For Sunday, September 13, 2015 – Mark 8:27-38
Knowing who we are is the key to everything. Only as we begin to know ourselves can we begin to know one another. The true nature of those with whom we journey becomes clearer to us as we become clearer to ourselves.
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples. It is a pivotal question, one that turns them from the shallows and into the depths. It leads this band of brothers toward becoming a true community. Peter’s answer pleases Jesus, “You are the Messiah,” showing he is grasping the bigger picture, his mission and purpose. So Jesus begins to teach them more forthrightly about what lies ahead. Soon he will be not only healing and teaching people, encouraging them in their suffering, but he himself will be the one undergoing immense suffering, even to the point of taking up a cross and being killed. They, too, will take up crosses if they are going to follow him.
Whoa, wait up, what are you saying, Jesus? This is not what we had in mind! Who among us wouldn’t want to interrupt our dear friend, staunch the flow of such ideas as these? With Peter, we say no, Jesus, stop! We’re not ready to hear this, to consider this, to live this.
For fear of what the response will be, we seldom dare to ask one another, “Who do you say that I am?” What if we hear more than we are ready to know? What if the way forward from the turning point of that question is too difficult to walk? To dare to ask another for unfiltered honesty, to offer our response with no pretense or ulterior motive, is to make an immense offering. And to receive whatever is given, without needing each other to be any more or less than we are, is to step more fully into the larger purposes of our lives. It is to become more fully ourselves.
