The Gospel of Mark 8:31-38
Jesus began to teach his disciples 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.”
Let us Pray:
Faithful God as we go about in the world help us to remember that your son was tempted by the Devil but chose faithfulness before popularity, service before fame and sacrifice before power. Give us the strength to reject temptation through our Lenten journey and beyond it throughout the rest of our lives. This we pray in your Name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
To follow Jesus is to live lives of service to others, to serve rather than to control and dominate. It means the opposite of being proud of station and status for oneself at the expense of others.
In this passage, Jesus is reminding us of our fantasies. And it could be that some of us are power seekers, creating our own fantasies and frustrated when our brothers and sisters in the faith will not live them with us. Following Jesus means denying ourselves and our fantasies of power by acknowledging Christ as Lord over our lives. No other way that we can take will lead us to understand this in our current life, or in the one to come. So can we be like Peter, with a concern for another as he was. He knew he had to say something to Jesus about His safety, but Jesus firmly rebuked Peter by telling him that he was setting his mind on human things rather than divine things. And Jesus is right, Peter is setting his mind on human concerns, human concerns about his friend.
What are the challenges in our lives that are related to our faith or our beliefs? Are we true and faithful follower of Jesus in our daily lives? Or are we simply a “Sunday” follower of Jesus? We may “profess” to be Christian; however, it is how we live our daily lives that is the true test of our Christianity.
We need to keep one’s priorities in harmony with what Jesus told us in the two “great commandments” — love God and love your neighbor.
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Let us Pray: Remind us often Lord, when we are feeling proud, arrogant, beyond reproach, pleased with ourselves, self sufficient in our ways, that for such as us and better and worse you walked a road that took you to a cruel cross, and rose again to show us where we might look for rescue as from this lofty perch we fall. Amen.
Reflections by Bob 