Then he began to teach
them 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.” Mark 8:31-33 (NRSV)
Phyllis Theroux wrote:
There are
three children in my family. If they
were to confront a spider-web in the garden, each would react differently. The first child would examine the web and
wonder how the spider wove it. The second
would worry a great deal about where the spider was at that particular
moment. And the third would exclaim, “Oh,
look! A trampoline.” One reality, three dimensions.[1]
If you had been standing
there when Jesus started talking about the cross and death, what would YOU have
thought? Peter’s knee-jerk: NEVER! is recorded in the Gospel. It’s also recorded that Jesus nixed Peter’s
motion – called him a “satan” (or adversary).
We are not privy to what the
other disciples said; if they had the courage to speak at all. And if they kept quiet, who could blame them after
the way Jesus hushed Peter? Still, I can
imagine their inner thoughts:
Judas: This is
coming unglued; I’ve gotta do
something.
James and John: Maybe mother was right; he might be crazy;
what will happen to us if we stick this thing out?
Thomas: Would
the Son of God talk like this?
Andrew: Wow! I never saw that coming;
what a ride this is!
As a Methodist preacher I
can tell you that whenever there are a dozen Methodists gathered in a room
there will be at least three dozen opinions about anything. That is a fact which makes it difficult to
reach consensus, but it also makes us thinking Christians.
I imagine Jesus wanted the
disciples to start thinking about what possibilities they would face in the
near future. After all, eleven of them
were going to face the task of changing the world; it was time to grow deep and
strong.
Today…for you
Disciples have the joy of
hanging out with Jesus. But they also
get surprised by the things he whispers in their ears.
Will you
grow deeper and stronger today as you continue this Lenten journey of reflection on
sorrow, grief and the cross?
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