Mark 8:31-38 (NRSV)
Read Mark 8:31-38 on biblegateway.com
Verse 31Then 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. Verse 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Verse 33But 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."
Verse 34He 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. Verse 35For 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. Verse 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Verse 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Verse 38Those 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."
Devotion
Peter's response to Christ's revelation frustrates me. Sometimes I just want to slap some sense into that so-called rock of a disciple. After all the time he spent with Christ and everything he saw, how can he not trust him at this point in the story?
Yet maybe he isn't so off his rocker. Peter and the disciples weren't ready to lose Jesus. Together they had been stirring things up. And I can only imagine that Peter and the others felt like Jesus' protectors. For him to be taken from them would mean that they had failed. And none of us likes to face the prospect of failure.
Peter's fear clouded his mind from understanding the truth that Jesus had spoken. Capture and death were part of his passion through which he brought "mercy, healing, strength and pardon to all peoples and nations" ("There in God’s Garden," ELW 342).
Prayer
God of Revelation, enfold us in your spirit, giving us the strength to face the trials that come our way. For you have promised never to forsake or abandon us, and have shown that promise through Christ’s defeat of death and gift of resurrection.