Mark and rebuke
Mark 8:31-38 " Rebuke"
" And having called to him the crowd with
disciples his he said to them, ' Whosoever desires after me to come, let him
deny himself, and let him take up his cross, and let him follow me." (
orig. Gk)
Disciples are learning people. But the hard saying of Jesus in vs 31 about
the necessity of suffering created a situation for Peter. " And he began
to teach them that it is necessary for the Son of man many things to suffer,
and to be rejected of the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and to be
killed, and after three days to rise again, and openly the word he
spoke." " And taking to him
Peter began to rebuke him." But he, turning and seeing his disciples
rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind me Satan,for thy thoughts are not of the
things of God, but the things of men."
Disciples are learning people. " Discipline is the other side of
discipleship. Discipleship without discipline is like waiting to run in the
marathon without ever practicing. Discipline without discipleship is like
always practicing for the marathon but never participating." Nouwen.
The needed thing is creating the space for God, i.e. discipline. " Discipline in the spiritual life is
the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our
master and where we can freely respond to God's guidance." Nouwen again.
I heard a story recently about what the current
Cardinal of New York shared. He was
talking to some of the seminarians from time to time about some of the things
he had seen or others had seen in their behaviour. When he talked to them he
said that nine of ten had not listened to his concerns, but tried to justify
their actions. There was one though who listened and was the better for it.
When Peter spoke glowingly of Jesus as the
"Christ" there was no rebuke. But when Jesus spoke of what was
coming, the Cross, death and rejection, Peter began to rebuke Jesus. Here now
there was a rebuke for Peter, " Get behind me Satan, for you savor not the
things of God, but the things of men."
A commentator said that not even such a rebuke Jesus gave to the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law.
We are not told here that Peter got it.
But if we read the rest of the New Testament we know that Peter did get
it, and became one of the most devoted single followers and leaders of the
disciples.
How do we react when we are on the wrong
spiritual track and someone who cares points it out to us? There is the story
of a priest who had a parishoner who sat
in the front pew and this particular saint used to make remarks under the
breath during the sermons and have quite a lot of criticism for the
priest. At the funeral everyone was
amazed that of all the mourners the minister seemed to take it the hardest. He
said that of all the people this person helped him grow the most and who was
going to take her place now that she was gone?
In this season of Lent as the days grow longer
and our Lord is going to the shame and rejection He did not deserve we are to
find time to listen to Christ. This may take the form of giving up something
for Lent. Someone asked me the other day, " Did you give up something for
Lent?" I think I said no because if
it is bad, why do it at all? How about
making room in the day for a spiritual practice as reading a good book or
devotion? Or as Nouwen says above we
should practice our discipleship with discipline but the discipline should lead
to service to ourselves and others in discipleship.
Jesus was saying that Peter was doing something
that God did not want him to do. He was putting the emphasis in the wrong
place. He did not see what was coming.
He thought that Jesus did not have to do things like go to the Cross.
But this is not only what Jesus had to do for us but we are told to "come
after" Jesus, take up our Cross, and follow Him. 8:34 Because as Jesus says later in vs. 36,
" For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul?" I am happy that Jesus rebuked Peter but He did not
reject him.
This seems to be one of the most difficult parts
of Scripture. What is our Cross? How do
we lose our lives for Jesus' sake and the gospel's sake so that in the end we
shall save our lives? We can be confident that we too are much like Peter in
our misunderstandings and shortsighted ways about the true paths of the kingdom
of God. We too find that it is so hard to know, " just what is the
Cross?" How can we savor the things
of God and not the things of man?
We need time to be alone with God with the
Scriptures and perhaps a few books that help us. We may use a book of prayers
to set us on the right pathway. We may need to get back to some old-fashioned
praying that finds us on our knees and saying,
" From all evil and mischief; from sin; from the crafts and
assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation, Good
Lord, deliver us." Litany . The
devil is sly. He disguises what is true
and right , that is the right way, and often tempts us as an angel of light it
says in the Scriptures. What looks so
good turns out to be another wrong turn in our spiritual lives. Take a
shortcut. Or why even bother with all that talk about losing your life for
Jesus' sake so that you can find it?
Some people and traditions do not much like
Lent. They think it is too Catholic. I find it has much opportunity for spiritual
growth and closeness to Christ. There is
that wonderful hymn we have that says, " May I see thee more clearly; love
thee more dearly and closer to thee nearly." How to be there? For in
journeying with Jesus to the Cross I am finding out something about His
Sacrifice and my own spiritual life.
We have a wonderful opportunity to be on this
trip with Jesus to the Cross. In Holy Communion I taste and see things unseen.
" Here O my Lord I see Thee face to face" What a great hymn about the
Sacrament. Rejoicing now, losing our
lives now, taking up our Crosses now, we are following our Lord on the pathway
to sacrifice. It is not always easy to
know that path, but if we take the moments of our lives whenever we can find
them to ask for direction, we can find it and will find it.
Standing face to face with Christ we are without
excuse. There are no ways to get around it.
I do not like to face Him when I am without excuse. I have none.
I do not want to experience what Peter did at all. I want to hear that I savor the things of God
and not the things of this world. That
is what this time of the church year and faith is all about. I do not want
Jesus to tell me, " Get thee behind me Satan." I want others
to especially know that His love is all that matters and though I never
have to earn it, I want Him to know that loving Him and following His ways now
are really all that matters to me now. I
want others to know that following Jesus is all that matters and that is all
that I have ever needed. I want others
to know that too.
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