09152021 – Mark 8. 27-38
Small little Jewish children were at one time taught…
“And one day there will be an incredible victorious military battle…”
It was something they could taste, envision, and see…their imaginations could run wild.
It was something to long for and to hope for…
It was “a really popular story” that got passed around through word-of-mouth vis-à-vis oral tradition and eventually through written-word in the ancient Jewish world.
This story sprouted from a people in exile, in hopes of a restored and united Israel; it sprouted from empire-after- empire controlling their land, their city, centuries of forced occupation, many failed rebellions, and a longing for peace…at long last.
A longing to be at home, again! A longing for the safe, the normal, and the comfortable.
A longing for a place of worship! Their place of worship. A longing for home.
A longing for God’s kingdom to come in all its fulness
And this “grand story” pivoted-on the coming of a Messiah. An anointed one. The Holy One of God.
Now, all the stories that circulated about the Messiah were not the same.
Some Messiahs were “angelic,” some were “human,” some were “born of God.”
Sometimes there was “one Messiah” and sometimes there were “multiple Messiahs.”
But one oft-repeated theme among these many stories was that “the Messiah WHEN HE CAME would overthrow whatever empire was in power” and “deliver the Israelites from oppression.”
And this Messiah was sometimes painted as “a military champion,” someone who came with power and force.
These were the hopes of a downtrodden nation…a people lost and enslaved in foreign lands…
You can see why this story would be SO HOPEFUL, so NEEDED for a people who had LOST so much of what seemed to have been promised to them by God.
So, when Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter responds, “You are the Messiah,” might it be the case that Peter had heard some of these stories of “who the Messiah was supposed to be” as he grew up as a small child living in an occupied Israel?
Might it be the case that he had a “particular image and vision” of this Messiah…engrained since his childhood days?
When Jesus continues the conversation, and he predicts his own personal overthrow, betrayal, suffering, and death, maybe we can understand why Peter REBUKES him.
This is not the story that PETER liked, this is not the story that he HOPED FOR…or believed in….
Peter’s response is not included in our text but it’s as if he is saying to Jesus:
“No, no, no that is not how the story goes! You’re getting it wrong.
There is only supposed to be suffering for our enemies and there is only supposed to be an overthrow of the Roman occupation and YOU are supposed to single-handedly bring about the REIGN OF GOD through “the triumph of Israel!”
It will be GLORIOUS, Jesus!
It will be wonderful.
You are supposed to be A KING who reigns.
We need a triumphant Messiah!”
We want a triumphant Messiah!
We have longed for a Messiah that will lead, guide, and deliver us into VICTORY after VICTORY!
The stories just do not add up, Peter thinks.
And if Jesus is the Messiah, which Peter OBVIOUSLY believes that he is, then why is Jesus PREDICTING this awful future of suffering and death?
It just doesn’t make SENSE.
It is not what he was TAUGHT.
It is not what he WANTS to happen.
It is not HOW the story GOES!
Jesus could have said, Peter sometimes you have to leave go of your child-like fantasies. You are a man, and no longer a child.
Real life isn’t always like stories.
Real life sometimes ends differently.
Besides that, it is NOT what WE want that ultimately matters, it is WHAT GOD wants…
HIS WILL
NOT our will.
His will, not YOUR WILL be done.
So, Peter relax, calm down, remember who is in control. It is not you or I, but “our Father” who is in heaven.
And one day. One Day HE will make all things right. That is his promise. Trust in him. Amen.