Mark 8:27-35
When I was in Medical School, I met another student at the Newman center who invited me to come to an “evening of recollection” put on by Opus Dei. I had never heard of Opus Dei, but I went. I was impressed; the meditations were right on the money, the evening moved along nicely, and at the end we had a little sherry and some cookies. The next month the same thing; and about then I was invited to undergo some spiritual direction. My spiritual director was a professor of Dental Surgery at the University of San Francisco who also held a PhD in theology.. Over the last few years of my time at Stanford, I met with him about once a month.
I remember one of the first meetings. I had a few questions about scripture, or church teachings -- I forget now. What I do remember is that every time I would try to turn our conversation into answering my questions, he would turn it back to my relationship with Jesus. I eventually let him know that if I couldn’t get my questions answered, what good was this? I didn’t put it in quite those words, however, but he got my drift. And he told me that getting answers to questions was a good thing, but not nearly as important as becoming a disciple, and the only way to do that was to know the master.
We don’t have anything quite like the master-disciple relationship that was widespread in the days of Jesus, not just in Jewish circles, but among gentiles as well. Socrates and Plato and Aristotle had disciples. We read about disciples of the prophets, like Baruch and Jeremiah, and of course John the Baptist had disciples. There were no universities; education was practical, in trades handed down from father to son, in learning scripture passages at synagogue; and if you really wanted to learn you would attach yourself to a master, who would teach you -- and in return, you would serve the master, seeing that he was clothed and fed and protected. And it was understood that you would imitate him; you might even wear clothing that indicated you were his disciple. Being a disciple was very much like becoming part of a family, and it’s no wonder that Jesus said those who did the will of His father were his brother and sister and mother.
We should think about that when we read this famous gospel passage. The disciples have made their commitment; they have entered into that relationship with Jesus. And as we hear, Peter is inspired to answer Jesus’ question -- he gets it right, he knows Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ. And Jesus begins to teach what that means. It’s here that Peter steps out of line. He pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him. What was going through Peter’s mind? I can’t see Peter contradicting Jesus; after all, he’s seen miracles, he’s been rescued from drowning, he’s even worked a few miracles himself. I suspect Peter pulled Jesus aside privately to say, “This isn’t funny, Lord. You are going to scare them away!” And notice, Jesus makes public what Peter had been saying privately.
Now Jesus is talking to Peter like a master would talk to a rebellious disciple; “Get behind me” he says. Those words mean “Get back in line”. Jesus calls him Satan, and when Mark was written, the idea of Satan, the fallen angel, the adversary of God, was widespread in Christianity. But I wonder if Jesus had meant it that way? “Get back in line, don’t be my opponent, start thinking like God, not like a human being”. And at that point Jesus teaches the crowd with those words, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself…” Jesus continues to teach what being Messiah, and more to the point, a follower of the Messiah, is all about.
Peter received a revelation -- that Jesus was the Messiah. Peter had only a vague idea about what that meant. There were several possibilities -- a military ruler, a king, a prophet, a savior of the people” But the knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah is only the beginning. It will take Peter a long time to understand the kind of Messiah Jesus is. There will be moments, like on the mountain of transfiguration, where Peter will think, “at last he’s getting it right!” There will be other times when Jesus predicts his passion and death, and maybe Peter will decide in his heart, “He doesn't mean this literally”. There will be a moment when Peter’s faith gives out and he denies he even knows that man, that criminal dying on the cross. And even after the Resurrection, he will still not know what being the Messiah means. There is an old legend about Peter, who was fleeing Rome to avoid the persecutions that were going on. On the road he meets Jesus, carrying his cross, heading towards Rome. “Quo Vadis” Jesus asks. “Where are you going?” Now of course Jesus and Peter probably spoke in Aramaic, not latin, but Quo Vadis is how it comes down to us. And Peter, once more ashamed, turns back to Rome, knowing that he has to follow his Master even into the grave.
And that’s our charge this week as well. If we want to be a disciple, it’s not enough to study; it’s not enough to pray. In the end we have to know Him so we can imitate him, so we can understand in our own lives those words he tells the crowd: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” So like Peter, learn from HIm, imitate Him, and accept that we are on the way; we are not there, we have a lot to learn; and the more we give up our lives for His sake and for the gospel, the more we will be given the abundant life which he promises his true disciples.
