09112021 – Mark 8 – Peter’s Confession
Have you ever been insulted, publicly shamed, embarrassed? Have you ever felt so mortified, degraded, and crushed by the comments of someone else? Poor old Peter, felt like he had become a laughingstock!
So, he wasn’t the “sharpest tool in the tool shed.” He meant well. He tried hard. Sometimes all the lights were on…And at other times, it seemed like “no one was at home.” EVER.
He was a fisherman. He wasn’t a scholar. He wasn’t a priest or a holy man. He was just a guy! He was “WHAT HE WAS.” And you got – WHAT you SAW!
Like most of us, sometimes he said the WRONG thing. Things just come BLURTING out. You know BETTER! You should have KEPT quiet! But sometimes, stuff has a way of “slipping out” …intentionally or unintentionally!
…Before you know it, THERE, you’ve said it. It’s OUT THERE! So, sue me, sometimes things just get away from me.
I can’t believe he said that TO ME … turning ON ME like that, his words were as hard as a slap in the face: “Get away from me SATAN!” Talk about a PUBLIC SHAMING – I just got spanked, good!
He spat it out FURIOUSLY – his EYES staring – his face set in a frightfully hostile glance. DUDE! What did I do – to deserve THAT?
One minute I was flying high, for it was “I” who “finally put into words what we were ALL grasping at,” but not daring to THINK or SPEAK OUT LOUD. NOW it was out in the open, it felt so GOOD and like a relief, and, as the one who said it, I felt empowered. YAY ME!
But in that moment of time, it seems, I must have PUSHED too far. I must have CROSSED some kind of a line.
For the moment, everything seemed so clear and focused; then it all plunged into darkness and chaos, again. SMH.
I don’t know! I just don’t understand!
How could I have been SO RIGHT one minute, and SO WRONG the next?
I know I have faced Jesus’ tongue lashing for NOT SEEING and NOT UNDERSTANDING before – but THAT was usually “well founded.”
Imagine, HIM calling “ME” Satan?! I’m still shocked by THE SHAME and disgrace of it. If I DID or SAID anything WRONG, then I would HAPPILY accept it. But I can’t see that I did! I just don’t get it…or HIM, right now. Maybe he got up – on the wrong side of the STRAW.
We had WALKED most of the day, heading away from Galilee into the land now ruled over by Herod’s Son, Philip. It was to be another ROAD TRIP! On the road again…
Jesus wanted, to have some “down time” to talk to us alone, and we could do that EASILY as we walked. Clearly, HE HAD some IMPORTANT stuff he wanted to ask us AWAY FROM THE CROWDS.
As we WANDERED, we arrived in the area near to Philip’s capital – the town he recently renamed in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar. But, since several other towns have also been named ‘Caesarea’, THIS ONE has become known as Philip’s Caesarea, or Caesarea Philippi. A town named after BOTH a Roman and a Jewish King…go figure!
Jesus was VERY INSISTENT we tell no-one what we were talking about on the road.
Jesus wanted to take a SURVEY: ‘WHO are people saying that I am?’ he asked.
Well, we soon came up with a list; some SILLY, some PROFOUND. There were those who said he was John the Baptizer. Others made the wild claim that he was Elijah COME BACK. Most, however, didn’t go that far – but they did say he is A PROPHET, or one of the prophets. What BIG CLAIMS they ALL make for HIM!
So, that’s when I let ‘em all have it right between the eyes.
Jesus got all freaky on us. ‘The Son of Man must suffer… and be handed over… and be rejected… and be put to death’. Silly Jesus! WHAT was HE thinkin’?
The Messiah DOES NOT suffer – he makes others suffer. He DOESN’T get REJECTED – he UNITES the people in “a common front” against all of our oppressors and enemies. Certainly, the Messiah DOES NOT DIE…especially, that kind of horrendous death!
Emboldened by my earlier insight, I drew him aside and began to nicely correct him. And that’s when it happened! He called me names I NEVER EXPECTED ANYONE to say to me, much less HIM.
And all this talk about dying (and, weirdly, of rising again three days later) just does not make any sense to me whatsoever. Sorry, I can’t wrap my head around any of it. But I wasn’t the ONLY ONE!
Imagine, calling me, “SATAN.” I didn’t know if I should run and hide or deck him a good one. But HOW do you deck the Messiah, the Holy One of God? Sometimes, he makes me so MAD!
What would YOU have done? How did you handle public insult and embarrassment? I hung in there, that’s what I did. Amen.