Rebuke

I really don't mean for this to be a "let's-learn-about-the-Bible-because-Rachel-does-in-class" sort of blog. But I recently did a presentation in my Synoptic Gospels class on Mark 8:27-33 and it blew my mind. Not really, but it gave a new light to this passage that I previously would have just read over like it was totally normal. Go ahead and read it. I'll even attach a nice little link for it here righhhht about HERE.


Okay. This passage is crazy. We start out with Peter being the genius spokesman for the disciples. He gets it right. They state who others think that Jesus is, but then reveal that they know he is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. In the Matthew version of this story, after Peter answers, Jesus goes into the whole "you are the rock on which I will build my church" business. He praises Peter, commends him. (The most likely reason the praising isn't included in the Mark version is because Peter is the one who gave Mark his information, so it was out of modesty and humility.)


But THEN. Jesus tell his disciples a little about how he will die. They don't believe him. So, naturally, Peter pulls Jesus aside to gently tell him that, well, he is wrong. He rebukes Jesus in the same way that you would rebuke a demon that's hanging out in someone. I mean, if I were Jesus, I probably would have laughed in his face or sent his soul into a pig or something. But Jesus is nicer than that, so instead, he turns the rebuke onto Peter and the rest of the disciples. "Get behind me, Satan!" Whoa, Jesus, simmer down. But really, Peter's rebuke was completely absurd and presumptuous. He was telling Jesus that, no, he is wrong, he doesn't really need to die in order to fulfill his Messianic role. Pish posh. Granted, the Jews were expecting a politic Messiah who would overtake the world, and Jesus wasn't doing that in their way. But still...Peter the Presumptuous. That's what we should call him.

And then I got to thinking. We are SO Peter. All of us. Especially me. We love to preach about and talk about and sing about how we love Jesus and how we know that he is our Savior and how great he is. But then we get to the nitty gritty, and we basically deny it. We want to be like the Jesus who helps people and prays a lot and says really quotable things, but when we are forced to think about how he saved us and why he came, we shy away. We don't want to be like Jesus in his suffering. We don't know to know him like that. We love love when it is in the form of hugs and encouraging words, but when it begins to threaten us, we run. We rebuke Jesus, saying that this can't possibly be the right thing, the right way. We assume that our way is better than his. And it is so frustrating. 

Why in the world would I ever think that my plans are better than his? What compels me to believe that suffering isn't of God? Sigh.