Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)
1st August Trinity
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And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”
They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”
Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’
Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.
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Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”
And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.“
And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”
1st August/September Trinity
July 22, 2018
Mark 8:27 – Mark 9:1
We have passed the half-way point in the year. Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are beginning to descend from the sun's zenith. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the time of deepest darkness is past. Now begins their ascent into the light.
This revelation seems to spur Peter’s thinking into a narrow abyss of fear—he urges Jesus to save His own skin; but thereby Peter’s practicality misses the bigger picture, and he inadvertently opposes Christ’s mission. For in conquering death, Christ will ultimately make the earth itself into His body.
In our lives too, there are moments when the working of the divine reveals itself, often in the midst of an ordeal. We may not recognize it until later. And we may also then see how we resisted it out of fear or pride.
Though it is certainly human enough that we resist suffering, we ultimately need not fear it. These are indeed just the places where Christ is most easily found. For He has placed Himself forever into the depths of human existence. Whether we are ascending into the light, or descending into darkness, He always there to help us begin anew. As Vaclav Havel said,
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It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try --
here and now,
right where I am,
….-- as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.*
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* Vaclav Havel, “It Is I Who Must Begin’ in Teaching With Fire, ed. by S.M. Intrator and M. Scribner
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