AL, Claudia Owens Shields noted that this was the length people were willing to march to secure the right to vote. So she asked us:

“What would you walk 51 miles for?”
“Who would you walk 51 miles for?”

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus takes that question one step further.

What would you die for?

Just take a moment and see if you could answer that. What are the things or people or causes for which you would be willing to die.

And really consider what that means … not just that these things are important but for them you are literally willing to give up your life, to have it end right now.

It’s probably a pretty short list.

Would you die for your family? For your friends? For your country?

Would you die for your church? Would you die for humanity? Would you die for love?

Dr. King said “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

There is a link between what we will die for and how we live. So, take out your calendar or whatever you use to chart your time. And look at it. What is on it?

How are you spending your days? What isn’t on the calendar that takes up your time (reading, running, hanging out with friends and family)?

How do you spend your time? How are you spending your life? What you are living for is what you are really dying for.

We don’t know the day or the hour we will die, but we all know it will happen. And so in a very real way, we are losing our lives every second of every day?

The choice isn’t whether we will die for something. The question is what?

What are you dying for?

Are you dying for your friends and family?

Are you dying for your job?

Are you dying for Facebook and Twitter?

Are you dying so that others might be free? So that others might live?

Are you dying for love?
Are you dying for God?

In this Gospel, Jesus not only lets us know that if we follow him those moments of life may be a lot fewer than we hoped or thought … but that we have the opportunity to give however many we have in a way that will make them the most meaningful and fantastic ever. That we can literally redeem the process of living by using those moments to follow him in giving them up in love for the world?

How much of your life is spent praising God in prayer or listening for God’s wisdom in scripture and other study?

How much of your life is spent giving love in any form?

How much of your life is spent seeking and serving Christ where he said he is particularly to be found … in the poorest and most vulnerable among us?

What are you dying for? As a All Saints Church community, what are WE dying for?

And does our answer mean that we are truly fit to live?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings

The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every
Sunday – [1]just click here[2].

Collect for Sunday

Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant
that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Want to read more?
[3]“The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource  for anyone who
wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.