Mark 8:31-38

Mark 8:31-38

Mark puts the proclamation of Messiahship in context with suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. The person and work of Christ are bound together. This rejection and suffering of Christ means that a faith must able to pass scrutiny of trial. This refers to the trials associated with Jesus’ arrest, especially by the Sanhedrin. Peter's rebuke of the Lord shows how imperfect his understanding of the role and the work of the Messiah was. We, like Peter, welcome a Messiah that gives us what we want. Not the Messiah that gives us the opposite of what we want. The temptation to reject the cross is one that Jesus had faced since the wilderness trials. Any invitation for Jesus to take a path other than the way of the cross ultimately comes from Satan. In this case through Peter. This is the harshest rebuke Jesus ever leveled against anyone.

Beautifully, Mark places the warning of the cost of discipleship with the warning of Jesus' death and resurrection after calling out Peter. The desire to avoid suffering may be the greatest danger to our discipleship. If we try to save our lives, if we look to hoard our lives we cannot help but to lose them. Each day that is past is gone and nothing can get it back. Even a day of exquisite pleasure and selfish delight are lost and cannot be kept. Nothing prevents the march of time toward death. The one who dies to self has already moved beyond the point of having anything to lose and the totality of his life waits for him in Heaven. Christianity is the hardest of all faiths. All other faith systems try to keep life here and perhaps a good life to come. Such an approach is ultimately false. The exchange of which Jesus speaks is a “great deal”. The sands of time are going; they are fleeting and nothing can stop them. Why not trade those fleeting moments for eternal value and reward? Jesus concludes this teaching by linking the Son of Man with the Messiah. He now demands and teaches that the only way to have the lasting life is an open loyalty to His person. Jesus is the great stumbling block for all history because He allows nothing other than absolute loyalty to Him on every occasion, everywhere and at all times.

"Lord, help me to die to myself every day. AMEN"