It May Be Difficult

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"Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that I am?' And they answered him, 'John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.' He asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered him, 'You are the Messiah.' And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
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.' He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.'" 

- Mark 8:27-38 NRSV -


The Gospel of Mark is characterized by this breakneck speed toward the passion of Christ. This foretelling of the suffering Jesus will endure marks the beginning of this journey to the cross in Mark. In fact, the author of Mark spends literally half of the gospel moving the reader toward the crucifixion.

Many people focus on Peter in this particular passage of scripture. In the first part, he seems to get it. He is the first person to speak the truth that Jesus is the Messiah! Yet right after this happens, Jesus harshly rebukes him. I wonder what it must have been like to be Peter, knowing that this teacher is the Messiah, and then having this Savoir predict that he will die, like it is inevitable. I venture to bet that Peter was afraid, wishing every step that this future suffering Jesus kept predicting wasn’t true. I think Peter knew that God’s calling was not going to be easy, but had hope that it would result in the salvation of the world.

Maybe sometimes the thing that God is calling us to do is the thing we least want to do. Maybe it’s hard, maybe it’s not fun or popular… God never promised that life would be easy as Christian’s. However, we have hope that in the end, it will be worth it.

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