April 27, 2025

Following Jesus

Mark 8:31-38

In the course of the Gospel journeys of Jesus with the disciples, Jesus several times speaks to the disciples about his death.  Here, in this instance, Peter takes him aside and “rebukes” him.  Now, as to what exactly that word means here, it seems uncertain to me, but the import of the comment is that Peter either doesn’t believe Jesus, or just plain doesn’t want to think about it or hear about.  And we usually then look at Peter and say something about his faults and failures.

But the truth is that most often we don’t want to think about death either.  When parents want to discuss things ahead of time, children often balk at it, and say something like, “You’ll live a long time.”  Conversely, when children want to find out their parents’ wishes for services and burial when the time comes, parents will often push it aside by saying something like, “You do whatever you want.”  Neither response is helpful, although both are common and natural.  We just don’t want to face death and conversations around it.

So, if we are reluctant to have such conversations, then it seems perfectly natural for Peter to have responded as he did.  After all, he was attached to Jesus, who wasn’t all that old, and Peter didn’t want anything to happen to his friend.

It is then that Jesus appears to address Peter as he tells Satan to get behind him, indeed seeming to refer to Peter as Satan.  But suppose, considering what I have said above, and with Jesus knowing people better than they knew themselves, suppose that Jesus is addressing Satan, the tempter, as he does with his temptations in the wilderness, and is rebuking the tempter once again.  I think that better fits the whole encounter.

But then, following this conversation about Jesus’ coming death, he talks with the crowd about denying themselves and following him.  I think this is a reflection of the previous conversation, wherein Peter expresses his wishes for his friend, and Jesus is saying that we need to put aside our own priorities and focus on following him, even if it means witnessing his death.

It is interesting that we are considering this passage shortly after we have relived the events of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.  We have once again, in worship and in our own lives, affirmed the power of God over death, and the promise of living with God forever. 

Thus, we are called to follow once again, to follow the Risen Christ.

April 18, 2025

Discovering Jesus

Mark 8:22-30

Our portion begins with this marvelous story of the restoration of sight to this man.  It is interesting that the healing happens in two stages, where first everything is blurry and then, after Jesus touches his eyes again, the man sees clearly. 

Jesus and the disciples continue their travels, and along the way Jesus asks about how people perceive him.  He gets several different answers that reflect what people thought about him.  Surprisingly, following the healing of the blind man, no one says, “A Great Healer.”

But then Jesus addresses his question directly to them.  “Who do you say that I am?”  Whether the others were now quiet, or Peter was simply the first to answer, we are not told.  But Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah.  And Jesus responds by “sternly” ordering them not to tell people about him.

In our day, and indeed throughout the ages, it has been the express purpose of the church to indeed tell people about Jesus.  Yet, Jesus himself tells the disciples to not do this.  I often wonder what this means.

As Easter approaches, it does indeed seem to be the ideal time to tell people about Jesus, about the Resurrection.  And yes, I think that we should be doing exactly that.  But I think that the nuance is that while we are to tell the story, and indeed perhaps most personally to share our own story, our own encounter with Jesus and the Resurrection, there is more to it than that.  We are to share the story, but along the way, and certainly not just on one Sunday a year, we are to help people to discover Jesus for themselves.  We are to provide opportunities for people to encounter Jesus in their own lives.  We are to guide people, and walk with them, in that journey of discovery.

I think that is what Jesus was hoping for when he told the disciples not to tell anyone.  It wasn’t that he wanted to keep it a secret, but rather that he wanted the discovery to be such that it would become more than a curiosity.  Jesus wanted their encounter with him to become a life-changing transformation for them.

May that continue to be so for all of us.  Happy Easter!

April 11, 2025

Signs and Symbolisms

Mark 8:11-21

When the Pharisees request a sign from Jesus, he refuses to give them one.  We are not given much of a clue as to exactly what transpires here.  They want a sign from heaven.  Perhaps this reflects an understanding of Jesus as a kind of prophet, and the classical prophets had often provided signs and done things with deep symbolism.  But here, Jesus refuses.  Interestingly, in Matthew’s Gospel we receive the same story (16:1-4), but with different details.  There, Jesus says that “no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”  This introduces at least two possible messages that we carry from the activities of the prophet Jonah.  The first is the call to repentance that he is told by God to bring to the people of Nineveh.  That same message was of course at the heart of the preaching of John the Baptist, and has been part of Jesus’ message as well.  The second message that Matthew’s account implies is in regard to Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish, which one can equate with Jesus being raised after three days in the tomb, an event of course yet to come in the gospel story.

From the account in Mark, wherein Jesus says that no sign will be given, we come to a portion where, in a sense, a sign is given to the disciples, which they don’t understand.  They must have gotten hungry, and bemoan the fact that they only have one loaf of bread among them all.  Jesus uses this situation to teach them something, namely that they should be aware of things that the Pharisees, and those associated with Herod, say and do, for their teachings and actions can readily spread, probably due to their high esteem by many.  But, rather than the disciples seeking to understand what Jesus is saying, they sort of panic and say, “It is because we have no bread.”  Perhaps their hunger swayed their thoughts.  But they remain focused on the literal bread rather than seeing that Jesus is trying to teach them something.  And Jesus says, “Why are you talking about having no bread?”  He seems rather incredulous at the fact that they have once again missed the point of something he was trying to tell them.

Jesus continues, and asks if they truly still do not really see things and understand him.  He asks if they are really listening and really looking at things, which he of course knows the answer to his own question.  So, he recalls for them the first incident of feeding the multitude, and then the second occasion after that.  In each case, there were baskets of broken pieces of bread that were collected after everyone was fed.  And they acknowledge how much was indeed collected.  To which Jesus says, “Do you not yet understand?”
 

We are not told of any reply that they may have made.  They were likely reluctant to ask any further questions.  Yet, what Jesus seems to be saying, the sign that he is explaining to them, but which has been revealed to all, is his own actions, led by God and blessing the people in the process.  In a sense, he is the sign of God’s presence and power and grace among them all.  But they have to recognize that.

April 4, 2025

Teaching and Feeding, again

Mark 8:1-10

The similarities between this story and the earlier one about feeding the five thousand are quite striking.  This has led some to suggest that the two stories actually recount the same event, simply with changes in some of the details.  This is certainly possible, for as stories circulated in an oral tradition, people could have confused the details, even ending up with different numbers of people who were fed.  This could indeed be a re-telling of the earlier story.

But there are two items of significance here.  The first is to note that two of Jesus’ priorities as he moved from town to town were teaching those who came to him, and feeding people, with of course many healings happening along the way as well.  Jesus was interested in feeding both people’s spirits and their stomachs.  In fact, he seems to have been insistent that feeding people, providing for their basic needs, was vitally important.  He shows this as much by his actions as with his words.  Acknowledging these priorities, it is certainly plausible that this is a second, unique account of feeding a large group of people.  And, even if it were to be a second telling of the one event, I have no doubt that Jesus, at many other times, made sure that people had food to eat.

The second item to note is that the stories that have come to us reflect the church’s understanding of these priorities of Jesus, and indeed here in this story reflect Mark’s own recognition of them.  The church knew then, and usually has known through the years, that feeding both the spirt and the stomach are vitally important in basic ways.  Whether this is a unique story, or a retelling of the earlier event, the point for us is clear – we too are to feed both the spirits and the stomachs of those who come to us.