For Sunday
Proper 19B
Collect
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.
Reading
Reflection
This passage reflects a real turning point in the gospel of Mark. Here, Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem and moves toward the crucifixion to come. We see this in the dramatic change in language, which went from being about healing and proclaiming to carrying a cross. This isn’t a dark image, but it is a move from hope to sacrifice. Which, as we know in our own lives, elicits a different gut response from people.
What we see is a situation we might call “mission confusion”. It isn’t that the disciples completely misunderstand what’s going on. They’re right about half of it. But then come to the wrong conclusion about it.
It is fair to say that Peter offers the right answer in calling Jesus the Messiah. But it is clear that he doesn’t know what that means to Jesus. We might even say that Peter doesn’t understand what kind of Messiah Jesus is. If he did, he wouldn’t be trying to protect him.
We shouldn’t begrudge Peter (or any disciples) for this misunderstanding. This is a pretty natural confusion—and based in Jesus’s own unconventional Messiahship. But I also think this mistake is part of our takeaway. Because it is one we continue to make. When we make Jesus all-powerful. A ruler of men. A vision of conqueror, rather than the sacrificial lamb.
I like to compare this moment to a midterm exam—because it is a test of what has come before and we’ll need to remember that as we proceed into the second half of the story. What we find there builds on the first half. It just won’t be the same stuff all over again. It is new stuff. And the disciples will have a hard time letting go of that early stuff and also adapting to the new stuff.
Thankfully we can. We’re actually pretty good at it.