(by Dave, 10-15 min)
Scripture
Mark 8: 31-37
Jesus Predicts His Death
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
The Way of the Cross
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ”
It would’ve surprised me too
Don’t you wonder what Peter said to Jesus that caused him to be equated with Satan? Turns out we don’t have to wonder. Matthew (16:22) tells us what he said: “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!”. I suspect Peter was shocked at the response he received. He only expressed a heartfelt desire that nothing bad would happen to Jesus and a conviction that it was impossible for the Son of God to be treated as Christ described.
For this Jesus equates Peter with Satan and provides the reason. The disciple is expressing human concerns rather than the concerns of God. What human concerns? I’ve heard and read interpretations that say Peter is concerned about losing the leadership role Jesus promised him just prior to the exchange of today’s Scripture verse. It’s not a minor role. The church is going to be built on Peter the rock and “the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19).
If God came to me today in the flesh and said that I was going to have a prominent role in doing tremendous good for the kingdom, I would be very excited. If immediately afterward God said that He was going to be rejected, suffer and die, I would be unbelieving and disappointed. Indeed, I would respond just like Peter.
And that’s the point. Peter is responding from a human perspective. His humanity is a temptation to Christ. Jesus had the power to walk away from the future He describes. In Matthew, Satan’s last temptation in the desert was exactly this. Jesus could become ruler of everything he saw without having to die on the cross if He just worships Satan. It was after that temptation that Jesus commanded Satan gone in a similar fashion to the way He commands Peter to step behind Him. Jesus will not be tempted to avoid the cross by Peter’s human concerns or Satan.
Like Peter, sometimes for us it is unimaginable that God’s will would run counter to our desires when those desires seem so well-intentioned. But having a human perspective is our lot, and it plays out in more than our relationship with God.
Peter and the Spy
Jack Barsky was a KGB agent sent to the United States from East Germany during the Cold War. His real name is Albert Dittrich. While in college aspiring to be a chemistry professor he was approached by the KGB. In a recent interview, Barsky was asked about his motivations.
He admitted being enticed by handlers who gave him money and the promise of living comfortably in countries outside the Soviet bloc. He was further enticed by his pride as the KGB recognized his intelligence. Moreover, his initial KGB contact filled a void in his life for a father figure. Still, when asked why he was willing to serve the Communist Party who had imprisoned his entire country behind a wall, his answer was eye-opening. He believed unquestionably that communism was a scientific certainty and the future of mankind would be well served if the world were communist. Joining the KGB was not a hard decision because he was serving the good.
Because in East Germany Barsky knew nothing else and was surrounded by an entire community that shared his view, it was inconceivable that communism might not be the solution for the human condition. Peter was experiencing the same limited human perspective. He was immersed in the goodness of Christ and could not imagine a world where God would suffer and die. It was as inconceivable to him as the failure of communism was to Barsky. The difference is that Peter was in the presence of God who could see through his human frailty, and He did more than that. He offers a solution. A way for Peter and us to overcome our limited perspectives and pursue the kingdom of God.
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. The disciples lived the literal interpretation of these words sacrificing their mortal lives for the sake of the gospel. However, in the moment of his discourse with Christ, Peter was told to deny his desires about the Messiah and to instead follow Jesus into whatever future God chose. To have confidence that God’s desires were better than his.
These words from Jesus, then, may have more meaning than their most obvious interpretation of physically dying. Because we are human, we can no more see and understand the future God has for us than Peter could. We know only our experiences, and Jack Barsky illustrates these are no place to go to discern in whom or in what we should place our hope. Instead, I believe Jesus is counseling us to accept God’s plan for the kingdom and our role within it whether or not that plan comports with our desires. The means to do that is to set our desires aside (to deny ourselves), and step behind Jesus to follow as Peter did before us.
decisions
Suppose I was approached with several opportunities to serve. Say a new job, a commitment to the church, or an opportunity to give financial resources. There are two ways to approach these and similar decisions. One way is to think about them in terms of my life and how they fit with me and my family.
Perhaps the new job will cause me to broaden my horizons and give me an opportunity to advance which will make me happy and my family more financially secure. With the commitment to the church, I am flattered that a group of my colleagues thinks I am qualified to do the work, and I know my talents will enable me to do it well. Therefore, I will enjoy the work and the church will be pleased and served if I accept. The giving opportunity is for a nonprofit. The organization does a great deal of good. Moreover, I think we can manage the giving they are requesting, and it will feel good to contribute to something that helps so many. I do all three and believe from my human reasoning that the decisions are well motivated and proper.
This way of decision-making is unavoidable as it is based on human perspectives and concerns, and we are after all human. Still, Jesus offers a second way to make decisions, and it can be phrased into a question. How can I best walk in the footsteps of Jesus and serve the gospel? This thinking offers a counterbalance to our unavoidable humanity. A counterbalance that will hopefully outweigh our human concerns.
For example, will the new job, church commitment or financial giving better serve the kingdom of God and allow me to follow Jesus? It may well be that this reasoning and prayer causes me to serve in all three capacities just like human reasoning did. Then sadly everything goes off the rails. I do the job well and am fired anyhow. The commitment to the church strains my personal life to the breaking point. Right after giving my money away, I encounter a financial hardship for which I no longer have the resources. These are heavy crosses, and they must be born regardless of the means by which the decision to serve was made.
But there is a difference that comes from following Jesus and He speaks directly about it: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Accepting the promise of salvation and following Jesus will give me rest. Consequently, the disappointment at being fired is accepted when it might otherwise gnaw bitterly within my consciousness. The strain on my family from a church commitment is endured rather than resented. The giving-induced financial hardship is met with determination instead of weathered in fear. This is so because following Jesus diminishes the impacts of our human concerns by focusing on the reason for the Lord’s sacrifice, the salvation of our souls.
When the end of our life is unity with God, the crosses of this life are easier to bear. When this life is all there is, those same crosses can be unbearable. The end of Jack Barsky’s story shows how a devotion to Jesus lightens the crosses we carry and the powerful way following Jesus can serve the gospel in another’s life.
When the spy became a Christian
Mr. Barsky became a Christian after his service to the KGB ended. His conversion produced remarkable insights for him because he began to confront the immorality of living a life of lies.
When asked how he made the transition, he describes hiring a woman as a legitimate (non—KGB agent) businessman. He told her about the job expectations. She responded that as long as the job doesn’t stop me from going to my Bible study in the evenings, I will be excited to accept it. I am not interested if it would interfere with that. She behaved exactly as Jesus describes in the Scripture verse today placing the kingdom of heaven and following Jesus above her desire for a very good job.
Mr. Barsky described that she almost glowed with confidence and contentment. She got the job, and then profoundly impacted the former spy who from the moment of that interview onward wondered from where her peace and contentment came. She possessed the attributes Barsky perceived because the potential cross of not getting the job she wanted became very light to carry when she put it side-by-side with following Jesus and the salvation of her soul. Her ability to sit calmly during a job interview and openly confess that she would deny herself this job if it would interfere with her following the Lord changed Barsky’s life. It was this woman who led him to Christianity and that conversion began the day of the interview.
Jesus promises that losing your life for His sake and the gospel will save your life. This was surely true for the disciples and even Jesus himself, but perhaps it will do more still. Denying ourselves and following Jesus will save us in this life from the weight of the crosses living asks us to bear. Setting aside our human concerns isn’t easy. In fact, it’s impossible. But those concerns can be counterbalanced by a Savior we can follow who promises doing so will give rest to our souls.
I hope you all are doing well, and I wish you blessings as you bear your own crosses while following our Lord and Savior. Thanks so much for reading.
Dave
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