CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: ​Peter’s Choice Is Our Choice

Jesus began to teach his disciples 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 8:31-38

The Epiphany season was a little shorter this year than the last two, so we missed the opportunity to see more of Jesus’ travels in Galilee. Even in the best of years the narrative jumps from chapter 2 to chapter 8 (excluding the Transfiguration/Temptation in the Wilderness interlude), so Jesus’ words about suffering and death seem very abrupt to us. “Wait a minute there Jesus. I’m all for healing people and Messiah talk and maybe some revolution, but what is this about torture, death and rising from the dead? Try again!”

Peter especially seems determined not to grasp what is going on. How many times does Jesus have to explain things to him? The confrontational attitude seen here is especially tiresome. Remember what Peter said when they were in the boat? “Master, don’t you care if we drown?” It seems the more Jesus does, the less Peter understands and the more his impatience grows.

So perhaps this moment was inevitable. Up to his following Jesus, all Peter knew was his rather narrow fisherman’s life. If the fish aren’t biting on one side of the boat, they won’t bite on the other side either. Watch out for rough waters. Keep your head low when dealing with Romans, kings and religious bigshots. Sick people often die, even when it is your mother-in-law.

So far, though, Peter’s world was being upturned in a good way by what Jesus said and did. Why, then, would he let that end in suffering and death?

Besides, things were already getting hot. The Pharisees were none too pleased with what Jesus was saying and doing. John the Baptist was already dead at Herod’s hand. “Let’s rein this in a bit, Jesus. We can still have our movement. We can still go around healing and preaching and casting out demons. Just don’t say or do anything too political! And, for heaven’s sake, stop scaring the followers!”

So, finally, Jesus had had enough of Peter’s cluelessness and met confrontation with confrontation. “This type of complacency in the face of evil is what keeps it going. How will we change the world if we are not willing to risk? Stay in the past, Satan; we’re moving forward here, no matter the cost!”

To the crowd, Jesus then says, “It’s time to make a choice. Stay behind in the past, or be ready to risk all because we cannot build a new world on the status quo. So be prepared to die with me. But know this: A new life awaits you also. A new city and new land of peace and harmony can be had because God is with us.”

We cannot build a new world on the status quo. We have learned the truth of those words in the history of this nation time and again. We remember big parts of it during Black History Month. The bringing of enslaved persons to Jamestown in 1619, a year before the Jamestown colonists arrived. The walking out of St. George’s Church in Philadelphia. The Dred Scott decision. The KKK. The Wilmington and Tulsa massacres. Segregated water fountains and bathrooms. Redlining. Watts. Police shootings. And on it goes. The failure to confront our past means we keep carrying it into the present and future.

The history of this land is filled with resistance to moving towards God’s kingdom. But the followers of Jesus persist, even when some die because of that resistance. On our best days, we pick up that cross and go forward. On our less than faithful days, we stick to the false safety of doing nothing and tell the rest of the world to do the same. We follow our fear and make peace with the Evil One. And Jesus says, "Stay back," to us, too.

Ushering in God’s vision is not an affair for the timid. But history tells us that, though the setbacks are many and still continue today, the kingdom can be built through us, by the hand of God. Are we prepared to drop the baggage we hold and pick up our crosses? Or will we defend security, even though it, too, has a terrible cost to pay?

It is worth noting, in Mark’s gospel narrative, Peter, James and John go up the mountain with Jesus and witness the Transfiguration immediately after this confrontation between Peter and Jesus. It’s as if Jesus realizes what he has said is not enough. Those disciples are given a glimpse of the place Jesus holds in the salvation of the world as the one to whom they should listen. We heard that passage just two weeks ago; hopefully we still have the vision of Jesus transfigured in our heads to remind us of what we are marching toward. Like Peter, let us get back on track so that we can keep moving ahead.

The Rev. Kevin Matthews is the campus missioner for St. Mary's House, Greensboro.