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Gospel: Mark 8: 27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
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Many of us remember Billy Graham, perhaps the most popular American preacher of the 20th century.
He once shared a story about his wife, Ruth, who drove for several miles through a construction zone. After carefully following the detours and warning signs, she came to the last sign that read:
“End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”
Struck by the message, she went home chuckling, telling Billy that she wanted that line engraved on her tombstone. And when the time came, it was.
“Ruth Bell Graham. June 10, 1920 – June 14, 2007. End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”
***
Isn’t life itself like a construction zone?
There’s patience needed, imperfect paths, detours, potholes, a cacophony of noises, and winding roads leading us to places we never thought we’d go.
Part of being human means that we’re “under construction,” a work in progress.
While we might have the big picture in mind – we want to find a share of human happiness and, in the end by the grace of God, get into heaven – the way we reach these goals is often very different from the path we had in mind.
Consider the life of Saint Peter.
He, too, desired happiness and heaven, but he found them after taking many detours and winding roads.
***
We are now half-way through Mark’s Gospel, and today Peter’s journey takes a pivotal, unexpected turn as Jesus declares:
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For 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.”
This is far from the straight, smooth path Peter imagined for his future with Jesus. What about the glory, the honor, the royal banquets, and his role as a trusted advisor in Christ’s kingdom here on earth?
It seems Peter’s dreams are being shattered right in front of him. Imagine the thoughts racing through his mind. He has already left his job, his home, and his family in order to follow Jesus. Are all of these efforts for nothing? Is it all ending abruptly in death?
Stunned, Peter pulls Jesus aside and says, “Surely, this cannot be!”
In trying to prevent God’s divine will from unfolding, Peter becomes like Satan – scandalous; an obstacle; a stumbling block. He’s ignoring the signs.
So, Jesus corrects him, telling him to, “Get behind me.” This gesture of standing behind Jesus implies that, even when Peter doesn’t understand, he must learn how to follow. This was the first lesson Christ taught him.
***
Remember how it all began.
The morning they met, Peter was returning to shore after a fruitless night of fishing.
Suddenly, the Lord greeted him, got into his boat, and told Peter to head back out to sea. Once they were far enough out, Jesus commanded Peter to drop his nets. Upon pulling them out of the water, miraculously, they were bursting at the seams!
Then the Lord extended the invitation: “Come, follow me. I will make you a fisher of men.”
Notice the Lord did not reveal his plans to Peter; he did not mention anything about a cross; he did not appeal to Peter’s mind, asking, “What do you think about our future?”
Rather, he appealed to Peter’s feet.
“Follow me.”
***
At times we all need the reminder to follow the Lord “feet first,” especially when life becomes more of a detour than a journey on a perfectly paved road.
A malignant diagnosis, a closed door, a winding path we never thought we’d walk, may, in fact, be where the Lord is leading us.
Like Peter we don’t always understand… and we certainly don’t want to accept it. So, we protest, saying, “Surely, this cannot be!”
But the Lord says to us what he said to Peter, “Get behind me.”
Follow me feet first.
As the prophet Isaiah foretells, “I will lead the blind on their journey. By paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them and make crooked ways straight.”
It wasn’t until Peter saw the empty tomb that he understood the paradox of our faith; God alone makes crooked paths straight.
Even death he turns into life.
***
May Peter pray for us, that we who remain “under construction,” would make every effort to follow the Lord feet first, humbling accepting the detours and winding roads until we can say with him:
End of construction. Thank you for your patience.
***
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Image credits: (1) Pulmonary Fibrosis News (2) Raffaelle Montillo, Getty Images (3) Freepik
